It is late September 2026, SPCX has been on my personal ticker list for a season, and the thing I actually open first is still the flight schedule. Starship is in a Flight 14-ish orbital attempt window depending on how you count scrubs and inserts, and Starlink V3 talk is the constellation thesis levelling up again. The series that started with a Roadster and Bowie is now a public company and a vehicle that catches boosters for a living.
I am only going to touch the big remaining firsts lightly here, because they deserve their own posts when they happen: first Ship catch, first Ship reuse, first orbital refuelling, first uncrewed Moon landing. Each one is a door. I will not squash them into a single paragraph of hype and call it done.
What I will say is the posture has not changed since Falcon Heavy. Fascination and awe. Failure is how we learn. Iterate in public. Best part is no part — except when the part flies twice, or gets caught by a tower, or transfers propellant off Earth. Elon still looks like someone who picked species-scale problems and refused to treat them as branding.
For the people who got pulled in by Starman and stayed for chopsticks: welcome. For the ones who wanted a share certificate to go with the webcast: we have a thin slice and a long shopping list of hardware milestones. The Everyday Astronaut way still beats the doomer way on every flight.
I will be here for the next column of fire, the next catch attempt, and the deep writes when Ship catch, Ship reuse, orbital refuel, and an uncrewed Moon run stop being lookahead lines. Next up: those posts — properly — when the milestones earn them.