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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk claims Starship will be ready for first orbital launch in July
CEO Elon Musk claims that SpaceX could be ready to attempt Starship’s first orbital launch as early as July.
While SpaceX has been making slow and steady progress preparing the Starship upper stage and Super Heavy booster nominally assigned to that launch debut, the odds that even just one of those two stages will be fully qualified for flight before the end of July are quite small. Musk’s claims about what will happen after that rocket is ready are even loftier.
According to Musk, after SpaceX is done preparing a Starship and Super Heavy booster for their inaugural orbital launch attempt sometime “next month,” the company will have a second ship and booster pair “ready to fly in August” and another pair every month after that. If SpaceX rapidly completes the dozens of environmental mitigations assigned to it on June 13th and receives an FAA license or experimental permit for orbital Starship launches, the company does theoretically have permission for five orbital launches out of South Texas in 2022, but the same is also true for all 12 months of 2023.
However, there is very little evidence that SpaceX is on the cusp of being able to complete a new orbital-class Starship and Super Heavy booster every month. While SpaceX is working on future Starships and is almost done assembling a second orbital-class Super Heavy booster, the pace of that work appears to be about the same as it’s been for the last 12+ months. Yes, SpaceX is almost done stacking Booster 8 and has begun stacking Ship 25. Sections of Ship 26, Ship 27, and Booster 9 have also been spotted at Starbase. But SpaceX has been unable to finish stacking Booster 8 over the last few months it’s been focused on Ship 24 and Booster 7.
Ship 24 and Booster 7, meanwhile, are making good progress but are still incomplete. Both recently completed several mostly successful cryogenic and structural proof tests and returned to SpaceX’s assembly bays, where workers have begun installing Raptor engines and applying finishing touches.
After a month of work, it appears that Super Heavy B7 may finally be preparing to return to Starbase’s launch site on Thursday, June 16th. Since it returned to the factory on May 14th, SpaceX has been installing 33 new Raptor 2 engines, applying thermal protection to those engines, buttoning up the booster’s aft end, installing control surfaces known as grid fins, and completing a few other unfinished tasks. If all of that work is complete when it rolls out again, B7 could kick off the next phase of its qualification testing – wet dress rehearsals and static fires – shortly after returning to the orbital launch site.
SpaceX has never attempted a full-scale Super Heavy wet dress rehearsal, in which the largest rocket booster ever built will be fully filled with more than three thousand metric tons of flammable cryogenic propellant and put through a simulated launch countdown. SpaceX has also never come close to conducting a full Super Heavy static fire, though it did fire three outdated Raptors on an outdated booster prototype a single time in July 2021.
Ship 24’s position is slightly more favorable, as it only needs six Raptor 2 engines installed. Thanks to Ship 20, which successfully completed several wet dress rehearsals and several static fires that ignited all six engines, Ship 24 will also be heading into terrain that is slightly less uncharted. Still, the Starship’s heat shield needs several hundred more tiles installed, one of four flap aerocover ‘caps’ is missing, and thermal protection will need to be installed around its Raptors.
Once Booster 7 and Ship 24 are both fully outfitted and installed on their respective test stands, there’s still little reason to believe that either prototype has any chance of completing all the tests needed for flight qualification by the end of July. In fact, for B7 and S24 to be truly ready for flight before the end of July, they’d likely need to wrap up qualification testing well before the end of the month to conduct another series of tests after the pair is fully stacked. If SpaceX does not proceed with at least some degree of caution and a plan to thoroughly test both stages before a launch attempt, it will significantly increase the risk of catastrophic launch pad damage that could easily take half a year or more to fix.
More realistically, it’s reasonable to assume that Ship 24 and Booster 7 will both run into some minor issues during their first wet dress rehearsals and static fire tests, possibly requiring Raptor replacements or even minor repairs. Instead of a few weeks, serious flight qualification could take a few months. It’s also arguably far likelier that one or both stages will need to be entirely replaced by Ship 25 or Booster 8 than it is that both will be ready to launch six weeks from now. Both Booster 4 and Ship 24 suffered some degree of damage during proof tests that are in many ways much easier than the wet dress and static fire tests they’ll soon face.
Still, despite the many reasons for pragmatism and expectation management, SpaceX has never been closer to Starship’s orbital launch debut, and the odds of that debut occurring sometime in 2022 have never been better.
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U.S. AG Pam Bondi: Tesla Molotov attack suspect facing up to 20 years in prison
The U.S. Attorney General confirmed that a Tesla attacker, who threw Molotov cocktails at a store, is now facing up to 20 years in prison.
It appears that an anti-Tesla activist who is suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails at one of the electric vehicle maker’s stores is now looking at a potentially long prison sentence.
This is, at least, as per United States Attorney General Pam Bondi, who recently shared her insights in a FOX News segment.
