SpaceX asks FAA to approve up to 456 Starship launches a year at Starbase

SpaceX wants to dramatically increase Starship activity in South Texas. Federal aviation regulators are considering a plan that would allow hundreds more Starship rocket launches and landings each year at SpaceX’s Starbase complex near Brownsville, Texas.

The proposal calls for up to 456 launches and 912 landings annually—roughly 18 times the current limit of 25 launches and 50 landings. The San Antonio Express-News reported.

Starship recovery could begin soon

SpaceX’s Starship system consists of an upper stage called Starship and a lower-stage booster called Super Heavy. Both vehicles are eventually expected to land back at Starbase, which would double the number of landings required for each complete mission.

SpaceX has successfully landed Super Heavy boosters at Starbase, but it has not yet attempted to land Starship there. According to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, the first Starship landing attempt could happen as early as the next test flight later this year.

Ship 40 returns to Starbase after surviving splashdown

In other Starbase news, SpaceX has returned the first Starship spacecraft to survive an ocean splashdown to its South Texas launch site for inspection. Space.com reported.

The spacecraft completed a journey halfway around the world in July before making a pinpoint splashdown in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia. The rocket survived the splashdown without exploding or disintegrating, an important outcome as SpaceX works toward recovering Starship after ocean landings.

The company towed the spacecraft to calm waters off Christmas Island and loaded it onto a barge for the return trip to Texas.

Flight-proven Starship will undergo inspection

After the SpaceX team unloads Ship 40 from its transport, the spacecraft will be lifted upright and placed alongside three successor vehicles inside Starbase’s Megabay hangar while it awaits further testing.

Inspecting a flight-proven Starship will provide the company with its first data on the spacecraft’s in-flight heat shield, Raptor engines, avionics, and other systems, SpaceX wrote. Read SpaceX’s post on X.

Next 3 rocket launches

• October 19: Falcon 9, Bandwagon 5 — Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida — 10:30 UTC
• October 19: H3, Mars satellite exploration mission — Tanegashima Space Center, Japan — 19:41 UTC
• October 20: Falcon 9, Starlink 15-15 — Vandenberg Space Force Base, California — 22:14 UTC