Starship and Super Heavy would be the biggest launch system in history.

Elon Musk has said that SpaceXs latest Starship prototype may fly for the first time this week, as the company continues its efforts to get the ambitious spacecraft up and running ahead of planned flights to the Moon and Mars.

Starship is SpaceXs proposed spacecraft to transport up to 100 humans at a time or maybe more to the Red Planet. The company has been rapidly building prototypes of the giant steel rocket at a test site in Boca Chica, Texas, with the goal of eventually finding a design that works.

Multiple iterations have come and gone so far, with several explosions along the way. But in a tweet yesterday, Tuesday, 21 July, Musk said the latest version SN5, or serial number 5 will attempt to fly later this week. That will be preceded by a static fire test at some point.

The SpaceX CEO did not go into any more details, but its thought this will be a hop test up to an altitude of 150 meters. That would be comparable to the companys flight of its Starhopper prototype last year but this will be the first flight of a full-size Starship prototype.

According to Business Insider, SpaceX received an FAA licence for suborbital flights in May this year, meaning Starship prototypes could later fly up to tens of kilometers above the ground before coming back to land safely on landing legs.

The final Starship design will launch atop a reusable Super Heavy booster. Together the two vehicles will use 41 of SpaceXs innovative Raptor engines, towering a combined 120 meters above the ground bigger than any rocket in history. Starship, for its part, measures 55 meters tall.

Ultimately the company is hoping to launch Starship to space for the first time in the coming year, with an uncrewed mission to Mars in 2022 followed by a first human launch to Mars in 2024. That is an ambitious timeline that has left some sceptical, but crucial to getting near that goal will be getting these full-size prototypes flying as soon as possible.

SpaceX is also in a competition with three other ventures the Blue Origin-led National Team and Dynetics for a NASA contract to conduct a crewed lunar landing in 2024. This contract is the first time NASA has really taken Starship seriously, a major show of support for the spacecraft.

Musk, however, has said previously that he believes Starship and Super Heavy could entirely replace the companys existing fleet of Falcon rockets. Getting a full-size prototype flying would be a major step towards that goal.

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SpaceX May Fly A First Full-Size Prototype Of Its Mars Starship Rocket Later This Week Says Musk - Forbes