Starship Flight 12 - V3 Debuts with Max Power, Fatal Flips, Fast Landings and Exploding Raptors

Why It Matters

V3’s mixed success shows SpaceX can achieve higher thrust and faster turn‑around, but reliability issues must be solved before the vehicle can support Mars missions and dominate the heavy‑lift market.

Key Takeaways

• Starship V3 launched with 33 Raptor engines firing simultaneously.
• One sea‑level Raptor failed early, but redundancy kept ascent stable.
• Booster flip malfunction caused multiple engine shutdowns and crash landing.
• New integrated shielding and higher chamber pressure increased performance and risk.
• V3’s larger propellant load and hot‑staging system promise faster orbital flights.

Summary

The video reviews SpaceX’s first flight of the upgraded Starship Super Heavy V3, highlighting its new 33‑engine hot‑staging start‑up, larger propellant tanks and integrated‑shield Raptor V3 engines. Scott Manley notes that the vehicle lifted off faster than previous versions, reaching max‑Q earlier and accelerating at roughly 1.6 g.

Key data points include a 5‑tonne taller stack, 400‑500 tonnes of extra propellant, and a T‑shaped three‑fin arrangement. Early in the ascent a sea‑level Raptor failed, but the vehicle’s redundancy kept it on course. A planned asymmetric thrust flip went awry, causing the booster to tumble, lose attitude control, and suffer multiple engine shutdowns before crashing.

Manley points to telemetry showing the failed engine and a flash that likely damaged neighboring Raptors. He also describes the unexpected left‑ward flip, grid‑fin interaction with exhaust, and the resulting fuel‑slosh that may have triggered further failures. The onboard navigation system compensated by extending remaining engine burns, allowing Starship to continue toward sub‑orbit.

The flight demonstrates that V3’s performance upgrades—higher chamber pressures and integrated shielding—deliver unprecedented thrust but also introduce new failure modes. While the booster’s landing failed, the ascent proved the design’s core capabilities, setting the stage for a fully orbital test and underscoring the engineering challenges ahead for SpaceX’s Mars and commercial launch roadmap.

Original Description

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Flight 12 was the debut of Starship V3, powered by Raptor V3 and not to forget launch mount 2. There were a lot of changes informed by previous successes and failures, and... a handful of new successes and failures. There were raptor engine failures on ascent for both the booster and Starship, but the guidance and control systems were able to adapt and climb the spacecraft into its target sub-orbit.

The booster flip was supposed to use some different tricks and appears, to my eye, to have gone in the wrong direction, and that might explain why there was a fairly violent engine failure on the booster straight after the flip. The booster ended up continuing downrange and entering the atmosphere faster and harder than before without enough working engines to perform a soft landing.

But I think the highlight for me was the new 'Dodger Dogs' which captured images of the starship on orbit and I hope we'll see some more images from this going forwards.

Starship entry seemed completely nominal and on target, we saw a flip and burn from a drone that was perfectly positioned showing that when they're ready to proceed to an orbital flight they'll be ready for a catch.

However the lack of an engine relight test I suspect they won't proceed to an orbital launch on the next flight.

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0:00 Intro

1:08 V3

2:33 Starships Were Meant To Fly

4:00 How Can I Do this?

6:58 Launch

9:40 Fatal Flip?

12:40 Starship's Engine Failure

14:10 Coming in fast

15:12 Starship Engine Details

17:50 Open The Pod Bay Doors

19:18 Deploy Dodger Dogs

21:56 Reentry

25:12 Landing