SpaceX

What I learned

Booster 22 lit all 33 Raptor engines on October 25

SpaceX ran a full-duration static fire of Super Heavy Booster 22 at Starbase, Texas, generating over 16 million pounds of thrust while the hold-down clamps fought back, per @universelostcom (134 likes). NASASpaceflight covered the test in its Starbase Summary, and the clip hit TikTok the same day via @astro.aerospace (624 views). This clears the booster for Starship Flight 15.

Flight 15 is going for the first-ever double catch - both booster AND ship

@spacedotcom racked up 2,367,318 views and 200,583 likes on the double-catch news, and the r/space thread "SpaceX to attempt Starship catch on next flight" pulled 691 upvotes citing "significant constructive engagement with the FAA." On Marcus House, top commenter @themoonissquare323 (148 likes) called the ship flip-and-catch "by far the most amazing achievement if they can do it." NASASpaceFlight reports Flight 15 is targeting November with the goal of catching both the booster and the ship, while Flight 16 is currently aimed for December and could become the first Starship launch from Launch Complex 39A. Teslarati says SpaceX showcased an 80-second animation under an "Up Next: Ship Catch" banner laying out exactly how the tower's chopstick arms will capture each vehicle, and per Space.com, Musk called it a "profound technology milestone" without giving a firm date beyond "next month." Gizmodo reports the flight is now slated for no earlier than November 8, and Aviation Week notes none of the Starship upper stages flown so far have returned to the launch site, making this the first attempt of its kind.

Polymarket puts Flight 15 at 72% to launch by October 31

The SpaceX Starship Flight Test 15 market shows a 72% chance of liftoff before Halloween on $29,819 volume, though Elon Musk told the Q3 earnings call via @spacex_spacenews (40,136 likes) that Flight 15 is "hopefully just 4-6 weeks away," potentially shortly before Thanksgiving. Teslarati reports Musk confirmed the Flight 15 window during the October 20 earnings call, and KeepTrack notes that as of October 21 SpaceX still hadn't set a firm date, even as it laid out the plan to catch both booster and ship with the tower. Given the NASASpaceFlight and Gizmodo reporting pointing to a November target (possibly no earlier than November 8), the October 31 Polymarket odds may be pricing in more schedule risk than the "4-6 weeks" Musk comment implies. Separately, there's a 76% chance Starship is fully reusable before 2028, up 6% this week.

Flight 14 reached orbit for the first time on September 28

The r/space thread "SpaceX launches Starship into orbit for 1st time" hit 3,742 upvotes, with u/H-K_47 (454 upvotes) listing the wins: "Successful orbit... Deployed 26 Starlink V3 sats (~44 tons of payload)... Smooth reentry." The GitHub repo bennettwellsnet/spacexdemo logged it as SpaceX's 113th launch and Starship's 3rd of 2026, and Ship 40 later became the first Starship to return to its launch site, per the r/spacex thread (1,058 upvotes). SpaceX's own launch page confirms liftoff from Starbase at 7:48 a.m. CT on September 28, calling it "the first orbital Starship flight and the first to deliver meaningful payload to orbit with 26 Starlink V3 satellites." While Starlink gets most of the attention for bandwidth, this flight's Starlink V3 deployment is also the clearest proof yet that Starship can do real payload work, not just test flights.

Musk expects weekly Starship launches next year from Florida

Per the Orlando Sentinel, Musk said on SpaceX's quarterly earnings call that Starship will "fly weekly at some point in the first half of next year, and then second half of next year twice weekly or maybe even more." @sagred.factory laid out the licensing ask: up to 456 launches a year, almost 2 per weekday. Polymarket gives a 90% chance of a Florida Starship launch by December 31.

SpaceX guided to a $35 billion quarter and its first profit since going public

Per Brighter with Herbert, the CFO projected Q1 revenue of $33-37 billion versus $14.5 billion just reported, and net income hit $4.4 billion - "the first profitable quarter since SpaceX went public in June." @cnbc (103,995 views) pegged Q3 revenue growth at 161%, driven by AI and Starlink subscribers. Musk floated $1 trillion in annual recurring revenue next year.

The jobs board tells the real scaling story: 2,815 open roles

SpaceX is hiring across Starship, Raptor, and Starshield at volume - New Graduate Engineer, Mechanical (Starship), Propulsion Engineer (Starship), Lead Software Engineer, Components Test (Starshield), and Test Engineer (Starship Development), including a Mechanical Engineer, Operations (Starship) role under Booster Structures Engineering. Starshield Production and Starshield Satellite Engineering postings are everywhere, leveraging Starlink tech for national security, and they sit alongside open Starshield Software Engineering roles building out the same mission software stack. The ramp isn't limited to engines and tiles either: Starlink Enterprise Sales and Account Management teams are staffing up to sell the network commercially, Starlink Network Engineering and Starlink Product Engineering are both hiring, and corporate functions like Electronic Sourcing, Sourcing Manager, Materials Engineering, Silicon Engineering, Environmental Health, Information Technology, and Construction Projects roles round out a production org that now touches everything from chip design to building the factories themselves. And Non-engineering functions, from finance to facilities, show up just as often on the board as the headline Starship and Raptor listings.