FAA licenses Starship orbital flight and Pacific reentry

The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a revised SpaceX licence covering orbital Starship flight and a single return from Earth orbit to the Pacific Ocean after Flight 14. Revision 9.0 of the vehicle-operator licence was issued and became effective on September 26, 2026, ahead of the company’s September 28 launch target.

The launch order now defines orbital flight, while a separate reentry order explicitly limits its authorisation to one reentry following Starship-Super Heavy Flight 14. The document retains operating conditions: an FAA safety inspector must be present for flight operations, and SpaceX must confirm that maritime warnings have been issued at least 24 hours before flight.

SpaceX announced completion of the flight’s wet dress rehearsal on September 24, Space.com reported. That procedure involves loading propellant and practising launch-day steps without igniting the engines. The company’s reported rehearsal result and the subsequent licence revision add completed preparation steps to the previously announced schedule.

SpaceX’s mission page gives a 75-minute launch window opening at 7:15 a.m. Central Daylight Time on September 28, equivalent to 5:45 p.m. Indian Standard Time. When checked on September 27, the page still carried its pending-regulatory-approval wording. The FAA’s dated licence provides the direct record of the launch and reentry authorisations; the company’s launch time remains a target.

For the planned flight, SpaceX describes an orbit roughly 275 kilometres above Earth, about six circuits over nearly 10 hours, and a splashdown west of Chile. The upper stage is intended to deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites. SpaceX says the orbital-insertion burn will occur only after the flight-control team determines that hardware needed for the later deorbit burn has sufficient redundancy.

Update, September 27: This report adds the September 24 rehearsal announcement and September 26 licence revision to our September 20 coverage of the launch target. Flight 14’s orbital insertion, satellite deployment and ocean return remain planned objectives for the September 28 attempt.