NEW YORK, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX announced on Tuesday it plans to attempt the "most ambitious objective" in an upcoming fifth flight test of its giant Starship rocket -- to return the Super Heavy booster to the launch site and catch it in mid-air.

"This will be a singularly novel operation in the history of rocketry," said SpaceX in a release.

"It's understandable that such a unique operation would require additional time to analyze from a licensing perspective. Unfortunately, instead of focusing resources on critical safety analysis and collaborating on rational safeguards to protect both the public and the environment, the licensing process has been repeatedly derailed by issues ranging from the frivolous to the patently absurd," SpaceX said.

"These roadblocks have been driven by false and misleading reporting, built on bad-faith hysterics from online detractors or special interest groups who have presented poorly constructed science as fact," SpaceX said.

The company received a launch license date from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the government agency responsible for licensing Starship flight tests, for the fifth flight test estimate of late November. This is a more than two-month delay to the previous date of mid-September.

SpaceX said the delay was not based on a new safety concern, but instead driven by superfluous environmental analysis.

Starship, consisting of Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket, is the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable, according to SpaceX.

The company had its fourth test flight of Starship in June in which Starship for the first time made a soft landing in the ocean. The three previous attempts resulted in destruction of the rockets before the flights were completed. Enditem

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