SpaceX Mars Starship tries its fifth test flight today

Elon Musk's space company SpaceX is attempting the fifth Earth orbit test flight of its spacecraft "Starship," which it is developing to explore the moon and Mars, today local time.

FAA says it has issued SpaceX a launch license for the fifth test flight of "Starship."

As a result, SpaceX plans to launch "Starship" for a Earth orbit test flight at a launch site in southern Texas, Bloomberg said.

The test flight will be the first in more than four months since its fourth test launch on June 6.

In this flight, the "Super Heavy" booster, a first-stage propulsion after the Starship launch, returns to Earth from space and attempts a vertical landing.

The FAA's approval came earlier than originally expected.

The FAA notified SpaceX last month that approval would not be available until the end of November due to an environmental impact review and consultations with other agencies.

SpaceX, in response, said it had completed preparations for the Starship launch last month and that approval was being delayed, criticizing the FAA for inefficient administration.

Musk has been developing Starship with the goal of pioneering Mars and allowing humans to migrate.

Starship is 50m long and 9m in diameter and can load up to 150t of cargo inside, and when combined with the largest rocket ever "Super Heavy" to launch the spacecraft, the total length of the projectile is 121m.