FAA Authorization and Launch Timeline
The Federal Aviation Administration has authorized SpaceX to resume Starship prototype flights after the company determined the likely cause of a booster failure that occurred during a May mission. SpaceX indicated over the weekend that the next Starship flight could take place as early as Thursday, July 16.
The upcoming mission will be the second launch of the third-generation version of Starship, known as V3. It also marks SpaceX's second test flight of the Starship system overall and the first since the company became publicly traded. SpaceX completed its initial public offering and began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on June 12, raising nearly $86 billion — a record sum — and ranking among the world's ten most valuable companies.
The flight will serve as an early test of investor appetite for SpaceX's iterative approach to rocket development, often described as "fly, fail, fix." This methodology frequently results in explosive failures, a phenomenon that Chief Executive Elon Musk has wryly labeled "rapid unscheduled disassembly."
Investigating the May Booster Failure
SpaceX's first V3 Starship test launch on May 22 was largely successful. The Super Heavy booster lifted the 407-foot rocket into space before the upper stage separated and deployed 20 satellite simulators along with two modified Starlink units that recorded exterior footage of the vehicle.
The third-generation booster was designed to return to Earth and perform a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico. However, its engines failed to re-ignite properly, sending the booster plunging into the water below.
According to SpaceX and the FAA, the malfunction occurred at the moment of booster separation. SpaceX reported that slight differences in engine startup on the upper stage caused the booster to rotate 90 degrees in the wrong direction. The company has since modified the engine startup sequence to help the booster flip in the correct direction more reliably and has made additional changes to improve re-light reliability.
In a statement issued Monday, the FAA identified the most probable root causes as heat effects on propulsion system components during the rocket's ascent and erroneous engine alarm system settings. SpaceX confirmed it has adjusted Starship's engine alarm and abort systems to reduce the likelihood of a similar failure occurring in the future.
The May flight also revealed another issue. While the upper stage successfully deployed its test payload and simulated a landing in the Gulf — a milestone SpaceX had previously struggled to reach — it did so after losing one of three Raptor engines designed for vacuum operation. SpaceX stated that it has implemented several hardware and operational modifications to prevent this from happening again.