The Dragon 2 and Starship spacecraft will both be tested in a month or so, writes Elon Musk, CEO of the space company Space X, on Twitter.

Dragon 2 will act as a "shuttle" for astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), thereby breaking Russia's monopoly on passenger transport there.

”"About a month away from the first test flight in orbit," for the upgraded Dragon variant that will be able to accommodate people, Musk writes on Twitter.

More imaginative is Starship, which is intended to transport people to Mars, for example. In that case, it does not seem to be about flights yet, but rather ground tests. The first engine is currently being assembled in California and "will probably be fired next month," Musk writes.

He includes an illustration of what the craft is expected to look like, a silvery missile-shaped creation that brings to mind 1950s science fiction films or the comic book hero Tintin's journey to the moon. "I actually love Tintin," Musk admits.

Later this year, Starship, formerly known as BFR, will also take to the air. But long-distance destinations like Mars will have to wait at least a year. After test flights, the first trips are intended to be in the form of ”space shuttles” between destinations on Earth.

In a speech in Australia a year and a half ago, Musk mentioned that this could reduce flight times from Bangkok to Dubai or Tokyo to Delhi to about half an hour.

Translated into European distances, this means that you could get from one end of the continent to the other, for example from Narvik in Norway to Portugal, in the same time.

Such trips on a small scale may possibly start next year.