SpaceX’s Flight 12 marked a defining moment in spaceflight history. On Friday, May 22, the first-ever Starship Version 3 vehicle lifted off from Starbase’s newly completed Pad 2, kicking off a new era for the world’s most powerful rocket. Standing 408 feet (124 m) tall and powered by 33 Raptor 3 engines, V3 is not just bigger than its predecessor — it’s fundamentally redesigned for rapid, full reuse. The most visible change? A fully integrated hot-staging system that eliminates the old expendable interstage ring, keeping structural hardware on the booster itself. The flight wasn’t flawless. Super Heavy lost one engine during ascent and failed to execute its boostback burn, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico rather than returning to the pad. Ship 39 also shed one of its six engines, but pressed on to reach space on the remaining five and completed a successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean as planned.
“Congratulations SpaceX team on an epic first Starship V3 launch & landing! You scored a goal for humanity.” — Elon Musk, on X Among the mission’s objectives: deployment of 22 Starlink simulator payloads, a Raptor engine relight in space, and a series of heat shield experiments — including deliberately removing one tile to study damage propagation on neighbouring tiles. With NASA counting on a Starship variant to land Artemis 4 astronauts on the Moon in 2028, every Flight 12 lesson brings that goal closer. Today was a major step.
