Musk says Starship will act more like a sky diver than an airplane.

As soon as Monday, Elon Musk's rocket company could light up Falcon Heavy, the biggest rocket currently in its stable, as well as its next-generation Starship, designed to eventually take passengers to Mars. 

So-called static or "hold-down" test firings of both rockets could take place as soon as April 1, but it's no April Fool's Joke. 

We haven't seen Falcon Heavy in action since its successful demonstration flight in 2018 that sent Musk's red Tesla towards Mars, but SpaceX has been planning to use Heavy to launch payloads for paying customers for several months now. 

Now, after some delays, a Falcon Heavy could launch communications satellite Arabsat 6A into orbit from Florida's Kennedy Space Center as soon as April 7. This configuration of Falcon Heavy will be made up of three "Block 5" Falcon 9 rockets, the final version of the SpaceX workhorse rocket meant to be reused up to 100 times. But first Heavy needs to undergo a successful static fire test, currently set for Monday.

While a lot of people are distracted by a Raptor in Texas, 27 Merlin 1Ds are hoping to attract your attention in Florida.KSC goes into Critical Support from 20:30 Local (March 31) to 20:30 Local (April 1), meaning rollout to 39A likely on Sunday and then Static Fire on April 1. pic.twitter.com/nXUtGIiKsJ

Meanwhile, the single-engine "hopper" prototype of Starship has been working up to a test firing at the company's test facility at Boca Chica, Texas. Musk has said that the first test won't see the rocket get very high off the ground, if at all, but the FAA still issued an airspace closure for the area this past Monday through Thursday.

Over the past few weeks, multiple periods of gas venting from the Starship prototype were observed on webcams pointed at the big, shiny cone. Reports from local media indicated that SpaceX was testing the rocket's fuel tanks and other systems in preparation for the main event, which is now not expected anytime sooner than Monday.

The company itself has been quiet about what exactly is happening at Boca Chica. I reached out to SpaceX for an update but did not immediately hear back. 

Regardless, the odds are looking pretty good that we'll see fire beneath one big SpaceX rocket or another sometime in the coming days. 

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