FAA Grounds Starship After IFT-12 Booster 19 Anomaly — 6th Grounding; IFT-13 Delayed to July–August 2026; Investigation Cited as IPO Risk Factor

The Federal Aviation Administration formally grounded SpaceX's Starship/Super Heavy launch system following the IFT-12 Booster 19 anomaly on May 22, 2026, in which multiple Raptor 3 engines in the outer ring failed to ignite during the boostback burn, causing the booster to spin out of control and impact the ocean at transonic speed (~1,450 km/h) rather than executing the planned boostback and re-entry burn. This marks the sixth Starship grounding in the vehicle's flight test history. Under FAA regulations, any launch vehicle anomaly constituting a deviation from the approved flight safety plan triggers a mandatory mishap investigation — SpaceX must submit a root cause analysis and corrective action report before the FAA will issue a new launch license for IFT-13. While SpaceX previously identified the root cause (Raptor 3 outer ring fuel pre-conditioning failure during rapid boostback ignition sequence, confirmed in post-flight analysis on May 24), the formal FAA review process is expected to take until late June 2026 at the earliest, pushing IFT-13 from the previously targeted late June 2026 window to July–August 2026. SpaceX may also consider reverting IFT-13 to a Gulf of Mexico booster splashdown profile rather than a Mechazilla catch, given the uncertainty. Financial press coverage on May 28 framed the FAA grounding as a material risk factor for SpaceX's planned Nasdaq (SPCX) debut on June 12, 2026, noting that Starship represents a significant portion of SpaceX's long-term revenue projections — including the Artemis 4 Human Landing System contract and future orbital payload delivery. Despite the grounding, SpaceX's Booster 20 and Ship 40 continue integration at Starbase for IFT-13 while the company pursues expedited FAA review.