When (first) orbital flight?First integrated flight test occurred April 20, 2023. "The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date. The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship."
What's happening next? SpaceX has assessed damage to Stage 0 and is implementing fixes and changes including a water deluge/pad protection/"shower head" system. No major repairs to key structures appear to be necessary.
Why no flame diverter/flame trench below the OLM?Musk tweeted on April 21: "3 months ago, we started building a massive water-cooled, steel plate to go under the launch mount. Wasn’t ready in time & we wrongly thought, based on static fire data, that Fondag would make it through 1 launch." Regarding a trench, note that the Starship on the OLM sits 2.5x higher off the ground than the Saturn V sat above the base of its flame trench, and the OLM has 6 exits vs. 2 on the Saturn V trench.
7:20am- LR11000 finished moving over next to the OLT overnight and their was the ever present lift at the top of the staircase
10:45am- Workers have been on top of the OLM. AWP went up to the chopsticks.
3:00pm- Quiet around the OLM
6:40pm- People have been moving around the base of the OLM and the deluge tank farm. No visible work though
9:40pm- Still no lift action but workers could be seen going up the stairs and the lights on the dance floor are on for the first time in several nights.