SpaceX has rolled Super Heavy Booster 21 out of production at Starbase and to Pad 2, the orbital launch site for Starship Integrated Flight Test 14. NASASpaceflight documented the transfer on Tuesday, 25 August, in a livestream titled “SpaceX rolls Flight 14’s Booster 21 to Pad 2,” describing it as the booster’s move out for static-fire testing.
Booster 21 is the Version 3 Super Heavy paired with Ship 41 for Flight 14. Pad 2 is the pad that has flown this generation: Flight 12 in May and Flight 13 in July both lifted off there. A rollout is not a stacked vehicle, and it is not a launch date. It puts the first stage in position for its remaining ground tests.
Cryo proof is done. The static fire is not.
Booster 21 finished cryogenic proof testing in July at Massey’s Outpost, with partial tankings on 18 and 19 July and a full proof on 20 July. Cryo proof loads and pressurises the tanks to check the structure. It is not an engine firing.
The remaining major ground test is a static fire of the booster’s 33 Raptor engines. As of 27 August, that firing has not been confirmed. NASASpaceflight livestreamed pad coverage on 26 August under static-fire titles; one stream was later labelled a scrub. Next Spaceflight’s Flight 14 checklist still marks Booster 21’s static-fire campaign as incomplete.
Ship 41 is already through its engine tests
If the static fire succeeds, Booster 21 is expected to stack with Ship 41. That mating has not happened. The ship has already finished the engine work that usually comes first: a single-engine deorbit demonstration around 19 August, then a full-duration 60-second static fire with all six Raptor engines.
The Starship preparing for our fourteenth flight test completed a full-duration, 60-second static fire with all six Raptor engines
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 21, 2026
No firm launch date
SpaceX has not published a launch date for Flight 14. Elon Musk tentatively targeted the end of August in early August. Later airspace briefings have pointed to mid-September as an advisory window, not a company confirmation. Next Spaceflight currently lists only “NET September, 2026.”
Musk also said on 20 August that SpaceX would “probably catch the ship with the tower in a few months,” scaling back earlier talk of a Flight 14 ship catch. The plan to put Starlink V3 satellites into a usable orbit, rather than the suborbital demonstration on Flight 13, has not been walked back.
With Booster 21 at Pad 2, the near-term work is the 33-engine static fire. Stacking, range paperwork, and a dated window come after that.
For the broader test objectives, see Starship Flight 14: What to Expect From SpaceX’s Next Test.
