Elon Musk says spacecraft to Mars Starship will attempt correct first flight next week

Elon Musk said SpaceX will perform the appropriate Starship first flight next week after a successful test firing of the spacecraft to Mars.

The billionaire entrepreneur has vowed to live-stream the “warts and all” launch, saying there is a one in three chance that Starship will land in one piece.

“Aim for the first 15km / 50ft altitude flight next week,” Musk tweeted Wednesday.

“The objectives are to test the climb of engine 3, the flaps, the transition from the main tank to the main tank and the landing flip … A lot of things have to be fine, so maybe ⅓ luck.”

This is the eighth prototype spacecraft, with previous versions successfully performing a short take-off and landing of 150 m.

At least seven more prototypes are planned ahead of a full-fledged flight to Starship, although no specific timeline for its development has been publicly revealed.

Mr Musk has previously said the next-generation spacecraft could land on the moon as early as 2024 – the same year that NASA plans to put the first woman on the moon through its Artemis space program.

The plan is for Starship to eventually be used to transport people and goods around the solar system, with SpaceX claiming it could carry up to 100 people on trips to Mars.

The 49-year-old has often spoken of his ambition to travel to Mars during his lifetime, famously stating that he hoped to die on the planet, “but not on impact.”

Speaking at the Satellite 2020 conference in March, Musk expressed fear that this dream might be possible without dramatically accelerating progress.

“What concerns me most at the moment is that unless we dramatically improve our rate of innovation, there is no chance of having a base on the Moon or a city on Mars,” did he declare.

“We need to improve our rate of innovation or, based on past trends, I’ll definitely be dead by March.”

A live stream of Starship’s latest test flight will be shown on SpaceX’s website, as well as its official YouTube channel.

The exact time and date have not yet been announced, although SpaceX has requested road closures in the vicinity of its Boca Chica launch facility from Monday, November 30 through Wednesday, December 2.