'Excitement guaranteed' as SpaceX plans Starship test flight

Less than a week after getting a long-awaited license from the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX is ready to launch its massive Starship on a round-the-world test flight. 

The company is targeting 8:20 a.m. CT for a launch from the southern tip of Texas, with a live webcast underway. It cautioned on its website that the schedule is "dynamic and likely to change" — the original targeted launch time was 8 a.m. CT. You can watch SpaceX's webcast above or on YouTube.

No people will be aboard the 394-foot rocket, built with the lofty goals of ferrying people to the moon and Mars. SpaceX will attempt to send the spacecraft atop the colossal booster from Boca Chica, Texas, all the way to Hawaii. The first stage will be discarded in the Gulf of Mexico and the spacecraft into the Pacific. No landings will be attempted for this debut.

In a Twitter "Spaces" event Sunday for subscribers, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company was being careful about the launch and that there was a chance it would be postponed. 

“I guess I’d like to just set expectations low," he said. "If we get far enough away from the launch pad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success. Just don’t blow up the launch pad."

It will be the first launch with Starship's two sections together. Early versions of the sci-fi-looking upper stage rocketed several miles into the stratosphere a few years back, crashing four times before finally landing upright in 2021. The towering first-stage rocket booster, dubbed Super Heavy, will soar for the first time.

“I’m not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement. It won’t be boring,” Musk promised at a Morgan Stanley conference last month. “I think it’s got, I don’t know, hopefully about a 50% chance of reaching orbit.”

A list of countdown stages on SpaceX's website ended with "Excitement Guaranteed."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.