Fly the first commercial crewed Starship mission around the Moon
SpaceX says Dennis and Akiko Tito, joined by Chun Wang, will fly a week-long circumlunar flyby aboard Starship, passing within 200 km of the lunar surface. No launch date has been stated.
Announced
What do the status labels mean?
Announced: it has been said out loud, but we have not seen work toward it yet.
In progress: we can point to tests, hardware or contracts that show work under way.
Partially achieved: part of the job is done and shown, but not all of it.
Achieved: evidence matches the whole “done” description we wrote down.
Uncertain: sources disagree or are missing. We say so instead of guessing.
Paused or cancelled: a reliable source says work has stopped or the plan was dropped.
Full definitions →- Said on
- 21 May 2026
- First target In plain English
What is a target window?
A target window is when the company said something would happen. Sometimes that is an exact day. Often it is only a month, a quarter or a year.
We keep it exactly as vague or as precise as the company did. If they said “2026”, we show 2026. We never turn that into a made-up day in December.
When a company gives a new date later, we keep the old one too. You can always see how the plan moved.
Saying “I’ll visit this summer” is a window. Saying “I’ll visit on 14 July” is an exact date. They are not the same promise.
- No stated targetUnknown precision, stated 21 May 2026
- Current target
- No stated targetUnknown precision, stated 21 May 2026
- Last checked In plain English
Who checked this, and how?
Each record has a review note. It names who did the check and lists every claim that was compared with its source.
Right now these checks were done with AI help and have not yet been re-read by an independent human editor. We say this plainly on every page rather than hiding it.
A “review due” label means the record is older than two weeks and is scheduled for another look. The content is unchanged until then.
- 18 September 2026Next review due 2 October 2026
What would count as “done”
A crewed Starship completes a circumlunar flyby mission carrying commercial passengers and returns them to Earth.
Why we say this
SpaceX describes the mission as planned, states the crew and states that the flyby is planned to pass within 200 km of the Moon's surface. The announcement gives no launch date, window or flight number, and no flight has occurred.
Stated uncertainty. Starship has not yet flown a crew, reached orbit or demonstrated in-space refilling. This milestone depends on capabilities tracked separately on this site.
How the date moved In plain EnglishWhat is a target window?
A target window is when the company said something would happen. Sometimes that is an exact day. Often it is only a month, a quarter or a year.
We keep it exactly as vague or as precise as the company did. If they said “2026”, we show 2026. We never turn that into a made-up day in December.
When a company gives a new date later, we keep the old one too. You can always see how the plan moved.
Saying “I’ll visit this summer” is a window. Saying “I’ll visit on 14 July” is an exact date. They are not the same promise.
What is a target window?
A target window is when the company said something would happen. Sometimes that is an exact day. Often it is only a month, a quarter or a year.
We keep it exactly as vague or as precise as the company did. If they said “2026”, we show 2026. We never turn that into a made-up day in December.
When a company gives a new date later, we keep the old one too. You can always see how the plan moved.
Saying “I’ll visit this summer” is a window. Saying “I’ll visit on 14 July” is an exact date. They are not the same promise.
- Stated 21 May 2026 · recorded here 18 September 2026 · current targetNo stated target (Unknown precision)
Recorded to preserve that a target was announced without any stated timing. No date has been inferred.
What actually happened
We have not yet recorded anything that happened towards this promise. That describes our evidence, not the company: things may have happened that we have not written up yet.
Sources In plain EnglishWhere does the evidence come from?
Every status links to the page we read. We record who published it, when, and which part of it supports the claim.
A company saying something proves that the company said it. It does not prove the thing is true. When we can, we look for a second voice: a regulator, a partner like NASA, or an exchange.
If a page disappears later, we flag it. A missing page is not proof that a claim was wrong.
Source rules →
Where does the evidence come from?
Every status links to the page we read. We record who published it, when, and which part of it supports the claim.
A company saying something proves that the company said it. It does not prove the thing is true. When we can, we look for a second voice: a regulator, a partner like NASA, or an exchange.
If a page disappears later, we flag it. A missing page is not proof that a claim was wrong.
Source rules →Who checked this In plain EnglishWho checked this, and how?
Each record has a review note. It names who did the check and lists every claim that was compared with its source.
Right now these checks were done with AI help and have not yet been re-read by an independent human editor. We say this plainly on every page rather than hiding it.
A “review due” label means the record is older than two weeks and is scheduled for another look. The content is unchanged until then.
Who checked this, and how?
Each record has a review note. It names who did the check and lists every claim that was compared with its source.
Right now these checks were done with AI help and have not yet been re-read by an independent human editor. We say this plainly on every page rather than hiding it.
A “review due” label means the record is older than two weeks and is scheduled for another look. The content is unchanged until then.
Claims we compared with their sources
A crewed circumlunar Starship flyby within 200 km of the Moon and a two-year crewed Mars flyby mission are planned.
Both missions are stated as planned with named crew. Neither is given a launch date, so both targets are recorded as unknown.
What this check could not tell us
- This is an AI-assisted review, not independent human review. A human editor has not yet re-checked these findings.
- Every source checked in this review is a SpaceX company statement. Company statements establish what the company said; they do not independently establish the outcomes as fact.
- Source pages were read through a browser on 18 September 2026. The accessedAt time on each source is normalised to 12:00 UTC on that date rather than recording an exact retrieval instant.
- The SpaceX updates page is a single URL carrying dated sections. Locators identify the section by date and heading because per-update permalinks were not used.
- No regulator or mission-partner source has been checked for this batch, so no FAA, NASA or filed-document claims are published.