Tesla Attacks and Trump Warning
Tesla locations and vehicles have been subjected to numerous attacks as of late, from stores being shot up to vehicles being vandalized and set on fire in suspected arson incidents. In one case, a Tesla store in Salem, Oregon, was attacked with Molotov cocktails.
President Donald Trump has issued a stern warning to people attacking Teslas, stating that he considers such actions as domestic terrorism. While addressing the issue, Trump warned that anyone caught deliberately harming Tesla will be going through “hell.”
Attorney General’s Update
During a recent FOX News segment, US Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated that anyone targeting others over political beliefs would be caught and punished accordingly. She highlighted that investigations are underway to find out who is behind the violent actions, and she also confirmed that a Tesla attacker, who threw Molotov cocktails at a store, is now facing up to 20 years in prison.
“If you targeted someone, if you went after someone because of their political affiliation, we will be investigating you. We will be looking at you, because that’s the weaponization, and it has to stop. For instance, look what they’re continuing to do to Elon Musk. They are targeting Tesla dealerships, the stations where you charge a Tesla. They’re vandalizing cars. I have already directed an investigation be opened to see how this is being funded. Who is behind this?
“We have people we’re locking up on that. We have someone in jail right now from one of the dealerships. They threw a Molotov cocktail through a dealership. They’re looking at up to 20 years in prison. So, if you’re going to touch a Tesla, go to a dealership, or do anything, you better watch out, because we’re coming after you. And if you’re funding this, we’re coming after you. We’re going to find out who you are,” Bondi stated.
SpaceX is readying to launch the Crew-10 mission this evening, which will bring home U.S. astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the International Space Station for nine months.
SpaceX is working alongside NASA to bring the two astronauts home, and all systems and weather conditions are looking ideal to launch the mission this evening from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
All systems are looking good and weather is exceptional for tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of @NASA‘s Crew-10 to the @Space_Station → https://t.co/VPdhVwQFNJ pic.twitter.com/wZ9LvZAnYn
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2025
Boeing was originally tasked with the rescue mission.
The company sent a Starliner aircraft to the ISS in late September in an effort to bring Williams and Wilmore home. However, malfunctioning thrusters and other issues on the Starliner aircraft prevented NASA from giving the green light to the astronauts to board and come home.
SpaceX was then tasked with bringing the two home, and it appears they will be on their way shortly.
The launch was intended to occur on Wednesday, but a last-minute problem with the rocket’s ground systems forced SpaceX and NASA to delay until at least Friday. Things are looking more ideal for a launch this evening.
The launch is targeted for 7:03 p.m. ET, but another backup opportunity is available tomorrow, March 15, at 6:41 p.m.
SpaceX writes about the Dragon spacecraft that will be used for the mission:
“The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew NASA’s Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions to and from the space station. This will be the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched the SES 03b mPOWER-e mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.”
The mission will not only aim to bring the two astronauts who have been stranded for nine months home, but it will also conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.
If Crew-10 launches at the planned time this evening, it will dock to the ISS at 11:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night.
Tesla has officially wrapped up the ability to order the legacy Model Y in the United States, now only showing the new “Juniper” version and its Launch Series trim in the Online Design Studio.
Tesla launched the new Model Y in the United States in early February, and deliveries of the vehicle have officially started. While other trims of the new-look Model Y are available in other countries, Tesla has not started offering those in the United States quite yet.
However, the legacy Model Y and its several configurations are now no longer available for purchase in the U.S., at least for a custom order. Those who are looking for a deal on the best-selling car in the world for the past two years can still snag whatever is left in inventory.
🚨 BREAKING: Tesla is now only offering the new Model Y in the United States in its online configurator.
The legacy Model Y is still available through inventory, but is no longer being produced for custom orders. pic.twitter.com/4rdA7LKZl1
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 14, 2025
The sunsetting of the legacy Model Y is the closing of a chapter that truly launched Tesla into the stratosphere.
Although the Model 3 found plenty of mainstream success for Tesla in its first few years, the Model Y was the vehicle that really made the company successful. It disrupted the operations of other companies, and, in conjunction with the Model Y, made OEMs take EVs seriously.
The Model Y was the best-selling vehicle in the world in 2023 and 2024. With the improvements to ride comfort, suspension, and cabin noise, along with the various changes to the exterior, Tesla has a chance to continue its run with the Model Y in 2025 — as long as it can ramp production in a timely manner and keep demand up.
The latter does not seem like it will be a huge problem as it is still a high-demand vehicle.
Tesla unveiled the Model Y on March 15, 2019, so its first design was eliminated nearly five years before its initial appearance.
U.S. AG Pam Bondi: Tesla Molotov attack suspect facing up to 20 years in prison
SpaceX readies to rescue astronauts from International Space Station
Tesla discontinues legacy Model Y in the U.S. for custom order
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