Space Coast Goes Quiet: SpaceX Pauses Florida Launches for Six Weeks as Starship Work Takes Over
After a record 109 Florida launches in 2025, the Space Coast has seen 60 so far in 2026 — and SpaceX's last Falcon 9, on October 20, may be the last Florida rocket for at least six weeks while the company prepares Starship's Florida debut.
The Space Coast is entering an unfamiliar quiet stretch. SpaceX last launched a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on October 20, on the rideshare mission known as Bandwagon-5 — just the 60th Florida launch of 2026, after a record-shattering 109 launches in 2025 — and a SpaceX vice president has said there is a six-week gap before the next Falcon 9 from Florida, Florida Today reported. With no other company holding a firm Florida launch date, the pause could leave Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral without a liftoff for a month and a half.
"I think you Floridians are noticing we're not launching Falcon 9 as much right now, right?" Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX's vice president of launch, told an audience in Cocoa on October 21, according to Florida Today. "We have a six-week gap before the next Falcon 9." The slowdown began earlier: SpaceX's August 25 mission was the last Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida, as Starlink missions shifted to California, leaving the Florida Falcon 9 flying only sparingly since.
The reason is the next rocket. SpaceX is preparing the Florida debut of Starship, the more-than-400-foot vehicle that has flown 14 times from South Texas. Dontchev said Starship launch infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A is effectively complete, doors will be installed soon at the 380-foot Gigabay stacking facility, and the first Florida Starships will be built in Texas and barged around the peninsula to Port Canaveral and the Kennedy Turn Basin. In the meantime, Blue Origin's New Glenn remains out of commission while its Cape Canaveral launch complex is repaired, and United Launch Alliance's Vulcan has been grounded since an anomaly on its last flight in February — and, as of late October, the Federal Aviation Administration's planning advisory listed no Florida launch with a firm target date.