AI illustration: 'Highly confident' Starship reaches orbit in 2022
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Missed

'Highly confident' Starship reaches orbit in 2022

“I feel at this point highly confident that we'll get to orbit this year.”
— Elon Musk · Feb 10, 2022 · SpaceX 'Starship Update', Feb 10 2022 at Starbase (official SpaceX YouTube channel, verified via YouTube oEmbed) ↗
Video: SpaceX 'Starship Update', Feb 10 2022 at Starbase (official SpaceX YouTube channel, verified via YouTube oEmbed)
▶ WATCH HIM SAY IT — SPACEX 'STARSHIP UPDATE', FEB 10 2022 AT STARBASE (OFFICIAL SPACEX YOUTUBE CHANNEL, VERIFIED VIA YOUTUBE OEMBED)
What actually happened

Starship never left the ground in 2022, held up by FAA environmental review and Raptor/booster readiness. The first integrated flight attempt came April 20, 2023 and exploded about four minutes in; Starship did not complete a near-orbital trajectory until March 2024. NYT — SpaceX Starship explodes minutes after first integrated launch (April 20, 2023) ↗

The Progression

Feb 10, 2022
The promise: “I feel at this point highly confident that we'll get to orbit this year.” · SpaceX 'Starship Update', Feb 10 2022 at Starbase (official SpaceX YouTube channel, verified via YouTube oEmbed) ↗
Dec 31, 2022
Deadline passed. Starship never left the ground in 2022, held up by FAA environmental review and Raptor/booster readiness. The first integrated flight attempt came April 20, 2023 and exploded about four minutes in; Starship did not complete a near-orbital trajectory until March 2024. NYT — SpaceX Starship explodes minutes after first integrated launch (April 20, 2023) ↗
Today · Jun 12, 2026
Status: Missed · 0.3 years late. Never happened.

At the February 10, 2022 Starship update in front of a fully stacked Booster 4 / Ship 20, Musk said he was 'highly confident' Starship would reach orbit that year — a restatement of orbital-flight promises dating to 2019 ('orbital by March 2020') and 2020 ('orbital 2021'). Starship did not fly at all in 2022; the first launch attempt in April 2023 ended in an explosion over the Gulf.

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LAST CHECKED 2026-06-12

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