This is CBSI on the World.

Hotel Mars, episode n.

I'm John Batsuit with David Livingston, Dr. Space, Dr. Space, himself, my co-pilot.

And we're delighted to be joined by Eric Berger of ours, Technica.

Our guide on all things SpaceX, as well as Blue Origin and other parts of the commercial space enterprise.

We begin, however, with the eve of the eve of the launch we've waited for for years.

SpaceX launching Super Heavy, which will carry starship into near orbit.

Eric, wonderful greetings.

What is the mission profile that we're waiting for?

And Mr. Musk has promised much. Good evening to Eric.

Well, good evening. I think the mission is, as you say, almost orbital.

So, orbital, you might call it an orbital flight, but basically the first stage is Super Heavy Rocket.

He's going to launch with starship from South Texas.

It's going to boost the starship, second stage, toward orbit, and then come back and probably land in the ocean.

And then the second stage, starship, is going to basically go two-thirds the way around Earth,

and then re-enter over the Pacific Ocean and land north of Hawaii.

North of Hawaii, actually. And so, SpaceX presumably will help drones out there

or a ship to try to observe its re-entry to see how well it survives coming back from space.

And the near-orbit, not orbit itself.

Why is that? Why are they hesitating when they could go into orbit?

It's not entirely clear why they made that decision.

I think it probably has to do with propellants and stuff on board the starship vehicle.

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