SpaceX gets US FAA launch licence, Starship test flight likely on April 17

San Francisco: The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued the long-awaited launch licence to SpaceX for the Starship orbital flight test.

With the clearance in hand, the first test flight will likely take place on April 17, SpaceX said in a tweet.

The FAA in a statement said: "After a comprehensive licence evaluation process, the FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and financial responsibility requirements."

"Targeting as soon as Monday, April 17 for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas," SpaceX wrote in a tweet on Friday, after getting the licence.

The 150-minute test window will open at 7 a.m. (5.30 p.m. IST).

"With a test such as this, success is measured by how much we can learn, which will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship," the company wrote on its website.

CEO Elon Musk had recently said that there is only a 50 per cent chance that the first-ever orbital mission of SpaceX's huge Starship vehicle will be a success.

But he also stressed that SpaceX is building multiple Starship vehicles at the South Texas site.

These will be launched in relatively quick succession over the coming months, and there's about an 80 per cent chance one of them will reach orbit this year.

Starship is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond.

It consists of a giant first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 50 metres upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship.

Both stainless-steel vehicles are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, and both are powered by SpaceX's next-gen Raptor engine -- 33 for Super Heavy and six for Starship.