Elon Musk Confirms Mars SpaceX ‘Starship’ Test Flight Will Happen Soon

GettyImages-1035257918 — Elon Musk confirms flight will happen one or two months from now. Pictured: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at a press conference at SpaceX headquarters where he announced the Japanese billionaire chosen by the company to fly around the moon, on September 17, 2018 in Hawthorne, California. If the project is successful Yusaka Maezawa would become the first private citizen to fly around the moon. Getty Images/Mario Tama

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has announced that the SpaceX Starship test flight is due in four to eight weeks. The flight is a test run for the spaceship intended to bring people to Mars for colonization. Here’s what we know about upcoming test flight.

According to Space.com, Musk confirmed that the SpaceX test flight will happen this coming February or March as he factors in the snags that could happen during the preparation. The flight date is awfully close to happening.

Aside from the flight schedule, Musk also revealed what the test Starship will look like. So far, it looks like a rocket ship usually seen in cartoons and not much in actual space flight. Musk confirmed that the actual Starship will be functional as it’ll have windows and other crucial amenities for human use in the flight.

The ship has been confirmed to use the SpaceX Raptor engine that the company is currently developing. Musk said that the Starship engine will be a mix of the Raptor engine technology with other operational parts to make this space trip a success.

The engine will be tested out next month. These engines will be crucial to find out if the SpaceX Starship space flight will need the few weeks that Musk mentioned or months of more development to make the right one for the job.

Aside from Starship, SpaceX is also developing another large spacecraft called Super Heavy, which will be some sort of airplane that’ll bring people to and from space destinations like the moon, Mars and throughout the Solar System. If the test flights are successful, the first manned flight of the Starship will happen in mid-2020s.

Starship test vehicle under assembly will look similar to this illustration when finished. Operational Starships would obv have windows, etc. pic.twitter.com/D8AJ01mjyR
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2019

Previously, SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster into orbit last year. The project involved loading a car into a rocket and unloading it out to space. By chance, it might be possible to retrieve this car from space or even just see it along the way if the Starship flight actually happens soon. For now, we’ll have to watch the development of this rocket to find out when its launch date will be.