The engineers and technicians at the Starbase are working to get the prototypes ready for the test. The most recent step was a static fire test with the Super Heavy prototype, where the booster was placed on the launch pad and fired. The news of the test was shared on the official account of the company and many wondered what the test would look like.
A previous attempt resulted in an explosion on the landing pad. The engine spin start test is when fuel is pumped through the booster's fuel lines. The explosion that damaged the landing pad was caused by the spilled fuel catching fire. The damage was found to be not too significant.
Musk told the news agency that the launch stand would be coming back next week. He said that the explosion was caused by the fuel-air explosion risk in a partially oxygen atmosphere. The Space Shuttle burned off leaked fuel before it exploded, something the user asked if it could be done with leaked fuel.
That is one of the things we will be doing in the future. The problem was specific to the engine spin start test. We won't do a spin start test with all the engines at once. It has been proven that Musk's prediction of another static fire test as soon as next month is correct. The most recent static fire test was performed by the BN7 on August 6th.
A successful orbital flight is likely between 1 and 12 months from now, according to Musk. With any first space flight, the learning curve is immense, and accidents are known to happen. In order to maximize the amount of launch test data they could gather, they adopted a rapid-prototyping and testing model.
The tests were used to inform the design of the Starship. The length of this window indicates that Musk is anticipating that the initial attempt will not succeed and that other fully loaded and stacked prototypes will have to be made. A window of a month to a year isn't very clear. Recent events and the delays they have imposed seem like an optimistic appraisal.
One foot at a time, Musk and the company he founded are moving forward. Several explosions and one successful flight at a time!
Yahoo Finance, SpaceX, and others are further reading.