More testing will be needed before SpaceX's newest version of Starship gets off the ground.

On Thursday (Nov. 20), SpaceX rolled out Booster 18, the first stage of the company's first "Version 3" Starship megarocket, to begin its first round of tests ahead of the vehicle's next flight test. V3 will take the torch from Starship V2, which wrapped up a year of growing pains with two consecutive test-flight successes, in August and October of this year.

Now, it seems, V3 will have some growing pains of its own. SpaceX announced that tests on the new booster would begin at the company's Starbase facility in South Texas in a Nov. 20 post on X. "The first operations will test the booster's redesigned propellant systems and its structural strength," the company said. But by Friday morning (Nov. 21), the booster sported signs of serious damage.

In a post on X Friday morning, a user by the name of Starship Gazer, whose profile describes nearly half a decade of documenting Starship's development, posted an image of Booster 18 with much of the bottom portion of the vehicle crumpled like an empty soda can.

It appears in the photo that whatever propulsion and structural integrity tests SpaceX performed overnight did their job, and found some faults in the stainless-steel vehicle.

"Very significant damage to the entire LOX [liquid oxygen] tank section," Starship Gazer said in the post.

It's still too early to know what exactly went wrong, according to SpaceX.

"Booster 18 suffered an anomaly during gas system pressure testing that we were conducting in advance of structural proof testing. No propellant was on the vehicle, and engines were not yet installed. The teams need time to investigate before we are confident of the cause. No one was injured as we maintain a safe distance for personnel during this type of testing. The site remains clear and we are working plans to safely reenter the site," the company wrote on X on Friday.

Visually, Starships V2 and V3 appear very similar. V3 stands a bit taller, though — about 5 feet (1.5 meters) taller than V2 — and also features an integrated "hot stage" ring, the structure that connects Starship's two stages. (V2's hot stage ring was a separate component that fell from both Starship stages after separation.) The new booster has also been overhauled to fly under the power of SpaceX's upgraded Raptor 3 engines. Additionally, V3 boosters will sport only 3, instead of 4, grid fins for aerodynamic descent stability control, each of which will be about 50% larger than their V2 counterparts.