Starship's upper stage before its 12th test flight, in a photo from May 19, 2026 Reuters/Steve Nesius SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company, will attempt a new test flight of its Starship, the most powerful spacecraft in the world. The launch is scheduled for this Thursday (16), at 7:45 pm (Brasília time). This will be the 13th launch of a Starship, designed for future missions to the Moon and Mars. As in other experiments, there will be no passengers on board and the schedule may be altered by ship failures and weather factors, for example. ?? Do you have any reporting suggestions? Send it to g1 The last launch of the supership took place in May and ended with a sudden fall of the propellant, Super Heavy, the lower stage, which was supposed to make a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico. There were no reports of injuries or property damage. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily suspended flights until investigations were completed. The body concluded its analysis last Monday (13) and paved the way for the new test. Starship takes off on SpaceX's 12th test mission SpaceX reported that what caused the incident in May were activation problems in 5 of the Super Heavy's 33 engines, which caused the return maneuver to be interrupted prematurely. The company's objectives for the new launch are similar to the test carried out in May, when it debuted the third generation of Starship and Super Heavy. At the time, the company sought to demonstrate in practice the operation of the new parts of the V3, as the new generation of the ship is called, designed for longer missions, and launch two real satellites of its Starlink internet service into space. Now, the spacecraft will attempt for the first time to release 20 units of the third generation of Starlink satellites. They will try to connect with the network that already operates in space, but they must be destroyed upon re-entry into the atmosphere, which will take place around 20 minutes after leaving the ship. Among the new features are changes to the structure and propellant system to solve problems from the previous flight. The engine starting configuration, for example, has had adjustments to offer more reliability and make the vehicle's changes in direction more stable. The upper stage also received changes to its propulsion system. Despite having completed the previous flight, the capsule lost one of its three engines shortly after separating from the booster, which required the changes. SpaceX will also test Starship's thermal shield, necessary protection for the ship not to be taken over by calls upon return to Earth. According to the company, the focus is to advance a project to quickly reuse the ship.