Will SpaceX’s Starship achieve its first orbital flight on April 17th?

SpaceX’s Starship vehicle is set to make its first-ever orbital flight from the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The launch is scheduled for April 17, pending regulatory approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration. The company has stacked the Ship 24 prototype atop its Booster 7 first stage on Starbase’s orbital launch mount, and no further major work is required before liftoff. The Starship is made up of a huge first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship. Both vehicles are made of stainless steel, powered by the company’s new Raptor engine and designed to be fully reusable. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk believes the vehicle will revolutionise spaceflight, making ambitious feats such as Mars colonisation economically feasible.