SPACE: Elon Musk says SpaceX will launch its Starship mega-rocket to orbit for the first time this year.

At SpaceX’s rocket-development facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday, Musk stood in front of a jet-black Starship, fully stacked atop the 23-story Super Heavy booster that’s meant to heave it into orbit. Dwarfed by the towering launch system, Musk told an assembled crowd that the rocket will soon be ready to roar into Earth’s orbit for the first time.

“I feel, at this point, highly confident that we’ll get to orbit this year,” Musk said. . . .

Musk gave his launch prediction during the first Starship-update presentation that he has shared since 2019. In that update more than two years ago, Musk presented his larger vision for the launch system and its Mars-populating mission.

SpaceX has made significant progress since then. After a series of six-mile-high test flights, which ended in Starship exploding, the rocket finally soared into the skies on May 5, plummeted back to Earth, and refired its engines, just in time to flip upright and gently lower itself to the Boca Chica landing pad.

The biggest problems are regulatory.