# Starship development and progress \[previous title: Will Musk's starship reach orbit this year?\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [July 7, 2022, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583 "2022-07-07T22:05:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1676
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583/1676 "2026-10-01T19:14:38Z")
Late add: The prior analysis was: > [@I think you wrote unclear LSLGuy, do you really think the Chinese armed forces can defeat the US?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-you-wrote-unclear-lslguy-do-you-really-think-the-chinese-armed-forces-can-defeat-the-us/994373/92): > > Yeah. There’s a characteristic time constant that’s a function of density and of fan-out. With ping pong balls and moustraps, each triggering launches the ball on a bouncing trajectory and the mousetrap on a different bouncing trajectory. One lands with a small and nonlocal footprint, the other with a large but much more local footprint. The ball can keep bouncing each time it triggers something else, but the trap not so much. And all these sorts of vids the density is very very high. Space… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starship-development-and-progress-previous-title-will-musks-starship-reach-orbit-this-year/967583)._