Starship Flight 15 Still Awaits an FAA Licence Before Tonight's 4:45 p.m. CT Window and First Double Catch Attempt

Starlust says the ship will reach about 275 kilometres, deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites and fly about 14 orbits before a roughly 21-hour coast and a deorbit toward Starbase, with the ship expected back on 14 November. Reuters puts the ship catch at around 2:45 p.m. Central on Saturday, about 22 hours after launch. The webcast starts 30 minutes before liftoff on SpaceX's website and X account, Starlust adds.

What could stop the ship coming home?

SpaceX will only allow a return to Starbase if the ship meets predefined conditions, according to Starlust, and the catch could be aborted. Five contingency splashdown areas are marked across the Indian Ocean, the Pacific and the Gulf of America, and the ship may be destroyed in the air if the mission cannot continue.

Reuters says the previous flight, in September, reached orbit despite some engine shutdowns. It was planned for 10 hours but ended after about 3 hours with a Pacific splashdown. SpaceX said that if everything goes as planned, this mission would be a breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket.

The vehicles were readied in the weeks before. Teslarati reported on 5 November that Booster 22 had completed a full-duration static fire on 25 October, and that Ship 42 had completed a deorbit-simulation burn and a 60-second six-engine firing and had rehearsed the catch in September. The Starbase Events tracker adds that the City of Starbase has scheduled road closures from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.

None of these sources gave a weather forecast for the launch. The first signal to watch is the FAA's licence, and after that the 22:45 UTC window, with the ship's fate not known until Saturday.