Overview
- The FAA determined that Flight 12, SpaceX’s first launch of the upgraded V3 Starship on Friday, May 22, resulted in a mishap when the Super Heavy booster experienced an off-nominal return burn and tumbled into the Gulf of Mexico.
- SpaceX’s upper-stage Starship also lost one of six Raptor engines after stage separation, forcing the company to abandon a planned sustained in-orbit burn during the same flight.
- The FAA has ordered a SpaceX-led mishap investigation that the agency will oversee at every step and must approve the final report and any corrective actions before permitting more Starship test flights.
- The agency confirmed there are no reports of public injury or damage to public property from the May 22 flight, but the investigation will focus on safety-critical failures such as booster engine shutdowns during boostback.
- The pause in test flights creates near-term schedule risk for SpaceX’s development plans and commercial goals, including Starlink expansion and timing tied to the company’s anticipated mid-2026 milestones; the FAA has used the same oversight process for other heavy-lift programs such as Blue Origin’s New Glenn.