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SpaceX Booster Crashes, Starship Deploys 22 Simulators

5/25/2026

Summary

SpaceX Launch Failure

SpaceX launched Super Heavy-Starship V3 from Texas at 6:30 p.m. EDT on May 22, 2026.
One of the 33 booster engines failed to ignite, so the upper-stage engines lit 2 minutes 20 seconds after liftoff.
The booster’s landing burns failed, causing a crash into the Gulf of Mexico.
The upper stage reached trajectory, deployed 22 Starlink simulators and re-entered over the Indian Ocean.
Elon Musk and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on X.

Summary

SpaceX Launches

SpaceX launched the 408-foot Starship V3, its 12th test flight, after a seven-month pause.
During the pause, SpaceX completed a second launch pad at Starbase despite several ground-testing setbacks.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attended the launch, viewing Starship as the future human-rated Moon lander.
SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell called the flight an “incredible first flight.”

Summary

SpaceX Secures Artemis

Flight 12 carried two camera satellites that scanned Starship’s heat shield from orbit, delivering imagery for an automated inspection system.
NASA selected Starship as the Human Landing System for Artemis IV, targeting a 2028 Moon landing.
SpaceX plans an IPO in June 2026, citing the V3 flight’s success—including engine-out performance and heat-shield data that support future in-orbit refueling.

Summary

SpaceX Starship Debut

On May 22, 2026, SpaceX launched the first Starship flight using the newly built V3 configuration.
The booster splash-down occurred in the Gulf of Mexico while the upper stage landed in the Indian Ocean, both using controlled water recoveries.
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 had not yet flown and is scheduled for a test later in 2026, highlighting a parallel lunar-lander development race.

History

Historical Context

On 21 December 2015 SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Full-Thrust first stage returned to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral, achieving the first vertical touchdown of an orbital-class booster after delivering 11 Orbcomm-OG2 satellites. The flight, the program’s eighth controlled-descent test, built on earlier 2013-2015 trials and paved the way for routine booster recoveries and the first re-flight on the 2017 SES-10 mission.

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SpaceX Launch Failure

SpaceX launched Super Heavy-Starship V3 from Texas at 6:30 p.m. EDT on May 22, 2026.
One of the 33 booster engines failed to ignite, so the upper-stage engines lit 2 minutes 20 seconds after liftoff.
The booster’s landing burns failed, causing a crash into the Gulf of Mexico.
The upper stage reached trajectory, deployed 22 Starlink simulators and re-entered over the Indian Ocean.
Elon Musk and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on X.

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