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SpaceX – the American space exploration company owned by Elon Musk – is attempting to launch the most powerful rocket ever made today.

Mr Musk himself has played down expectations for the Starship launch, telling a private Twitter audience the test was more about collecting crucial data.

Here is everything you need to know about the launch, including how to watch from the UK.

The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 120 metres high, is due for blastoff from the SpaceX facility at Boca Chica, Texas, during A new 62-minute launch window that opens at 8.18am ET (1.18pm BST).

The latest launch window comes after a failed attempt to launch the rocketship on Monday, where a last minute glitch prevented take off.

The test mission – whether or not its objectives are entirely met – represents a key milestone in SpaceX’s ambition of sending humans back to the Moon and ultimately to Mars – also the central goal of a renewed Nasa spaceflight programme intended to integrate the Starship.

But SpaceX faces enormous challenges in merely launching a spacecraft that would instantly become, if it successfully gets off the ground, the most powerful rocket on Earth.

“Success is not what should be expected,” Mr Musk told a private Twitter audience on Sunday night, saying the best-case scenario would provide crucial data about how the vehicle ascends to space and how it will fly back to Earth.

Both the lower-stage Super Heavy booster rocket and the upper-stage Starship cruise vessel it will carry to space are designed as reusable components, capable of flying back to Earth for soft landings – a manoeuvre that has become routine for SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rocket.

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