ELON Musk’s megarocket that will eventually blast humans to Mars could make its first orbital test flight in just two months.
The SpaceX founder said the Starship launch will “hopefully” go ahead in May.
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He wants to use the rocket to send people to the Red Planet by 2050.
It’s designed to be fully reusable and launches on top of a giant booster called Super Heavy.
But the orbital test flight still needs to be approved by authorities before it’s good to go.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is yet to reveal results from its environmental assessment.
It’s expected to be released in less than a week, on March 28.
“First Starship orbital flight will be with Raptor 2 engines, as they are much more capable & reliable,” he tweeted.
“We’ll have 39 flightworthy engines built by next month, then another month to integrate, so hopefully May for orbital flight test.”
The huge rocket is under development at the SpaceX test facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX has been working on it for the past few years.
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It comes after Musk, 50, recently revealed that the launch would face “slight delays” as SpaceX shifts focus, dedicating more resources to fighting Russian cyberattacks on Starlink satellites in Ukraine.
Several SpaceX Starlink terminals were sent to Ukraine after its Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called Musk out for not helping during the invasion, which has disrupted the country’s internet service.
Musk later tweeted that the move would likely make Starlink a huge target for Russian cyberattackers.
Who is Elon Musk?
Here’s what you need to know…
Controversial billionaire Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971.
As a 12-year-old child he taught himself computer programming and sold the code of a video game to a PC magazine for $500 (£300).
At 17, he moved to Canada to study, before gaining two degrees in physics and business at the University of Pennsylvania.
At the age of 24 he moved to California to start a Ph.D. in applied physics and material science at Stanford University – but left the programme after just two days to pursue other projects.
Now 50, he is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, co-founder, CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors, co-founder and chairman of SolarCity, co-chairman of Opan AI, co-founder of Zip2 and founder of X.com, which merged with PayPal.
He’s also working on a human brain chip project called Neuralink.
Musk’s stated aim is to reduce global warming and save humans from extinction by setting up a colony on Mars.
The billionaire inventor is also working on the world’s largest lithium-ion battery to store renewable energy.
In other news, the new Harry Potter video game Hogwarts Legacy will feature some familiar faces despite being set hundreds of years before the majority of characters were even born.
A major Mars mission to find out whether life ever existed on the planet could be delayed by up to six years at best, as Europe scrambles to replace Russian parts.
Internet users have been urged not to use a popular piece of anti-virus software over fears it could be exploited by the Kremlin to spy or launch cyberattacks.
And Instagram could be planning to bring back a way to see what your friends like on the platform.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
