SpaceX’s Starship V3 cannot fly again until ‘mishap’ is addressed, FAA says

The SpaceX Starship V3 launch appears to be going according to plan. He – she It launched last FridayIt performed a mock satellite deployment and returned to Earth. Based on the launch flow, everything seems to be going according to plan. It turned out that this was not the case, as the FAA began an investigation, and the Starship V3 was grounded until the investigation was concluded.

per Federal Aviation AdministrationThe accident occurred at the back of the launch when the Starship V3 spacecraft’s boosters fell into the Gulf of Mexico. The boosters fell hard into what the FAA calls the “danger zone.” This caused several delays departing the airport along with five airborne delay events, which meant planes had to fly in a holding pattern until things calmed down.

SpaceX is required to conduct an “incident investigation.” The FAA is overseeing this investigation and must approve SpaceX’s final report, including corrective actions, before SpaceX can conduct another Starship V3 launch.

The incident comes as SpaceX faces potential increased scrutiny after last week submitting a report on what could be… The largest initial public offering ever. The IPO could value the company at $1.75 trillion, enough to make CEO Elon Musk the first trillionaire ever. But it also opens the company — which includes internet service provider Starlink, Grok-maker xAI and X (formerly Twitter) — to the prying eyes and sensitive judgments of Wall Street investors.

An unexpectedly harsh return to Earth

You can see the accident as part of SpaceX live broadcast Launch, detailed by SpaceX on Flight 12 Task tracking web page. “After the separation phase, the Super Heavy rocket performed a directional maneuver and attempted to burn off the booster,” SpaceX said He says. “She was unable to light all of the planned engines and conducted a partial burn that ended early.”

There’s not a lot of drama in the footage, as the Super Heavy booster splashes into the water without slowing down much. The rest of the Starship V3 mission went off without a hitch, including a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean several hours later.

Not a rare event for SpaceX

SpaceX is a frequent flier in the FAA’s mishap investigation logs. The Starship and Super Heavy boosters alone have led to seven such investigations so far, four of which required corrective action before Starship and Super Heavy could fly again. One of these four is required 17 corrective actions By itself. The Falcon 9 rocket, which launched SpaceX and other companies into orbit 165 times in 2025, was grounded in February 2026 pending another FAA investigation.

The Starship V3 spacecraft is scheduled to be an important spacecraft for SpaceX. It is envisioned as a vehicle to transport humans to the Moon during the Artemis IV mission, which is scheduled to be the first landing by humans on the Moon since 1972. It will also be responsible for the deployment of the Starlink V3 satellites It is expected to provide gigabit internet connection speeds.

Given the outcome of previous investigations, the FAA investigation is unlikely to cause enough drama to impact those plans or SpaceX’s IPO.