said 28 Sep 2019
This is going to sound totally nuts, but I think we want to try to reach orbit in less than six months.
— Elon Musk, contemporaneous report
Starship update at SpaceX's site in Boca Chica, Texas, in front of the Mk1 prototype. He added that if design and manufacturing kept improving exponentially, the estimate was accurate to within a few months.
What happened: The first full Starship stack launched on 20 April 2023 and did not reach orbit. Starship first reached orbit on its fourteenth flight, on 28 September 2026, about six and a half years after the target.
due 28 Mar 2020 · resolved 28 Sep 2026
Receipt · archived original Spaceflight Now report of the Starship update, Sep 28 2019 (opens in a new tab)