Next week, Elon Musk's space-exploration company, SpaceX, is poised to take a big step forward in its quest to further revolutionize space travel.
Musk tweeted on Sunday that a prototype of SpaceX's enormous Starship spacecraft — a fully reusable vehicle the company wants to use to send humans to the moon and Mars— will undergo its first high-altitude test as early as Monday.
The flight attempt to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles), follows a successful November 24 rocket-engine test firing of the Starship prototype, called SN8 or serial no. 8. The test also comes after a successful "hop" flight in August to roughly 150 meters (492 feet) using a previous prototype called SN5.
On Sunday, Michael Baylor of NASASpaceflight.com tweeted that residents of Boca Chica Village in southern Texas, where SpaceX is developing Starship, received an alert about flight activities planned for Monday. Musk replied it was just a test-firing, and that SN8 would fly "no earlier than Wednesday."
That flight date has slipped to December 7 between 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. ET, according to a road-closure notice issued by Cameron County's judge on Monday. If SpaceX doesn't fly on that day, it can try again on December 8 or 9 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET.
Musk: 'Maybe 1/3 chance' of a successful flight and landing
This test flight will be a big step in testing whether the design can withstand the rigors of flights to higher altitudes.
Musk said in a follow-up tweet on Wednesday that a "lot of things need to go right" for SN8 to land intact, adding that he thinks there's "maybe 1/3 chance" that it does.
However, should SN8 fail, SpaceX's Starship factory is cranking out more prototypes, and SN9 could soon be ready to take its place for future testing.
SpaceX's Starship spacecraft is made up of two sections, the Super Heavy booster and the Starship rocket ship, which Musk claims will be able to carry 100 people to Mars at a time. The entire spacecraft stands at 120 metres (394 feet) tall.
In October, Musk said SpaceX has a "fighting chance" of sending an uncrewed Starship rocket to Mars in 2024, two years later than previously hoped.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer said October 23 the Starship rocket system could help solve the problem of space junk.
"It's quite possible that we could leverage Starship to go to some of these dead rocket bodies – other people's rockets, of course — basically, pick up some of this junk in outer space," she said.
First SpaceX needs to show Starship can safely fly orbit and back. To launch such test missions from Boca Chica, the company faces a new environmental analysis with the Federal Aviation Administration. Depending on the outcome of that process, SpaceX may see a delay to orbit from a few months to a few years.
This story has been updated with new information. It was originally published at 5:59 a.m. ET on November 27, 2020.
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NOW WATCH: Elon Musk's multibillion-dollar Starship rocket could one day take people to the moon and Mars