The first plans were from 2012, and the final concept was from 2018. Of course, 2020 was not possible at all, but it is not necessary to have a vision and show it. You can want something, but without money no one will have anything. If you pitched a plan in 2012 and immediately got a few billion dollars, 8 years is still quite possible. But of course that was marketing talk. You have to sell the concept.

This happened in 2020 when NASA chose SpaceX. However, Jeff Bezos disagreed and stopped the development with a lawsuit. Then you have the shenanigans related to various environmental issues and the lawsuits associated with them. It’s a miracle we’ve made it this far, because SpaceX (and Musk) believe in this concept. The pace of development and building prototypes was rapid at a pace last seen during the Apollo era.

But let’s take 2019 as an average between final concept and contract award. Construction of the Mk1 ship began in December 2018 and the Starhopper flew in spring 2019, which is a very good point I would say. That was 5.5 years ago, and if you apply the Falcon evolution curve, 8 years is not a crazy period at all. Because in two and a half years the spacecraft will be launched, landed, shuttled and pumped without any problems, I have no doubt about that. This includes all those deferred lawsuits.