A prototype of Elon Musk’s Mars rocket, known as Starship, was moved to its launch pad on Wednesday in preparation for an orbital test flight.
Images published by SpaceX showed Ship 24 being taken to a pad in Starbase, the launch site the company uses in Boca Chica, Texas.
Starship is set to be the world’s most powerful rocket and SpaceX plans to use it to send humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
“Ship 24 was transported to the pad at Starbase in preparation for the first orbital flight test of Starship,” SpaceX said on Twitter.
Starship has been in development for many years and has completed high-altitude tests, but it has not yet completed an orbital flight.
No launch licence yet
Before the test flight can go ahead, SpaceX must obtain a launch licence from the Federal Aviation Administration in the US.
The company also has to meet 75 conditions set by the organisation to continue its work at Starbase.
These include addressing environmental concerns such as the effect of its work on wildlife and the number of road closures it requires.
Elon Musk confident Starship will be ready for flight soon
Mr Musk previously said Starship would be ready for a test flight in July.
“I was in the high bay and mega bay late last night reviewing progress,” Mr Musk said on Twitter in June.
“We will have a second Starship stack ready to fly in August and then monthly thereafter.”
In May last year, a Starship prototype completed a high-altitude test, including the rocket's first successful take-off and touchdown.
The system is fully reusable and includes a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and an upper stage spacecraft called Starship.
Before the orbital test flight, there could be a static fire test, a process in which the engines are ignited to test whether the rocket is ready to launch without it taking off.
Powerful Raptor engines have been installed for the test flight. Six have been placed in the spacecraft and 33 in the booster.
The rocket will produce 3,991 tonnes of thrust, 15 per cent more than Nasa’s Apollo Moon rocket Saturn V.
Mr Musk has said he wants to send a million people to Mars by 2050 using Starship rockets. He hopes to send the first uncrewed cargo flight to the planet within this decade.
Starship would enter the Martian atmosphere at 7.5 kilometres a second and the rocket's heat shield is to be designed to withstand several entries.
Mr Musk has already sold tickets to travel on the rocket to two billionaires.
American Jared Isaacman paid for a seat on the first crewed flight and Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa has bought tickets for the first crewed flight to the Moon.
A small Texas city adapts to life with Elon Musk and SpaceX - in pictures
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A sign for Starbase, Elon Musk's private spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas. All photos: Willy Lowry / The National -
Three SpaceX rockets stand ready at Starbase in Boca Chica. -
A SpaceX employee works high above the ground on a rocket at the SpaceX launchpad. -
A SpaceX rocket rises in the distance. -
A sign at Boca Chica Beach warns of sea turtle nesting. -
Three Starship rockets stand next to a booster. The reusable rockets are at the centre of SpaceX's plans for the future. -
A sign warns passers-by against entering the area around SpaceX's launchpad. -
A sign along Texas State Highway 4 warns drivers to watch out for local wildlife. -
A SpaceX security guard questions a driver at the entrance to the launch zone. -
Amanda Maul and her son, Connor, drove all the way from Dallas to see SpaceX. -
SpaceX's Starbase facility sits near the Gulf of Mexico in a remote patch of southern Texas. -
Boca Chica Beach, looking south towards Mexico. It is one of the last free public beaches in southern Texas. -
Workers prepare to move a Starship rocket. -
SpaceX's Starbase rises in the distance. -
A sign marks the lines where the Boca Chica National Wildlife Refuge begins along the Texas State Highway 4. -
Flowers grow on the dunes of Boca Chica Beach near a SpaceX tower. -
A person walks in the Boca Chica Wildlife Refuge next to Starbase. -
A view of Starbase from Boca Chica. -
Flowers grow on the dunes of Boca Chica Beach near a SpaceX tower. -
A sheriff's car parks near SpaceX in Boca Chica. -
A sign along a motorway reads: 'We love Elon'. -
An exterior sign for Starbase. -
Cars parked outside of Starbase in Boca Chica. -
Some SpaceX employees stay in Airstream trailers parked near the complex in Boca Chica. -
A sign welcomes visitors to Boca Chica Village. -
A renovated home in Boca Chica. -
A Tesla charges in the driveway of a home in Boca Chica. -
A shuttered home in Boca Chica. Elon Musk, the world's richest person, lives in the tiny unincorporated village. -
One of two streets in Boca Chica Village, which leads straight to Starbase. -
A renovated home in Boca Chica Village. SpaceX has been slowly buying up property in the area for years. -
A home in Boca Chica Village. The community used to be mainly made up of retirees, but it is now comprised almost entirely of SpaceX employees. -
A Tesla charges in the driveway of a house in Boca Chica. -
A sign on a house in Boca Chica Village warns passers-by they are on private property. -
A white Tesla sits in the driveway of a recently renovated home in Boca Chica Village. -
A sign on a house in Boca Chica Village warns passers-by they are on private property.
