Saturday on the Space Coast: Nov. 14, 2026

SpaceX caught its Starship upper stage with the launch tower arms at Starbase, Texas on Saturday afternoon, the first time the company has caught the ship after an orbital flight. "Mechazilla catches Starship!" the company posted on X at 4:21 p.m. EST, about 22.5 hours after Friday's launch from Pad 2 at Starbase. The Super Heavy booster had diverted to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf on Friday. The flight was from Texas, but SpaceX has been preparing Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as future Starship launch sites, and in late October SpaceX vice president of launch Kiko Dontchev told a Cocoa Village audience that the Starship infrastructure at Launch Complex 39A is "effectively complete," Florida Today reported. Florida Today also reported that SpaceX officials were still targeting a first Florida Starship launch by the end of 2026, though SpaceX itself has not published a Florida launch date.

United Launch Alliance called off Saturday's planned Vulcan launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after a network communication issue between the ground equipment and the rocket needed reconfiguration that would run the hold past the 29-minute window, according to a ULA update posted Saturday morning. ULA's mission page now lists the launch for Sunday, Nov. 15, with a window from 12:11 to 12:40 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41, for a flight carrying 40 Amazon Leo broadband satellites. Friday's attempt had already been delayed after a power interruption at the Air Liquide gaseous nitrogen plant knocked out its high-pressure pumps, according to a ULA update posted Friday morning.

At a news conference Saturday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday's nationwide ground stop began during routine work by L3Harris, a longtime FAA contractor, to replace old copper telecommunications lines with fiber at a remote FAA facility, and that a router involved in that work started flooding other air traffic control systems. Officials are still working to determine whether it was an installation error or a faulty router, according to Politico, The Washington Post and TechCrunch, and no cause has been officially determined. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency sees "zero evidence of anything nefarious," the BBC reported, and Duffy said officials do not believe it was a cyberattack, Spectrum News 13 reported. Florida Today first reported the local link: L3Harris is headquartered in Melbourne. The FAA Command Center canceled the nationwide ground stop at 8:19 p.m. Friday, and Duffy said on X Saturday morning that operations are slowly returning to normal but some delays and cancellations will continue, so travelers should check their flight with their airline before heading to Melbourne or Orlando airports.

The St. Johns River near Cocoa was at 17.0 feet at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, in major flood, and is expected to remain steady at 17.0 feet, according to a National Weather Service Melbourne Flood Warning issued at 9:42 a.m. Saturday. Friday evening's statement had forecast a 17.2-foot crest this weekend. The river's highest level in the 24 hours ending at 9:15 a.m. was 17.1 feet, and flood stage is 16 feet. At 17.0 feet, NWS says some roads flood and water approaches low-lying homes in Rockledge's Silver Pines subdivision and low-lying structures along Pluckebaum Road in Cocoa and Rockledge, with flooding of low-lying structures in the Lake Washington area of Melbourne. The warning remains in effect until further notice, and the next statement is due Sunday at 11:30 a.m.