Recently, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave a presentation about the Starship to a crowd at the Starbase with the launch vehicle as a backdrop.
Of main interest, Musk says he will be able to conduct the first orbital test of the Starship this year, pending an environmental approval that he expects to happen in March.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that the report has been delayed to March 28.
Musk has a contingency plan to move operations to Florida if regulators decide to throw some obstacles in his way -- but a move to Florida would delay Starship's development by six to eight months.
Certain parties would not be displeased if the Starship were to be delayed somewhat. Politico reports that SpaceX’s competitors are in a panic over the implications of an operational Starship.
It is bad enough, from their standpoint, that the SpaceX Falcon 9 has greatly reduced the cost of launching things and people into space.
The Starship, according to Musk, will be able to take an absurd amount of material and people, first into low-Earth orbit, then to the moon and Mars, for a few tens of millions of dollars a launch.
SpaceX already has plans for the rocket to launch Starlink satellites, hundreds at a time rather than a few dozen that the Falcon 9 can deliver.
The Starship could deliver a space telescope many times the size and capabilities of the Hubble or a complete commercial space station.
farther in the future, billionaire Yusaku Maezawa still plans to take a group of artists on a Starship on an epic voyage around the moon.
A version of the Starship has already been selected as the manned landing system that will deliver astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in decades.