The Red Planet and Earth align properly for interplanetary missions just once every 26 months. The next such opportunity comes in 2026 between the months of November and December, and SpaceX will try to hit it; the goal is to send five Starship Version 3 vehicles to the Red Planet to prove out the vehicle and its associated tech, Musk said.

Starship is unlike other rockets. And SpaceX is testing it to destruction—deliberately. The biggest, heaviest, most powerful rocket humans have ever made, SpaceX’s Starship, blazed into the skies late Tuesday on its ninth test flight.

The largest, most powerful launch vehicle ever built is meant to be a key part of SpaceX’s plans to send humans to Mars—and NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon, too