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Space
Space
Science
Mike Wall

SpaceX gets updated Starship launch license but still awaits Flight 9 approval

An image of SpaceX's Starship rocket taking to the skies over Starbase site in South Texas on Thursday evening (March 6).

SpaceX still has some boxes to tick before it can launch the ninth test flight of its Starship megarocket.

On Friday (May 15), the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it has approved license modifications ahead of Starship Flight 9, which will lift off from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. That license officially grants SpaceX's request to boost the number of Starship launches from Starbase per year by a factor of five, to 25 — something that the agency greenlit earlier this month in an environmental assessment.

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