WASHINGTON — SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company is making “good progress” on its next-generation Starship launch vehicle despite delays in the schedule of test flights of the vehicle.

In an interview broadcast during the Humans to Mars Summit by the advocacy group Explore Mars Aug. 31, Musk emphasized the progress the company has made not on test flights of the vehicle but instead development of production facilities for Starship at Boca Chica, Texas.

“We’re making good progress. The thing that we’re really making progress on with Starship is the production system,” he said, referring to the growing campus at Boca Chica. “A year ago there was almost nothing there and now we’ve got quite a lot of production capability.”

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Starship SN6 is aiming to conduct a 150-meter hop test on Sunday, just a few weeks after SN5 completed the first Starship prototype launch. SN6’s test will be a near-mirror of SN5’s short flight, with both prototypes aiming to refine SpaceX’s launch and landing operations. Meanwhile, additional Starships continue to evolve, along with preparations for the Super Heavy booster, which – according to Chief Designer Elon Musk – could conduct an initial test hop by October.

SN5 and SN6:

In another sign of SpaceX Boca Chica’s production cadence, the allowance for SN6 to be ready to hop just weeks after SN5 was aided by having SN6 already assembled in the Mid Bay while SN5 was reaching 150 meters into the South Texas sky.