Starship Flight 15

Ship 42 test-fires six engines for Starship Flight 15

SpaceX’s October 28 update also describes a single-engine deorbit-burn simulation. It does not set a launch date.

29 October 2026 at 9:56 am ISTBy International Desk1 min read

Updated 29 October 2026 at 9:56 am IST: Follow-up to our October 27 booster-test report: Ship 42’s static fire is now documented; final readiness and launch scheduling remain unconfirmed.

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Archive photograph: Starship and Super Heavy during Flight 2 ascent on November 18, 2023. It does not show Ship 42 or the reported ground firings. Credit: Osunpokeh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); existing Commons crop by Huntster reused unchanged.

Ship 42, the Starship upper stage preparing for Flight 15, has completed a six-engine static fire. SpaceX described it as a full-duration test in an October 28, 2026 announcement, while NASASpaceflight separately documented the six-engine firing.

SpaceX also reported firing a single Raptor engine to simulate a deorbit burn. That was a ground test; the announcement did not describe a deorbit manoeuvre in flight.

These firings follow the October 25 test of Booster 22, the Super Heavy first stage assigned to Flight 15. In its October 26 report on that booster test, Space.com had listed Ship 42’s static fire and final systems checks as work still ahead.

The October 28 announcement changes the upper-stage static-fire status, but does not establish that all final checks are complete. It specifies no launch date or payload.

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