The FAA says stop.
SpaceX can’t launch again—not until it figures out why the Starship booster died.
It happened on May 22. A test flight. Or what was supposed to be a test flight. Now there is an investigation, overseen by federal regulators, and until SpaceX hands in a report that gets approved, the pad is dark. No more launches. Not even for the sake of the upcoming IPO. The mid-June debut might happen in silence, without fresh hardware in the sky.
SpaceX hasn’t commented yet. Silence, mostly.
But the FAA wasn’t quiet.
“The mishap involved the Super Heavy booster… There are no reports of public injury.”
It flew back toward the Gulf. Stage separation happened. Then things went wrong.
Engine failure? Failures, plural? The booster lost thrust mid-turn, started tumbling, and likely exploded on impact with the water.
This was the upgraded V3. First time flying. SpaceX wanted better. More reliable than the previous eleven tries. They changed everything. New Raptor engines—third gen, all brand new. Design tweaks. Upgrades to the ship itself.
Did it work?
Well, the first part worked. It got past max Q. Reached space. Separated from the upper stage. Then the engine(s) gave out during the return burn. Tumbled down. Splashed hard.
And the Starship? Also failed.
Lost one of six Raptors. That forced SpaceX to abort an orbital burn test.
Making rockets reusable isn’t a luxury—it’s the business model.
If you can’t fly twice, you burn cash. And Starship is supposed to carry Starlink payloads cheaply. Starlink pays the bills right now. It is the only profitable arm of SpaceX. Lose reliability there and the IPO narrative cracks.
But this isn’t unusual, exactly. SpaceX expects failure during development. They plan for it. The goal is Falcon 9 style reliability eventually. Reuse. Scale.
The FAA plays the same game with Blue Origin too.
Last week? The green light came through.
Blue Origin got clearance for New Glenn’s fourth attempt. Launching in about a month. SpaceX has to dig through the debris, write the report, get approval, fix the problem. Then they can try again.
Maybe soon.
Maybe later.
