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.
7:45am- An AWP went up to B9 in several places overnight. A lift was up at the top of the OLM and one was up welding at the new platform. People could also be seen working on the dance floor. Lifts were up at B10 inside of the mega bay getting it hooked to the bridge crane.
10:00am- 2 lifts up at the OLM
10:22am- Lift goes up to the top S26 to disconnect the squid
11:20am- Squid disconnected and crane swings away from S26
1:12pm- B10 starts being lifted off of the thrust simulator stand
1:55pm- Bridge crane moves B10 to the back left corner of the mega bay
2:00pm- One lift up at the new platform
2:18pm- LR11000 starts rolling from the suborbital pad to the OLT.
3:26pm- Arrives at the tower. Adding more stairs to the tower or moved in preparation of a S26 static fire?
4:02pm- In a weird move, the LR11000 lowered its hook to the top of B9 several times before swinging away. Testing to see if it could remove the hot staging ring if need be?
8:20pm- No lifts up but workers can be seen on the dance floor. Some of the tarps along the edge are coming down
9:16pm- New ship lifting jig is picked up in the high bay by the bridge crane
10:20pm- Booster thrust simulator stand turns onto Hwy 4 to head back to Massey’s