Flight 12: V3, Raptor 3, and Pad 2 debut
May 22, 2026 opened a new chapter — first V3 stack, first Raptor 3 flight, first Pad 2 liftoff, and the first Starship deploy of modified Starlink satellites — while the booster’s return ended in a hard splashdown.
What happened
Flight 12 lifted off at 5:30 p.m. CT on May 22, 2026 from brand-new Pad 2 — the first flight of Starship and Super Heavy V3 and of Raptor 3.
One booster engine shut down on ascent; the stack still hot-staged. Ship lost a vacuum Raptor later but showed engine-out capability and made the planned trajectory.
Payload and ship return
On coast, Starship deployed all 20 Starlink simulators plus two modified Starlink satellites that imaged the vehicle in space — all on the same suborbital trajectory as the ship.
The planned in-space Raptor relight was skipped after the ascent engine loss. Reentry still produced heat-shield and rear-flap stress data, including banking similar to future Starbase returns.
Booster return
After separation, Super Heavy’s boostback could not light the full planned engine set and ended early. A landing-burn attempt followed, then a hard splashdown in the Gulf.
Ship objectives carried the day; booster soft-splash reliability stayed on the punch list for Flight 13.