SpaceX's massive Starship set to launch for 1st orbital flight

Another new rocket is ready to take to the skies. This time, it's SpaceX's Starship, which will be a critical component of the Artemis III mission that will return humans to the lunar surface.

SpaceX has been working on the rocket for several years, with the goal of using it to take heavier payloads into orbit, to the moon and eventually to Mars. The company's founder and CEO Elon Musk has also envisioned a version that could ferry people around the world.

After multiple delays, it appears that SpaceX is finally going to blast this rocket for its first orbital mission, potentially on Monday or Tuesday.

Here's what you need to know ahead of the first orbital launch of Starship.

When you first take a look at Starship, it may bring to mind the old rockets of the early 1940s and 1950s (Musk himself responded to a tweet in 2019 where one user hinted that the original design of Starship reminded him of that used in The Adventures of Tintin).

It is made up of two stages: the booster stage (called the Super Heavy) and the spaceship itself. Stacked together, they are called Starship, but to make matters more confusing, the spaceship itself is also called Starship. 

To date, Starship (the spaceship), has only ever flown to 12.5 kilometres in altitude. Of the four high-altitude test flights, only one has ever successfully landed. The first one — SN8 — slammed into the ground, while the second one — SN10 — landed and then exploded. In March 2021, SN11 also managed a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" as Musk has come to call these explosions. 

WATCH | Starship's SN15 high-altitude flight test:

Finally, on May 5, 2021, SN15 successfully landed. It was the last time any version of Starship ever flew.

While those tests returned Starship to SpaceX's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, for this test, the first stage will make a landing in the Atlantic Ocean, while the Starship will make splash down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Hawaii.

The booster for this launch is called Booster 7, and the Starship is SN24.

The Super Heavy rocket has the most engines of any rocket at 33. On Feb. 9, it did a test of the engines, but only 31 ignited.

Starship is unlike any other vehicle ever launched. 

It launches vertically, in two stages, and then the booster stage — like the first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket — returns to the launch pad and is caught by arms dubbed "chopsticks." And, eventually, when the spaceship's job is done, it, too, returns to the pad. But instead of coming in vertically as the boosters do, the ship will do a "belly flop" throughout most of the atmosphere, before manoeuvring to land in a upright position.