China News Service, February 11. According to US media reports, on the 10th local time, at the space base of SpaceX in Texas, founder Elon Musk stood next to the 390-foot (119-meter) rocket. Major advances in "Starship" were introduced.
The first orbital flight could be in the next month or two, he said.
Data map: Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX.
SpaceX is reportedly awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before it will advance the next stage of Starship, which is to orbit.
Musk said he hopes to get approval in March, when the rocket should also be ready to fly.
Musk said the Starship launch could be diverted to the FAA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida if the FAA requests more information about potential environmental impacts or lawsuits.
This will delay the first orbital launch by more than half a year.
Data map: On November 10, 2021, local time, Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, SpaceX launched the new mission "Crew-3".
Four astronauts will take off from the Kennedy Space Center on the Dragon spacecraft "Endurance" and "Falcon 9" rockets to the International Space Station.
A Starship launch could end up costing less than $10 million, he estimates.
Additionally, Starship already has a private client, a Japanese entrepreneur.
Musk, however, hinted that there are others who are interested in buying travel, and said future announcements will be made.
Musk wants to deploy a fleet of "Starships" that could build a city on Mars and transport equipment and people, according to ABC.
For now, though, the initial flight will be to carry Starlink satellites into orbit.
Before manned spaceflight, he said, "there may be some hurdles, but we hope to solve those problems with satellite missions and test missions."