Will SpaceX launch Starship's 14th test flight before Sept 1?

SpaceX did not launch Starship's 14th test flight before September 1, 2026. Elon Musk told investors on SpaceX's first earnings call as a public company, on August 4, that the company hoped to fly Flight 14 by the end of that month and would attempt to catch the returning ship with the launch tower. Within two weeks the timeline had already slipped: on August 14, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said he now expected Flight 14 to launch in "early September," not August, a target NASA was tracking as an indicator of Starship's cadence ahead of Artemis 3. The delay stemmed from continued qualification and testing of the new Block 3 hardware, Booster 21 and Ship 41, including a six-engine static fire of Ship 41 on August 21 and a booster engine test campaign that began August 18, as SpaceX worked to avoid repeating a landing-burn issue from the prior flight. By late August, internal SpaceX scheduling documents showed a no-earlier-than date in mid-September, with FAA review still pending. Flight 14 is set to be the first attempt at reaching orbital velocity with the Block 3 Starship and to deploy Starlink V3 satellites. The market's community prediction favored a launch before September 1, with 61 percent voting Yes; the actual outcome was No.