Starship/SuperHeavy maiden flight scheduled for early December.
https://twitter.com/wapodavenport/status/1587094533136957444?cxt=HHwWiIC-ibaEv4YsAAAAGranted, this is a NET date. Could very easily slip a month or two. But a lot of space fans have been waiting a long time for this. It'll be very interesting if they change the parameters of the original maiden flight plan. Originally the intent was to ditch the booster in the Gulf of Mexico doing a simulated catch against a non-existent tower that only exists in the booster's software. Then the Starship would make a 3/4 pass around the globe and re-enter above the Pacific, also doing a simulated landing over water and being "caught" by another non-existent tower and splashing down in a naval ocean firing range near Hawaii.
Obviously they only have 1 tower and cannot catch both objects, at least inside of a single orbit. In theory they could catch the booster about 8 minutes after launch and have Starship in orbit for several hours while they clear the booster off the tower and onto an SPMT, or at least set back onto the launch mount and clear of the chopstick arms, then bring the Starship in for landing. The problem with that is the fact that the ship would have to transit the western United States during reentry. The potential for debris on populated areas if there is a breakup is non-negligible.
They could go for a westbound launch, but that would then be launching over populated areas. But it would allow for reentry of Starship over the Gulf. I doubt that the full stack has sufficient fuel to perform a LEO insertion with a westbound launch though. Maybe with no payload it could. Still, it puts the booster's flight profile over Mexico or the western US, along with a boost-back to Boca.
I think they're eager to test booster recovery, and reluctant to throw 39 Raptor engines into the ocean. Bringing the booster back from an eastbound launch is relatively risk-free to the public, and should be fairly straightforward for their already established software for Falcon recovery.
