FAA grounds Starship!

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:09]Good afternoon, spaceflight enthusiasts.

[00:00:11]Just have a quick piece of news for you.

[00:00:13]This should come as a surprise to nobody. Perspace.com and other sources just 5 days after its debut flight.

[00:00:22]SpaceX's Starship B3 Mega Rocket has been grounded. The US Federal Aviation Administration or the FAA just declared the May 22nd Starship V3 launch a mishap and is requiring an investigation before Starship can take to the skies again.

[00:00:40]Quote, "A return to flight of the Starship Superheavy vehicle is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety."

[00:00:53]Once again, this is according to FAA officials that they just wrote in an update today. So, what happened in regards to this mishap, the reason it's being called this is not because of Starship itself, the part that re-entered and in spite of losing an engine, managed to reenter and set down pretty much exactly where it was supposed to be. It had to make a couple of adjustments in order to get that far, but overall that part worked quite well.

[00:01:24]It was the super heavy booster that really experienced a serious failure because it wasn't just a matter that it failed to carry out a soft splashdown, but that splashdown happened roughly where it was supposed to. It actually splashed down hundreds of kilometers off target. 310 km to be precise. That being said though, I am very confident that Starship will be returning to flight in maybe one to two months, regardless of what the cause of the crash might have been, regardless of whether the problems are actually rectified, because the last guy at the FAA to annoy Elon was forced to resign his position before Trump could fire him. So, I'm pretty certain that the FAA is not going to stand in the way of another Starship flight. Now, theoretically, if we're talking way out in the Gulf, this shouldn't have really threatened anybody anyway. But if the Superheavy booster actually crashed in an area that wasn't set aside for the flight and it was way off course, then theoretically that could present a threat to merkantile shipping, fishermen. that sort of thing. So, it could present a threat to public safety in theory. But again, regardless of whether it presents a threat or not, I'm pretty sure that Starship will be flying again soon. And by the way, as I was recording this, my contact at the FAA sent me the following statement. After a thorough assessment of the operation, the FAA has determined the May 22nd SpaceX Starship flight 12 launch resulted in a mishap. The mishap involved the superheavy 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 FAA is requiring SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation. The FAA will oversee the SpaceX investigation, be involved in every step of the process, and approve SpaceX's final report, including any corrective actions. So yeah, we'll see what happens next. I'll keep you guys up tod date.

[00:03:44]Thanks for watching and until next time, stay angry about space.