The much-heralded launch of SpaceX’s flagship Starship Mars rocket has been delayed by at least a month due to an ongoing environmental assessment study by US regulators.
The review of Starbase, the South Texas site where the company builds, tests and launches its space vehicles, was due to be completed by the end of last year, but has now been pushed back to 28 March.
This is the second time the assessment date, carried out by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has been moved.
The FAA may still decide a more in-depth review is required, which would delay the launch further.
In that event, Musk has said the launch would take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida instead.
SpaceX has long term plans to launch Starship, a rocket larger than the Eiffel Tower when upright, from multiple locations, with the company modifying two deep-sea oil rigs to serve as launch towers.
The materials used to build the space craft are fully and rapidly reusable, according to SpaceX, which the company believes will accelerate plans to colonise Mars and space.
Starship prototypes have already conducted test flights from Starbase, although these were relatively short in distance.