SpaceX Wins Earlier-Than-Expected Approval to Fly Fifth Starship

By Loren Grush

October 12, 2024 at 1:02PM EDT

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS - MARCH 13: People view the Starship Flight 3 Rocket a day before its scheduled launch at the Starbase facility near Boca Chica beach on March 13, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. SpaceX is preparing to launch its first Starship test of 2024. The operation will be SpaceX's third attempt at launching a rocket into space. If successful, the company will have achieved a historic milestone for the world's largest rocket being launched into space. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) (Brandon Bell/Photographer: Brandon Bell/Getty)

(Bloomberg) -- SpaceX received approval from US air safety regulators to launch the fifth major test flight of its massive Starship rocket — a pivotal mission that will see the booster portion return from space and attempt to land upright.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses launches and reentries of rockets, granted the approval in an order on Saturday. Now with a license in hand, SpaceX is planning to fly Starship on Sunday from the company’s launch site in south Texas.

The approval for the flight came earlier than anticipated for SpaceX. In September, the company said the FAA notified it that the license for this mission wouldn’t be granted until late November — a timeline that SpaceX heavily criticized as slow and inefficient.

At the time, the FAA noted that changes to Starship’s flight profile had “triggered a more in-depth review” and that the FAA needed to consult other agencies about the flight’s environmental impact.