Ship 41 Completes Engine Testing Ahead of Flight 14

Date:
Fri, 21 Aug 2026 18:45:52 +0000

Description:
While Ship 40 is preparing to be transported back to Starbase from Christmas Island, Ship The post Ship 41 Completes Engine Testing Ahead of Flight 14 appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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While Ship 40 is preparing to be transported back to Starbase from Christmas Island, Ship 41 has completed both of its static fires and will soon roll
back to Mega Bay 2 for final flight preps. Booster 21, however, is still in Mega Bay 1 undergoing preflight work.



Flight 14

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Ship 41 rolled out to Masseys on Aug 18 for its engine testing campaign; this timing lines up with Ship 39 and Ship 40 in terms of the time from cryo proof to static fire testing.

While out at Masseys, Ship 41 completed a pair of static fires; the first one was a single-engine deorbit burn demonstration, and the second was the full ~60-second six-engine static fire.

The single-engine static fire repeated what SpaceX performed with Ship 40; loading took slightly longer, and the Liquid Oxygen tank was filled only halfway. Once loading was complete, SpaceX held the propellant in the tanks for 25 minutes to let the propellant temperature rise.

They did this to simulate the conditions in the vehicle during a deorbit
burn; teams cant replicate everything, though, like microgravity, but they
can get close enough to get good enough data. Starship completed a single engine static fire demonstrating a deorbit burn for upcoming orbital missions pic.twitter.com/vVI6giAlCM

SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 20, 2026





The next test was the normal six-engine 60-second static fire. However, the tank farm spool-up was not smooth, as SpaceX appeared to have issues with the methane side, resulting in a multi-hour delay in completing the static fire.

Once SpaceX worked through the tank farm issues, it completed a full-duration static fire of Ship 41.

Next steps include rolling Ship 41 back to Mega Bay 2 for final work and eventually loading the payload. Currently, a road closure was in place for a rollback very early on Aug 22. However, that has been postponed.

With Ship 40, the timeline from six-engine static fire to launch attempt was 16 days; however, this will likely be the first ship to go into orbit and might carry even more Starlinks than Ship 40, so SpaceX might take more time to make sure this ship is perfect. STATIC FIRE! Ship 41 fires up all six engines as its final big test ahead of Starship Flight 14.

Live on X and YT: https://t.co/5MorOWpjXq pic.twitter.com/tONZ2Cw0OQ

NSF NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) August 21, 2026



Ship 41s other half, Booster 21, has been in Mega Bay 1 getting ready for static fire and flight since completing cryoproof testing on July 20. It is unknown when Booster 21 will head out to Pad 2 for a static fire, but SpaceX is likely taking its time to make sure everything with this booster is perfect; the teams do not want another boost-back burn or landing burn failure.

As for when Flight 14 might lift off, the CADENA Space operations presentation that covers space traffic each week currently lists a No Earlier Than (NET) for Starship Flight 14 set for Sept 15.

Before this past week, the NET was set for Aug 28; this could reflect ongoing work on Booster 21, but it is only an advisory. So far, SpaceX has not provided a concrete NET date for Flight 14. Starship Flight 14: NET September 15

This new information comes from the latest CADENA/COMPASS Space Operations planning presentation, will provide a link below.

As always, these are internal air-traffic planning indicators only, not official SpaceX targets. Waiting for pic.twitter.com/2dq2PSROd1

Max Evans (@_MaxQ_) August 21, 2026



As for what Flight 14 is set to accomplish, it is currently predicted to be
a fully orbital flight and serve as an operational Starlink mission. This would likely entail a perigee-raising burn following the initial ascent burn, then deploying the V3 Starlinks into orbit. After that, it is unclear how
long Ship 41 would remain in orbit before SpaceX decided to return the ship
to Earth.

Based on posts from Eric Berger of Ars Technica and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, it seems unlikely SpaceX will go for a Ship catch with Ship 41. This would mean that a return would likely be a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, either near Hawaii or off the coast of Chile. Nope. I heard they might have been able to get there on the regulatory side, but overall they just weren't ready yet.

Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) August 20, 2026



Pad 2 has been getting modifications ahead of Flight 14 as well; so far, several new steel burn plates have been added to the flame trench walls just below the four main legs of the launch mount.

These were likely added because SpaceX might be seeing deterioration in the flame trench walls and needs to ensure that the walls dont lose too much material. This is likely a stopgap measure until SpaceX figures out what kind of extra deluge to add to the trench to prevent this in the future.

The tower itself has also been modified; a new cryo line has been added, which should allow SpaceX to return LOX during chilldown to the new LOX
buffer tanks. This will prevent LOX from spilling onto the roof of the drawworks at the base of the tower, which isnt great for the machinery
inside.

Additional shielding has also been added to the bolts that help hold the
tower columns to the base of the tower. Lastly, more attachment points have been added to the tower parts facing the launch mount for additional cladding to cover up to the Ship quick disconnect arm.

Ship 40

While Flight 14 preparations are underway, SpaceX is still dealing with the aftermath of Flight 13. Ship 40 is still alive and floating in the Indian Ocean after floating and being towed about 1,700 km. For the past couple of weeks, SpaceX has attempted to tow Ship 40 to the western coast of Australia; however, none of the methods worked, and rough seas forced them to abandon
the attempt.

After just tying a tow rope around one of the center Raptor engines, the Normand Ranger towed Ship 40 to Christmas Island, where the ship is currently parked offshore.

The ship is now awaiting a heavy-lift semi-submersible named the Forte; a semi-submersible can lower itself into the water, allowing a ship or other hardware to float over the deck. The ship will then refloat itself, thus picking up that cargo out of the water. After approx. 24 days at sea, the SpaceX Recovery team successfully guided Starship to a location just off the coast of Christmas Island. A team of SpaceX engineers is on their way to conduct additional analysis on the vehicle in calmer waters before attempting to return it to pic.twitter.com/h6YYWb0LT5

SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 18, 2026



Currently, this ship is set to arrive off Christmas Island around Aug 23; assuming loading takes around a week, the ship then has to make the 13,000 nm trek back to Starbase. This trip at 12 knots or so will take nearly 50 days, depending on the route SpaceX contracts for, which would mean a return to Starbase by mid to late October.

With Ship 40 just offshore of Christmas Island, a few people have gotten
very detailed and up-close images of the ship. And the Indian Ocean, plus the attempts to tow the ship, have not been kind to it.

A few of the Raptor engine bells are damaged, alongside a ton of corrosion in the open engine bay. The fwd flaps are heavily damaged, and there is a decent amount of damage to the heat shield around the payload bay; both are likely due to an attempt to wrap a tow line around the catch points, which slipped and damaged the ship. STARSHIP40 Update

It appears @SpaceX is going all out and has hired @beleefboskalis to conduct the salvage and recovery of STARSHIP40. The heavylift ship MV Forte departed from the anchorage off Singapore on August 20 and is showing her destination as Christmas Island pic.twitter.com/SshcRzFeZt

Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) (@mercoglianos) August 20, 2026



Either way, its impressive that Ship 40 is still floating, and eventually it seems it will make its triumphant return to Starbase, possibly by the end of October.

Featured Image: Ship 41 Six Engine Static Fire (Credit: Ceaser G for NSF).



The post Ship 41 Completes Engine Testing Ahead of Flight 14 appeared first
on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/08/ship-41-engine-testing-flight-14/


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