FAA update grounds SpaceX Starship labeling failed booster landing as 'mishap'

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on May 27, 2026

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The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday grounded SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy rocket after updated findings labeled last week’s launch from Texas a “mishap” because of an uncontrolled booster return.

“After a thorough assessment of the operation, the FAA has determined the May 22 SpaceX Starship Flight 12 launch resulted in a mishap,” the FAA stated. “The mishap involved the Super Heavy booster as it flew back to the Gulf of America after stage separation. There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property.”

The launch was the first for Version 3 of its Starship and Super Heavy, and 12th suborbital test flight overall. While the booster launched from the pad at SpaceX’s Texas site Starbase, and separated successfully from the upper stage, its engines failed soon after.

Instead of the planned controlled landing, which would have had the booster hover over the Gulf waters for a few moments before splashing down, it came in uncontrolled for a hard landing.

“The FAA is requiring SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation. 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 FAA stated.

FAA requires mishap investigations to keep the public safe while the root cause of the incident is determined.

“A return to flight of the Starship-Super Heavy vehicle is based on the FAA determining that any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety,” the FAA stated.

This is not the first time the FAA has grounded Starship. Two test flights in early 2025 saw the upper stage suffer a breakup along its trajectory flying over the Caribbean, with its debris field seen from Florida, the Bahamas and several Caribbean islands. The incidents also forced airspace closures as far north as Orlando International Airport.

SpaceX has not had any similar booster issues, though, since Starship’s early flights. It had even brought back the booster for successful recoveries at the launch tower, captured by the tower’s two swiveling “chopsticks” arms.

The recent flight, which featured major design overhauls to both the Starship upper stage and Super Heavy booster, was never intended to have a recovery capture try at the launch tower, which was also being used for the first time.

Despite the booster failure, the upper stage was able to complete a mostly successful trip more than halfway around the Earth, deploying satellite simulators along the way, surviving reentry with its updated heat tiles and making its own controlled landing in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.

After completing its investigation, which could range from weeks to months, SpaceX plans to continue to perform test flights from Texas while also building out operational launch towers at both Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37.

The KSC site, with one launch tower adjacent to the existing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch pad, is tapped to be the site for Starship’s Florida debut, which the company had been trying to line up before the end of the year. The CCSFS site, which would feature two launch towers, would not come online until at least 2027. Combined, SpaceX is seeking to have as many as 120 launches a year from the three Starship launch towers on the Space Coast.

NASA has a vested interest in SpaceX getting Starship up and running. A pathfinder version of Starship designed for lunar landings with docking capability is aiming to fly alongside the next Artemis mission. Artemis III is targeting mid 2027, when NASA’s Space Launch System rocket would send a crewed Orion spacecraft on a low-Earth orbit mission tasked with attempting on-orbit rendezvous maneuvers with Starship and possibly if ready, Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK2 lunar lander.

Whichever of the two landers is ready will the be tasked to fly to the moon in 2028 as part of the Artemis IV mission, which would return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

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