BOCA CHICA, Texas — Five days after Starship's 12th test flight ended with a booster splashing down in the Gulf of America, the Federal Aviation Administration announced on May 27 that SpaceX must complete a formal mishap investigation before it can attempt Flight 13.
The FAA's determination came after the agency completed what it called a "thorough assessment" of the May 22 launch. While the Starship upper stage successfully reached its intended splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean, the Super Heavy booster — tail number Booster 19 — fell well short of its planned trajectory, crashing into the water rather than returning to the launch tower.
What Went Wrong on Flight 12
The anomaly began about one minute and 42 seconds into the ascent, when one of Booster 19's 33 Raptor 3 engines shut down unexpectedly. SpaceX began intentionally throttling down the remaining engines as the vehicle approached stage separation, bringing the booster from 32 engines to five before the ship and booster split apart.
The problem became critical during the boostback burn — the maneuver that flips the booster and slows it enough to return to the launch site. SpaceX commentary noted that fewer engines ignited than planned, and the partial burn ended early. Without enough energy to complete a controlled return, the booster attempted a landing burn before coming down hard in the Gulf.
"Following stage separation, the Super Heavy booster performed a directional flip maneuver and attempted its boostback burn," SpaceX wrote in its post-mission summary. "It was unable to light all planned engines and performed a partial boostback burn that ended early."
The Starship upper stage, Ship 39, fared better despite losing one of its three Raptor Vacuum engines. Mission controllers decided to skip a planned in-flight engine relight, but the vehicle still hit its Indian Ocean target.
Investigation Process and Timeline
Under FAA regulations, an anomaly that causes a vehicle to deviate from its planned trajectory constitutes a mishap, triggering a mandatory review. The agency listed several potential violations of SpaceX's Part 450 launch license, though it confirmed there were no injuries or property damage on the ground.
"The FAA will oversee the SpaceX-led investigation, be involved in every step of the process, and approve SpaceX's final report, including any corrective actions," the agency said in its statement.
Past Starship mishap investigations — there have been seven across the vehicle's twelve flights — have taken roughly two months to resolve. Given that Flight 12 marked the debut of the Raptor 3 engine on both the booster and the ship, analysts at NASASpaceFlight estimate Flight 13 could be ready for launch no earlier than July or August 2026.
Flight 13 Plans May Shift
The grounding is likely to change what SpaceX attempts on Flight 13. Industry observers note that SpaceX may choose to forego a chopstick arm catch of the ship on the launch tower, given that one of the Raptor Vacuum engines on Ship 39 was lost during Flight 12. A similar soft water landing could be substituted while engineers verify the health of the new engine design.
SpaceX already has hardware in flow for Flight 13, consisting of Ship 40 and Booster 20. Engineers had previously moved at least 10 Raptor engines from Booster 20 to Booster 19 after a 10-engine static fire test ended early in March — a data point investigators will likely revisit.
Broader Stakes
The Starship investigation arrives at a sensitive moment for SpaceX. The company recently filed for an initial public offering, and its S-1 prospectus explicitly ties growth to Starship's development pace. SpaceX noted that delays to the vehicle would affect deployment of its next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, expansion of satellite-to-mobile services, and the build-out of in-orbit AI compute infrastructure.
NASA is also watching closely. Starship is the planned lander for the Artemis 4 crewed lunar landing mission, targeted for 2028. Each grounding and investigation period adds pressure to that schedule, though NASA and SpaceX have consistently emphasized that early test flights are designed to collect data, not set records.
SpaceX has completed mishap investigations before and returned to flight each time. The company and the FAA have a practiced working relationship on these reviews, and the expectation is that engineers will identify the Raptor 3 ignition issue, apply corrections, and clear the pad well before the end of summer.
