SpaceX launches its biggest, most beefed-up Starship yet on a test flight

SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that NASA is counting on to land astronauts on the moon.

The redesigned mega rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he’s taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites that were released midway through the hourlong flight that stretched halfway around the world.

It’s the 12th test flight of the rocket that Musk is building to get people to Mars one day. But first comes the moon and NASA’s Artemis program.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman flew in for the launch, eager to see this new Starship fly.

The last of the old space-skimming Starships lifted off in October. SpaceX’s third-generation Starship — a souped-up version dubbed V3 — soared from a brand-new launch pad at Starbase, near the Mexican border. Last-minute pad issues thwarted Thursday evening's launch attempt.

SpaceX was hoping to avoid the fireworks it experienced during back-to-back launches last year when midair explosions rained wreckage down on the Atlantic. Earlier flights also ended in flames.

There was no fireball this time until the very end. The spacecraft plummeted into the Indian Ocean as intended under control, then tipped on its side and ignited. That last part was not unexpected, according to SpaceX.

While the liftoff itself went well, not all of the engines fired as the booster attempted a controlled return. The spacecraft also had to make do with fewer engines, but kept heading eastward 120 miles (194 kilometers) up. A pair of modified, camera-equipped Starlinks ejected from Starship provided brief views of the spacecraft — a remarkable first — as it aimed for the Indian Ocean.

At 407 feet (124 meters), the latest model eclipses the older Starship lines by several feet (more than 1 meter) and packs more engine thrust.

The revamped booster sports fewer but bigger and stronger grid fins for steering it back to Earth following liftoff, and a larger and more robust fuel transfer line to feed the 33 main engines. This fuel line is the size of SpaceX's Falcon 9 first-stage booster. The retro-looking, stainless steel spacecraft also has more of everything — more cameras and more navigation and computer power — as well as docking cones for future rendezvous and moon missions.

Starship is meant to be fully reusable, with giant mechanical arms at the launch pads to catch the returning rocket stages. But on this latest trial run, nothing was being recovered. The Gulf of Mexico marked the end of the road for the redesigned first-stage booster, and the Indian Ocean for the spacecraft and its satellite demos.

NASA is paying SpaceX billions of dollars — and also Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin — to provide the lunar landers that will be used to land Artemis astronauts on the moon.

The two companies are scrambling to be first.

While Starship has reached the fringes of space on multiple flights lasting an hour at most, Bezos' Blue Moon has yet to lift off, although a prototype is being readied for a moonshot later this year.

NASA is following April’s successful lunar flyaround by four astronauts with a docking trial run in orbit around Earth planned for next year. For that Artemis III mission, astronauts will practice docking their Orion capsule with Starship, Blue Moon or both.

A moon landing by two astronauts — Artemis IV — could follow as soon as 2028 using either Starship or Blue Moon, whichever lander is safer and ready first. It will be NASA’s first lunar landing with a crew since 1972’s Apollo 17. The goal this time is a moon base near the lunar south pole, staffed by astronauts as well as robots.

SpaceX is already taking reservations for private flights to the moon and Mars on Starship.

The world's first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and his wife signed up 3 1/2 years ago for a flight around the moon. The timing is uncertain.

This week, another wealthy space tourist — Chinese-born bitcoin investor Chun Wang — announced he will fly to Mars on Starship's first interplanetary mission. Wang previously chartered a SpaceX polar flight in a Dragon capsule last year and, along with his hand-picked crew, became the first to orbit above the north and south poles.

No price tag or date was revealed for his Mars cruise.

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SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The sun rises behind SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The sun rises behind SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The sun rises behind SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Trucks with nitrogen line up to help prepare SpaceX's mega rocket Starship for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Trucks with nitrogen line up to help prepare SpaceX's mega rocket Starship for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The sun rises behind SpaceX's mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine who spent 448 days imprisoned in Venezuela called Friday for the international community to increase pressure on the government of interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez to release other prisoners.

The 35-year-old Nahuel Gallo was released March 1 after being detained on espionage accusations brought by the government of now-ousted President Nicolás Maduro.

“I think we’re still imprisoned until our fellow inmates are freed,” Gallo told The Associated Press.

During nearly 15 months in detention, Gallo said he endured beatings, limited medical care and constant psychological pressure inside Rodeo I.

As acting president since Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces in January, Rodríguez has promised democratic reforms and the Venezuelan government has previously denied reports of abuses in prisons. Critics, however, say hundreds remain jailed for political reasons.

For Gallo, those detentions show Venezuela’s repressive system remains intact.

On Thursday, Gallo met in Buenos Aires with U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Peter Lamelas, who said in a statement that “the Maduro regime in Venezuela used the arbitrary detention of foreign citizens as a tool of political repression.”

This week, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez — the interim president’s brother — announced plans to release 300 detainees, some of which rights groups consider politically based.

Gallo was arrested Dec. 8, 2024, while attempting to enter Venezuela to visit his Venezuelan partner, María Alexandra Gómez García, and their son, who was then less than 2 years old.

At an immigration checkpoint, Venezuelan authorities searched his phone and found WhatsApp conversations with his partner about Venezuela’s political and economic situation.

“You’re criticizing my president,” Gallo recalled officers telling him.

He was then transferred to the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, where he said he was handcuffed, beaten and kicked during interrogations.

Afterward, he was forced into a truck, where agents continued interrogating him after finding contacts linked to Argentine judicial agencies on his cellphone.

“You are a spy. You work for the government,” he recalled them saying while threatening to throw him from the vehicle, pressing a gun against his head and pointing a Taser at him.

Nearly three weeks after his arrest, then-Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab accused Gallo of participating in “terrorist actions” against Venezuela.

During the nearly 15 months he spent at Rodeo I, Gallo said he had no contact with Argentine officials and no information about whether negotiations for his release were underway.

Gallo described harsh conditions inside the prison. Medical care was limited. Detainees had only a few minutes each day to bathe, wash clothes and use the bathroom. Inmates were frequently sprayed with pepper spray.

As a foreigner, he was not allowed to receive visits. The first time he spoke with his wife came after a year in detention and only after he launched a hunger strike.

The memories that still haunt him are of guards beating prisoners in nearby cells.

“I think the greatest torture is seeing something being done to someone else and not being able to do anything,” Gallo said.

He now uses social media to denounce conditions in Venezuelan prisons and advocate for those still detained.

“The person who’s still inside is waiting for the one who got out to do something,” he said.

Gallo still remembers what fellow inmates told him as he left Rodeo I: “Gallo, don't forget about us.”

Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Argentine gendarmerie officer Nahuel Gallo, who was released after 15 months in detention in Venezuela, poses for a photo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Argentine gendarmerie officer Nahuel Gallo, who was released after 15 months in detention in Venezuela, poses for a photo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)