Starship has been in development for the past several years, and has been conducting small test flights, but has remained in Earth's atmosphere since last year. Its most recent flight also included its first fully successful landing, a key element in the development of the Starship Launch System, which is SpaceX's first reusable.
July (aka next month) is an ambitious timeline for Starship's first orbital flight attempt, but in May SpaceX filed its planned course for the flight, which will take off from the company's Starship development site in South Texas near Brownsville (known as 'Starbase') and It will then return to Earth with a splash somewhere in the Pacific Ocean at the expense of Hawaii.
This first flight will not end with a controlled landing and will focus on reaching orbit and testing the spacecraft component through that portion of the flight. Subsequent tests will include a controlled landing of the Starship spacecraft, with the goal of eventually building the entire system with super-heavy boosters to help propel it into a fully reusable orbit.
Although Shotwell indicated high confidence that SpaceX is technically ready enough to begin orbital test flights of Starship, the company needs to secure a license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to perform only orbital launches, despite its existing license. Cover suborbital flight. The FAA is currently in the process of reviewing those license requirements, including an environmental impact review of what will happen to surrounding areas.
