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Elon Musk's SpaceX made final preparations early on Monday to launch its powerful new Starship rocket system to space for the first time, on a brief but highly anticipated uncrewed test flight from the Gulf Coast of Texas, Reuters reported.

The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet (120 m) high, was due for blastoff from the SpaceX facility at Boca Chica, Texas, during a two-hour launch window that opens at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT).

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 program 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," 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.

"Probably, tomorrow will not be successful, he said. "It's just a very fundamentally difficult thing."

Earlier on Sunday, the California-based company said on Twitter its launch teams were moving ahead with flight preparations, while keeping a close eye on potential wind-shear conditions in the forecast that could force a delay.

On Sunday night, Musk said, "it's more likely" for the flight to be postponed than to launch on Monday. SpaceX has backup launch windows on Tuesday and Wednesday for roughly the same times.