SpaceX has given the strongest signals ever that Starship’s first full-scale launch, expected later this month, is imminent. The company said on Twitter on April 6 that it plans a launch rehearsal next week for the vehicle, which is now fully on site at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The first launch trial will take place in about a week.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk was later confused. wrote on Twitter, the vehicle is “ready to launch next week”. However, neither the company nor the Federal Aviation Administration seem to be planning a launch for the week of April 10. In the FAA’s advisory on the operational plan used to support flight planning, the agency lists a start date for the Starship flight of April 17 and return dates of April 18-21. All dates from 8:05 AM to 11:05 AM ET have the same window.

There are speculations that SpaceX will try to launch Starship earlier. A maritime warning suggested a launch between April 6 and 12, while an FAA planning document earlier this week indicated a launch on April 10, with turnaround days on April 11 and 12. These plans depend on both the technical readiness of the vehicle and the issuance of a launch license from the FAA. Both SpaceX and Musk noted that these programs are pending “regulatory approval,” and the FAA said that including Starship dates in planning documents does not mean that a launch license has been granted.

The last major test milestone for the launch was the static fire test of the superheavy booster on February 9. The company found the test a success, although only 31 of the Raptor’s 33 engines fired at the accelerator pedal. Gary Henry, SpaceX’s senior national security adviser for space solutions, said in a conference call on Feb. 21 that the static fire test was a “final check” before launch, which he predicted will happen “next year.” about a month.”

This launch is “very close,” said Tom Ochinero, SpaceX’s senior vice president of commercial affairs, at a panel at the Satellite 2023 conference on March 15. “We’re waiting for our FAA license to announce our launch date.”

The company called the test the first demonstration of Starship’s orbital flight, but current plans don’t require the ship to complete a single orbit. Instead, the upper part of the Starship will fall into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. It’s unclear whether the Starship will actually go into orbit and then immediately exit orbit for landing, or if it will instead be a long suborbital flight. In a tweet about the upcoming launch, SpaceX called the mission “the first integrated flight test” of the Starship, without calling the mission a direct orbital launch attempt.