SpaceX Starship 12 splashes down

SpaceX said Starship completed its 12th flight test on Friday, May 22, 2026, after launching from Starbase, Texas and splashing down in the Indian Ocean. The company said the mission was the first flight of its Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles, the first use of Raptor 3 engines, and the first Starship launch from Pad 2 at Starbase. SpaceX also said the flight included the first deployment of modified Starlink satellites intended to image Starship in space. The test ended after Starship re-entered the atmosphere, performed a landing flip and landing burn, and splashed down in a pre-planned zone. ### What exactly flew on this test? Friday’s mission used the first Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles, according to SpaceX. The company said the upgraded system was powered by Raptor 3 engines and incorporated changes announced on May 12, including redesigned booster systems, larger grid fins and a new launch pad configuration. SpaceX has described Starship as a fully reusable transportation system for cargo and crew missions to Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars. (spacex.com) May 12 was the date SpaceX published its V3 overview, laying out the engineering changes ahead of the flight. Those changes included a redesigned fuel transfer tube, revised thermal protection around the booster’s engine section and other modifications aimed at stage separation, engine startup and recovery operations, according to the company. ### Where did the flight go, and what did it do in space? (spacex.com) SpaceX said Starship reached space after stage separation, then coasted long enough to carry out its in-flight objectives. During that coast phase, the company said Starship deployed 20 Starlink simulators and two modified Starlink satellites that imaged the vehicle in space. SpaceX said those objects remained on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. (spacex.com) The company also said the ship gathered data during re-entry on heatshield performance and structural strength. In the final minutes, SpaceX said Starship performed a maneuver intended to stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a banking move designed to mimic the trajectory of future returns to Starbase. ### What went wrong with the engines? SpaceX said a single Raptor engine shut down during Super Heavy’s ascent and that the booster later failed to light all planned engines for its boostback burn. (spacex.com) The company said the boostback burn was partial and ended early, and that Super Heavy later experienced a hard splashdown in the Gulf of America after attempting to reignite engines for landing. During Starship’s ascent to space, SpaceX said the upper stage lost one of its Raptor 3 vacuum engines. The company said Starship nonetheless “demonstrated its engine-out capability” and achieved its planned trajectory, indicating the remaining engines and flight profile preserved the mission’s main objectives. ### Why is the engine-out point important? SpaceX used the phrase “engine-out capability” in its post-flight account, tying the engine shutdown to one of the system features it is trying to prove in flight. (spacex.com) The company did not, in the material reviewed, give a separate technical cause for the vacuum-engine failure or say whether any recovered hardware would be used in that analysis. The flight profile still reached its planned trajectory, according to SpaceX’s account, and completed deployment and re-entry tasks. That makes the engine failure notable mainly because it occurred during the first flight of the V3 configuration and the first use of Raptor 3 engines. ### What comes next after splashdown? SpaceX’s flight page identifies this mission as Starship’s twelfth flight test and lists it as part of the company’s continuing Starship test program. (spacex.com) The company has not, in the material reviewed, published a date for Flight 13. SpaceX’s next public milestone will likely be a post-flight update or the opening of a new flight page once the company sets the next test window.