SpaceX launches Starship v3 rocket

Summary

The most powerful rocket in history just roared off its launch pad in a spectacular show of power and technology.SpaceX launched the newest version of its giant Starship rocket Friday (May 22), from a recently completed second pad at its Starbase manufacturing and test facility in South Texas. Liftoff occurred at 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT), sending the massive 408-foot-tall (124-meter) vehicle skyward on its 12th suborbital test flight.It was the first Starship mission since October 2025, and the first-ever flight of Starship Version 3 (V3), a next-generation build of the rocket that features a complete design overhaul meant to evolve the vehicle toward operational missions. And today's suborbital Flight 12 was a significant step toward that ambitious goal, even if it was a day later than planned after a glitched thwarted a first launch try on Thursday."Congratulations SpaceX team on an epic first Starship V3 launch & landing!," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on X after the launch. "You scored a goal for humanity."There were some hiccups.During liftoff, one of the 33 first-stage Raptor engines on Super Heavy shut down, and the booster missed a critical "boost back" manuever to control its return to Earth. Starship's Ship 39 upper stage also lost one of its six main engines during ascent, but managed to reach space on the remaining five."I wouldn't call it nominal orbital insertion, but we're in on a trajectory that we had analyzed, and it's within bounds," SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said in live commentary. "So, teams continuing to work through it with that engine out there, working some through some steps on the engines."SpaceX's first Starship V3 Super Heavy booster (lower left) falls back to Earth after separating from the Ship 39 upper stage during the Flight 12 test flight on May 22, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX)Starship consists of a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and an upper stage known as Starship, or simply Ship. The first notable event after the rocket...