This Week in SpaceX: USSF-481 Flies, CRS-35 Docks, Ship 40 Returns

Falcon 9 launched the classified USSF-481 mission for the U.S. Space Force from California on Thursday night, Oct. 15. Earlier that day, Cargo Dragon docked at the space station with its final pair of roll-out solar arrays. Ship 40 is back at Starbase, the FAA opened its review of a much larger Starbase launch rate, and Musk put Flight 15 a little before Thanksgiving. Off the pad, Southwest is taking Starlink fleetwide, United launched a Starlink tracker, SpaceX thrusters flew Tesla’s new Roadster, and Starlink switched on in Curaçao.

USSF-481 Lifts Off From Vandenberg

Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 5:01:05 p.m. PT (8:01 p.m. ET) on Oct. 15 with USSF-481. The payload is classified.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/yjEQXS2RKu

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 16, 2026

• Booster: B1081, flying for the 28th time. Earlier missions include Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, NROL-186, NROL-48, USSF-153 and 16 Starlink flights, per SpaceX.
• Landing: Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Pacific.
• Spaceflight Now reports it is the second Tactically Responsive mission, after USSF-259.
• The T-0 moved from 4:57:05 p.m. PT to 5:01:05 p.m. PT on launch day.

Falcon 9’s first stage lands on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship pic.twitter.com/uBK14MgJZ0

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 16, 2026

CRS-35 Docks With the Final Roll-Out Arrays

Cargo Dragon docked by itself to the space-facing port of Harmony at 10:27 a.m. EDT on Oct. 15, two days after its 6:33 a.m. ET launch from SLC-40, NASA says. It carried more than 6,300 lb of science and supplies, including the station’s fourth and final pair of iROSA solar arrays. Dragon stays until mid-November and will splash down off California. Our CRS-35 story has the full cargo list.

Ship 40 Comes Home

SpaceX calls Ship 40 “the first Starship to return to its launch site.” It flew Flight 13 on July 24 and stayed largely intact and afloat after splashing down in the Indian Ocean. It was towed to Christmas Island, where crews took heat-shield samples, then shipped on the transport Forte to the Port of Brownsville on Oct. 7. It now stands upright in a Starbase Megabay beside three other Starships.

Now that it is vertical alongside three other Starships in a Megabay at Starbase, it will provide first-of-its-kind data on a flown Starship heatshield, Raptor engines, avionics, and more.

SpaceX, Oct. 13

Flight 15: A Little Before Thanksgiving

Musk said Starship Flight 15 is about four to six weeks away, “a little bit before Thanksgiving” by his guess, and that it will try to catch the ship. That is his target. SpaceX hasn’t announced a date. More in our Flight 15 story.

FAA Opens Review of 456 Starship Launches a Year

The FAA has started a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) on SpaceX expanding Starship at Starbase. Nothing has been approved.

• Phase 1: up to 100 launches and 200 landings a year, any day of the week.
• Phase 2: up to 456 launches and 912 landings a year, Monday to Friday only.
• Today’s approval: 25 launches and 50 landings a year.
• Scoping meetings Nov. 17–19 in Brownsville, Port Isabel and online. Comments are due Nov. 30 on docket FAA-2026-12808.

See our FAA review story for the breakdown.

Texas Monthly reports that a draft agenda for the Nov. 5 Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting included a closed session on selling 1,300 acres in Cameron County. Two sources told the magazine that SpaceX is the prospective buyer and that the land is Boca Chica State Park. A TPWD spokesperson told Texas Monthly the commission “is not considering the sale of the Boca Chica property at its November meeting.” SpaceX has not commented.

Southwest Goes Fleetwide With Starlink; United Launches a Tracker

Southwest says it will put Starlink on its entire fleet by fall 2027 and expects to be the first major U.S. airline to finish a fleetwide rollout. Wi-Fi stays free for Rapid Rewards members through T-Mobile. Its first Starlink jet entered service June 22. Tony Roach, Southwest’s chief customer and brand officer, told AirlineGeeks on Oct. 15 that 47 aircraft are now connected. Earlier this year, AirlineGeeks says, Southwest set a target of more than 300 by the end of 2026.

The same day, United said Starlink is on nearly half its daily departures (more than 635 aircraft) and launched a Starlink Tracker that checks your flight up to three days out. It also extended its status match for Delta and American flyers to Oct. 22.

SpaceX Thrusters Fly Tesla’s New Roadster

Tesla unveiled its next Roadster on Oct. 15 at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas, test site. On 10 SpaceX cold-gas thrusters fed by about 600 litres of compressed gas in COPVs, the car hopped over six vehicles, did a barrel roll and landed softly, Space.com reports. A mannequin in a SpaceX suit sat in the driver’s seat. The thruster “Rocket” version is invite-only, and Musk is aiming for production in 2028.

Turns out the future does have flying cars pic.twitter.com/6fexPp6SXI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 16, 2026

Musk: Star Mind Reaches Volume Production Next Year

Musk said on Oct. 15 that the Star Mind computer SpaceX and Nvidia are designing together “is far better than almost anyone expects and will reach volume production next year.” That is Musk’s claim; neither company has shared specs or a date. He was quoting a clip of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who said the two engineering teams are building “a new type of server, a new type of architecture that might be super good in space and on Earth.” Huang also said demand for Grok Bot is “really skyrocketing.” Our Starmind explainer covers the plan to put AI compute in orbit.

Starlink Arrives in Curaçao

Starlink says its service is now available in Curaçao, the Dutch Caribbean island off Venezuela.

Coming Up

• Mon., Oct. 19: Falcon 9 launches the Bandwagon-5 rideshare from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, with 32 payloads on board, including SpaceX’s Starfall reentry capsule. Starfall is SpaceX’s cargo-return capsule, and it first flew on a demo mission June 23. The one-hour window opens at 6:30 a.m. ET, with a backup on Oct. 20. The booster is flying for the 19th time and will land on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. For more on Starfall’s commercial use, see our BentoBox story.
• Tue., Oct. 20: SpaceX posts its Q3 2026 results and hosts an audio-only webcast at 3:30 p.m. CT (4:30 p.m. ET).