Elon Musk says SpaceX's giant Starship rocket test will happen as early as Wednesday — but there's only a 1 in 3 chance it will land intact

• SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Sunday the next Starship test will happen "no earlier than Wednesday."

• The spacecraft will fly 15 kilometres (50,000 feet) into the air. Previous prototypes have only made short hops of a few hundred metres.

• Musk said there was a lot that could go wrong, and gave the rocket a one-in-three chance of landing in one piece.

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This week, Elon Musk's space-exploration company SpaceX will take a big step forward in its quest to fly people to Mars.

Musk tweeted on Sunday that SpaceX's enormous Starship spacecraft – which the company eventually wants to use to get humans to Mars – will undergo its first high altitude test as early as Wednesday.

This follows a successful test firing of the current prototype's engines on November 24.

On Sunday, a Twitter user highlighted an alert notice sent out to residents of Boca Chica village in southern Texas about SpaceX flight activities on Monday.

In response, Musk replied: "Just a static fire tomorrow. Flight no earlier than Wednesday."

According to Musk, in this week's test the rocket will fly 15 km (50,000 feet) into the air. Previous prototypes have made short hops a few hundred meters into the air.

This test flight will be a big step in testing whether the design can withstand the rigors of spaceflight.

Elon Musk said in a follow-up tweet on Wednesday that lots could go wrong in this first high-altitude test.

"Lot of things need to go right," the billionaire said.

When asked on Twitter what he thought the odds were of Starship landing in one piece, he said it was one in three.

There are also more prototypes lined up to be tested should this one fail.

Read more: SpaceX may spend billions to outsource Starlink satellite-dish production, an industry insider says — and could lose $2,000 on each one it sells

SpaceX's Starship spacecraft is made up of two sections, the Super Heavy booster and the Starship rocket ship – which Musk claims will be able to carry 100 people to Mars at a time. The entire spacecraft stands at 120 metres (394 feet) tall. 

There's no specific day confirmed for next week, and as TechCrunch notes, test dates are subject to change.

In October, Musk said SpaceX has a "fighting chance" of sending an uncrewed Starship rocket to Mars in 2024, two years later than previously hoped. 

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer said October 23 the Starship rocket system could help solve the problem of space junk. 

"It's quite possible that we could leverage Starship to go to some of these dead rocket bodies – other people's rockets, of course – basically, pick up some of this junk in outer space," she said.

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