The FAA Is Studying Up to 456 Starship Launches a Year at Starbase.

On October 14, 2026, the Federal Register published FAA notice FAA-2026-12808. The agency says it will prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement on a SpaceX proposal to fly Starship-Super Heavy more often from the Boca Chica Launch Site at Starbase, and to expand where Starship can land or be expended. The launch and landing numbers in that notice are the bounds of the study. They are not an approved license.

This page is the receipt. It sits on Starbase and Starship.

What the notice is

The document is FR Doc. 2026-20963, Federal Register Volume 91, Number 197, pages 65289–65291, Wednesday, October 14, 2026. The action line is a notice of intent to prepare a PEIS, to open a public scoping period, and to hold public scoping meetings.

The summary says the FAA will analyze SpaceX’s proposal to increase Starship-Super Heavy operations at Boca Chica and to expand Starship landing and expenditure locations. It says subsequent license modifications or renewals under 14 CFR part 400 are within the scope of the PEIS, and that temporary airspace closures associated with the proposed action are part of the FAA’s federal action. A draft PEIS “will be released for public review and comment at a later date.”

Label: Confirmed as the notice. A notice of intent opens the study. It does not modify a license, and it is not a record of decision on this PEIS.

The numbers the study will use

The notice says the FAA currently authorizes up to 25 launches and 50 landings a year at Boca Chica: 25 of Starship and 25 of Super Heavy.

The PEIS “will evaluate a maximum annual capacity of up to 456 annual launches originating from and up to 912 annual landings” at the site. The notice then splits that maximum into two phases.

The notice says Phase 2 “represents a mature program launching more than 100 times annually and would be implemented within several years.” It says the thresholds “bound the analysis in this PEIS,” and that the landing thresholds are the maximum annual number of landings that could occur at Boca Chica regardless of where a flight launched. “Any currently unforeseen, future proposed increase in launch or landing cadence would require additional NEPA review.”

Label: Confirmed as the text of the notice. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are study bounds for the proposed action. They are not a cadence the FAA has approved.

The FAA project page, fetched October 18, 2026, prints one parenthetical the Federal Register does not. It says Phase 2 would include up to 456 launches and 912 annual landings “(456 of Starship and 456 of Super Heavy).” Label: The project page’s wording. The Federal Register states 456 launches and 912 landings. It splits Starship and Super Heavy that way for the current authorization and for Phase 1. It does not print that split for Phase 2.

For the analysis, the notice assumes half of the launches and landings would occur during the day (7 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and half at night (10 p.m. to 7 a.m.). Label: An assumption written into the study. It is not a flight schedule.

The same section says Super Heavy would land at the launch site, soft-water land in the Gulf of America, or be expended in flight, and that Starship would land at the launch site, soft-water land in the Gulf of America or the open ocean, or be expended in the open ocean. “Gulf of America” is the notice’s name.

No Action leaves the 2025 cadence

The notice says the only alternative to the proposed action in this PEIS is No Action. Under No Action, the FAA “would not modify SpaceX’s launch license” for Starship-Super Heavy launch and reentry from Boca Chica, and would not issue additional associated temporary airspace closures. SpaceX would be permitted to operate at the cadence approved in the 2025 Final Tiered Environmental Assessment and Mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact and Record of Decision for increased cadence at the Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas.

Label: Confirmed as the alternative the notice defines. No Action is the notice’s description of leaving the existing approval in place. The PEIS has not selected it, and it has not selected the proposed action.

Comments and the three meeting days

Comments should be in by November 30, 2026. The notice says to use Docket No. FAA-2026-12808 on regulations.gov, or to mail Ms. Amy Hanson, FAA Environmental Protection Specialist, SpaceX Boca Chica, c/o Kimley-Horn, 767 Eustis Street, Suite 100, St. Paul, MN 55114. The project page prints the same deadline and the same docket, and spells the consultant “Kimley Horn.”

The notice schedules four in-person sessions and one virtual meeting.

On October 18 the project page listed a virtual-meeting registration link, tinyurl.com/StarbasePEIS-Scoping, and said registration is required. A fetch of that short link redirected to a Zoom registration page. Label: The link the project page had posted that day. The Federal Register text does not print the Zoom address.

The notice says English and Spanish versions of the presentation will be on the project page no later than November 10, 2026, and that requests for accommodations beyond the planned Spanish translation should be in by November 2, 2026. The project page prints spacexbocachica@icf.com for those requests.

On the map

The site is Starbase. The vehicle is Starship. The company is SpaceX. The space map is the section. The May 12, 2026 V3 note named Flight 12 as a future launch from Pad 2. It is not this environmental study, and it is not a license for 456 flights.

Sources

Checked October 18, 2026.

The mail address is the Federal Register’s. “Kimley Horn,” without the hyphen, is the project page’s spelling of the same consultant.