Friday, SpaceX stacked a Starship on top of one of their Super Heavy boosters to create the most powerful and tallest rocket on Earth. The now-massive ship is about 475 feet tall. And SpaceX is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for approval so they can schedule a launch date.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been “teasing” the launch for months.  During the Mobile World Congress, he said "we are going to do our best to do an orbital [Starship] launch attempt in the next few months."

And he’s been tweeting the need to stay aggressive with SpaceX’s schedule.

They want to get through the testing in order to assure that by 2023, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, will be ready to launch in the SpaceX skyscraper rocket.

Musk hopes that by September the engineers and technicians can start testing the new Starship.

There is a possibility that the first enhanced Starship may explode on its launch pad. The tallest rocket will be powered by 29 rocket engines, clustered close together. And this has never been done before.

FAA approvals and Tests on tallest rocket 

It’s important that all boxes are checked. The FAA will first need to approve the environmental assessment of launching such in the South Texas wetlands. Then there will be a 30-day public comment period.

So like other innovative SpaceX aircraft, everything will need to be fine-tuned through extensive testing.

On Twitter Musk gave an outline of what the engineers were working on to get ready for launch.

“The final heat shield tiles need to be completed. These are “~98% done.

The booster engines need thermal protection.

The on-the-ground propellant storage tanks need to be completed.

The quick disconnect, or QD, arm for the ship needs to be completed.” He claimed in his tweets. 

The company will need to reinforce the ground systems, in order to assure the new Super Heavy booster can handle high pressure and static test firings of the enhanced propulsion system.

After the rocket was stacked it was once again dismantled. So the heat shield tiles can be applied to the stainless exterior of the ship. These will be used to protect the ship during its landing when it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere.

SpaceX plans for the massive ship inaugural flight to last about 90-minutes after it lifts off from Texas. And the booster will separate 3-minutes later. Then they anticipate a soft landing 60 miles off of Hawaii.