If you spot an aircraft flying into a wall, that'll be us.

Announced moments ago on the PlayStation Blog, publisher Sony has confirmed that the private beta for Starhawk is set to take off as soon as next week.

Private beta testers and PlayStation Plus subscribers will get in on the fun from January 17th and January 18th in North America and Europe respectively. They'll be joined by Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception owners on February 1st. Finally, everyone with a PlayStation Network account will get in on the intergalactic action from February 22nd.

Sony's put up a handy FAQ on the PlayStation Blog for curious participants; you can view that through here. There's also a brand new developer diary embedded after the break.