SpaceX's Starship Orbital Debut Pushed To March As FAA Flooded With Public Comments

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s orbital debut for the Starship rocket from the Boca Chica Launch Site in Texas has been pushed back to, at least, March.

What Happened: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it has extended the programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) of the company's South Texas launch site to Feb. 28 from Dec. 31 after receiving a high volume of comments.

“SpaceX, under the supervision of the FAA, is currently drafting responses for the over 18,000 public comments received on the Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA). SpaceX is also preparing the Final PEA for the FAA's review and acceptance,” the FAA said.

See Also: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Eyeing To Launch Starship, 'The Biggest Rocket Ever Designed,' To Orbit In January

Why It Matters: The latest development pours cold water on Musk’s plan to fly its fully reusable, biggest rocket Starship to orbit in January. Musk had in November said Starship’s first flight to orbit will be followed by many more such flights throughout the year.

Musk dreams of colonizing Mars and founded SpaceX with the mission to make humanity multiplanetary. On Tuesday, Musk said SpaceX will land humans on Mars in five to 10 years.

SpaceX is developing a fully-reusable Starship that can deliver a payload of around 150 tonnes to low Earth Orbit and about 250 tonnes when expendable. The ambitious transportation system can also carry humanity to the moon, Mars and make interplanetary travel possible.

Photo: Courtesy of SpaceX