The launch of the SpaceX Starship V3 appeared to go in response to plan. It launched last Friday, performed a mock satellite tv for pc deployment and returned to Earth. Based mostly on the launch stream, all the things appeared to go in response to plan. It seems that this wasn’t the case, because the FAA has launched an investigation, and the Starship V3 is grounded till the investigation concludes.
Per the FAA, the mishap occurred on the again finish of the launch when the Starship V3’s boosters fell again to the Gulf of Mexico. The boosters fell fairly arduous into what the FAA calls a “hazard space.” This brought on a number of airport departure delays together with 5 airborne delay occasions, which is fancy FAA communicate meaning airplanes needed to fly a holding sample till issues calmed down.
SpaceX is required to conduct a “mishap investigation.” The FAA is overseeing that investigation and should approve SpaceX’s last report, together with corrective actions, earlier than SpaceX can conduct one other Starship V3 launch.
The incident comes as SpaceX faces extra potential scrutiny after it filed final week for what may very well be the largest ever initial public offering. The IPO may worth the corporate at $1.75 trillion, sufficient to make CEO Elon Musk the first-ever trillionaire. Nevertheless it additionally opens the corporate — which homes the web supplier Starlink, Grok-maker xAI and X (previously often known as Twitter) — to the prying eyes and delicate judgment of Wall Avenue traders.
An unexpectedly harsh return to Earth
You possibly can see the incident as a part of SpaceX’s live stream of the launch, and SpaceX particulars it on Flight 12’s mission tracker webpage. “Following stage separation, the Tremendous Heavy booster carried out a directional flip maneuver and tried its boostback burn,” SpaceX says. “It was unable to gentle all deliberate engines and carried out a partial boostback burn that ended early.”
There is not a lot drama within the footage, because the Tremendous Heavy booster splashes down into the water with out slowing a lot. The remainder of the Starship V3’s mission went off with no hitch, together with its managed descent into the Indian Ocean a number of hours later.
Not a uncommon prevalence for SpaceX
SpaceX is a frequent flier within the FAA’s mishap investigation logs. The Starship and Tremendous Heavy boosters alone have triggered seven such investigations up to now, and 4 of them required corrective actions earlier than the Starship and Tremendous Heavy may fly once more. A kind of 4 required 17 corrective actions by itself. The Falcon 9 rocket, which launched SpaceX and different firms into orbit 165 occasions in 2025, was grounded in February 2026 pending one other FAA investigation.
The Starship V3 is slated to be an necessary spacecraft for SpaceX. It is penciled in because the craft taking people to the moon throughout the Artemis IV mission, which is scheduled to be the primary moon touchdown people have performed since 1972. It will even be chargeable for deploying the Starlink V3 satellites which might be expected to offer gigabit internet connection speeds.
Given the results of previous inquiries, the FAA investigation is unlikely to trigger sufficient drama to impression these plans or SpaceX’s IPO.
