​SpaceX is “in its last hundred meters” and the moment that has been talked about for years is approaching: the first orbital flight of the huge Starship system, which is expected to send people to the moon in the coming years and then to Mars in 2035. Starship is the most powerful rocket in the world, but it has not yet flown in full form.

The Starship system is being assembled at the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, and final preparations are underway. There has been talk of a possible April 10th release, but that looks highly unlikely, especially since it needs environmental clearance from the authorities.

Most likely, the launch will happen sometime in April, and static tests will be carried out until the big moment.

Musk’s desire is to send people to Mars, and for this the company has been working for years on a huge space system (120 meters high) that contains the Starship shuttle and the Space Heavy rocket. Both will be reusable, meaning a much lower cost than NASA’s SLS rocket.

Putting the Starship system into orbit is a technically complex step, so many components were tested separately. Everything needs to be put in place, and this is where the delay comes from, because it was about conducting the first orbital tests as early as 2020 and 2021.

So far, the components of the Starship system have been tested separately: some successfully returned to Earth, others exploded.

Musk announced the name Starship in September 2018, talking about the structure of the system, with the help of which in the distant future, in more powerful versions of the rocket, people will be able to reach Mars. Five years ago, the future rocket was known as the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR).

The system consists of two parts: the Starship is the spacecraft/booster, and the Super Heavy is the booster (rocket engine) needed to escape Earth’s gravity.

1. The Starship is 50 meters tall and 9 meters in diameter and has a large cargo bay and six Raptor engines. The prototype Starship used in this first flight is called Ship 24.

2. Elon Musk called the Super Heavy “the largest flying object ever created.” It has 33 Raptor engines and is a super powerful missile. The Super Heavy stage is 69 meters tall and will have a tank capacity of 3,400 tons of fuel, nearly three times that of the Starship stage. The next generations will have a capacity of 3,800 tons.

The Super Heavy prototype that will be used in the first orbital flight is called Booster 7.