Elon Musk's Sobering Words Before Starship Test Launch Tomorrow: 'Success Is Not What Should Be Expected'

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX is looking forward to Starship‘s first flight test, scheduled for Monday.

What Happened: SpaceX is eyeing 8:00 a.m. CT, April 17, for the first flight test of Starship from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

Launch attempt tomorrow pic.twitter.com/czFsQ53Xsa

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2023

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SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket — collectively referred to as Starship — is a fully reusable transportation system aimed at carrying both crew and cargo to "Earth's orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond."

It was cleared for launch on Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the government agency responsible for licensing commercial rocket launches. 

Musk’s Message: “I really want to lower expectations as much as possible here,” Musk said in a Twitter Space session for subscribers, according to one user who posted a recording. “Success is not what should be expected tomorrow. That would be insane.”

He also recounted the Soviet N1 rocket, which Musk says is the closest comparable rocket to Starship. The N1 never completed a test flight and all four of its launches failed before first-stage separation.

Musk has time and again reiterated that excitement is guaranteed at the launch though success is far from certain.

“With a test such as this, success is measured by how much we can learn, which will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances the development of Starship,” SpaceX said on its website.

SpaceX further added that the schedule for the test is dynamic and likely to change.

“Weather is looking pretty good for tomorrow morning but we’re keeping an eye on wind shear,” SpaceX tweeted on Sunday.

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