First reported by Florida Today.

SpaceX does not plan to launch another Falcon 9 rocket from Florida for at least six weeks while it gets ready for the first Starship launch from Kennedy Space Center, Florida Today reports, citing public remarks by a SpaceX executive.

Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX's vice president of launch, told a sold-out audience at the Cocoa Village Playhouse on Wednesday, Oct. 21, that the company has "a six-week gap before the next Falcon 9," according to Florida Today's Eric Lagatta and Rick Neale. Neale first reported the remarks on Oct. 22. Dontchev described the gap as a sign that it's "game time" for Starship, the paper reported.

Dontchev was speaking at a SpaceX-sponsored screening of the company's Starship docuseries, a fundraiser for the East Coast Zoological Foundation's Restore Our Shores program for the Indian River Lagoon, Florida Today reported. In a post on X the next day, Dontchev thanked the crowd and said the event raised $20,000 for the program. That post does not mention the launch gap.

SpaceX and the U.S. Space Force have not commented publicly on the reported pause as of publication. The Space Coast Wire has not independently confirmed the six-week timeline.

Where Florida launches stand

• Last Florida launch: A Falcon 9 carrying the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission lifted off Oct. 20 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to SpaceX's launch list. Florida Today says it carried 32 payloads and was Florida's 60th launch of 2026.
• Kennedy Space Center: SpaceX's list shows its most recent launch from pad 39A was a Falcon Heavy on the NROL-97 mission on Oct. 1.
• Next SpaceX launches: The next three launches on SpaceX's schedule are all Falcon 9s from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California: a Starlink mission Oct. 30, the USSF-432 mission Nov. 1 and another Starlink mission Nov. 4. None is from Florida.
• No firm Florida dates: Florida Today reports that no Florida launch by any company had a firm target date as of late October, and that a Federal Aviation Administration planning advisory listed none in Florida as of Oct. 27.

Why: Getting pad 39A ready for Starship

According to Florida Today's account of the event:

• Dontchev said Starship's launch infrastructure at pad 39A is "effectively complete," with lessons built in from SpaceX's newer Starship tower in Texas.
• Doors will soon be installed on Gigabay, the 380-foot-tall building near Roberts Road at Kennedy where Super Heavy boosters will be stacked and prepared.
• Boosters and ships will be built in Texas and carried by barge around the Florida peninsula to Port Canaveral and Kennedy's Turn Basin. From there, they'll go to Gigabay, be turned upright and moved to the pad.
• On the first Florida flight, SpaceX plans to try to catch the Super Heavy booster with the pad 39A tower's arms. The Starship upper stage would circle Earth about six times and then try to land at SpaceX's Starbase site in Texas, Florida Today reported.

Florida Today reported Oct. 28 that the first Starship has not yet arrived in Florida, but a tool for loading Starlink satellites into Starship has reached Kennedy. SpaceX officials are still targeting a first Florida Starship launch by the end of 2026, the paper reported. SpaceX has not published a date.

The federal paperwork for Starship in Brevard is public. The FAA issued its final environmental impact statement and record of decision for Starship at pad 39A, published in the Federal Register on Feb. 3, 2026. It covers up to 44 Starship launches a year from the pad. In a Nov. 20, 2025, decision, the Department of the Air Force separately approved SpaceX's plan to rebuild Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for Starship, with up to 76 launches a year. That approval says Starship can't launch from SLC-37 until the FAA finishes an airspace analysis and the Air Force issues a revised decision. Florida Today's reporting ties the current pause to pad 39A, not SLC-37.

Starlink launches already moved to California

The quieter Cape has been building since August. On Aug. 25, Dontchev posted on X that that morning's launch from pad 40 was the last planned Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida, and that Starlink missions from Florida will fly on Starship from now on.

Since then, Falcon 9 has kept launching Starlink satellites from Vandenberg. Florida Today reports that California's Oct. 27 launch was its 72nd of 2026, a state record, compared with Florida's 60. It's the first time since the 1970s that California has out-launched Florida in a year, according to the paper. Florida set a record of 109 launches in 2025.

Other rockets are sidelined, too

Florida Today reports that Blue Origin's New Glenn is out of service while the company repairs its launch complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, though company officials have said they still plan to launch before the end of 2026. United Launch Alliance's Vulcan has been grounded since an anomaly on its last flight in February, the paper reported.

What we don't know yet

• The date of the next Falcon 9 launch from Florida. Neither SpaceX nor the Space Force has announced one.
• Whether the gap also covers Falcon Heavy, which launches from pad 39A. The reported remarks were about Falcon 9.
• Which Florida missions, if any, were moved or delayed because of the gap.
• When the first Florida Starship will launch.

Space Coast Wire will update this story if SpaceX, the Space Force or the FAA releases a schedule or statement.