The FAA Just Put Nearly Daily Starship Flights on the Table

Image: SpaceX

The Federal Aviation Administration intends to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement for SpaceX’s plan to run as many as 456 Starship launches and 912 landings a year from Starbase, Texas.

That is according to a notice filed for publication in the Federal Register on Tuesday (document 2026-20963, docket FAA-2026-12808). The agency is opening a public scoping period on SpaceX’s proposal to raise Starship-Super Heavy operations at the Boca Chica Launch Site and expand landing and expenditure areas, and it is asking for comments by November 30, 2026. A draft PEIS will come later; nothing in Tuesday’s filing approves the higher cadence on its own.

SpaceX is currently authorized for up to 25 orbital launches and 50 total landings a year at Starbase, 25 for Starship and 25 for Super Heavy, under the 2025 tiered environmental assessment and mitigated finding of no significant impact. The new PEIS would evaluate a maximum of 456 launches originating from the site and up to 912 landings there, counting landings that could follow launches from elsewhere. Phase 1 covers up to 100 launches and 200 landings in a year, at any day or time. Phase 2, which the FAA says would arrive “within several years” as the vehicle matures, would allow the full 456 launches, still at any hour but only Monday through Friday.

Starbase has been SpaceX’s exclusive research, development, and flight-test home for Starship, with pad rollouts and stack tests still the day-to-day rhythm, including Booster 21’s move to the pad ahead of Flight 14 and the first Starlink V3 deploy footage from a Starship mission. Elon Musk has long talked about pushing Starship toward rapid reuse measured in hours, and SpaceX has already floated a separate $100 billion Louisiana site built for high-cadence flights. Tuesday’s Texas filing is the federal paperwork that would have to clear before Starbase itself could climb from a few dozen authorized flights toward something closer to a weekday factory rhythm.

The PEIS will look at air quality, wildlife, coastal resources, noise, cultural sites, water, and other impacts under NEPA, alongside Endangered Species Act and historic-preservation consultations. The FAA plans in-person scoping meetings on November 17 in Brownsville and November 19 in Port Isabel, plus a virtual session on November 18, with materials posted on its Starbase project page. Comments can go through regulations.gov on docket FAA-2026-12808.

What Tuesday’s notice does not settle is when the draft PEIS will land, whether Phase 2’s weekday-only 456-launch ceiling survives the review intact, or how quickly SpaceX could actually fly at those rates even if the license is later modified. SpaceX had not posted about the filing on its own account by mid-morning Pacific time, and the agency still has to finish the impact analysis before any higher cadence is approved.

For now, Starbase stays capped at 25 launches a year on paper, with a much larger request now sitting in the federal docket for anyone who wants to weigh in before the scoping window closes.

Do you think Starbase can really get anywhere near 456 launches a year?