Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to conduct the next test flight of its giant Starship rocket on March 6, after it was cancelled at the last minute on March 3.

The world's largest and most powerful launch vehicle is due to lift off from SpaceX's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, during the launch window, which opens at 5:30 p.m. local time.

An earlier attempt scheduled for March 5 was postponed by a day without explanation, AFP reported.

This will be Starship's eighth orbital flight, all so far uncrewed, and the first since a dramatic mid-air explosion over the Caribbean during its last test.

Soaring to a height of123 metres, Starship is designed to be entirely reusable and is key to Musk and SpaceX's vision of colonising Mars.

Meanwhile, NASA is awaiting a modified version of Starship as a lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon this decade.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) landed Starship after its previous flight on 16 January ended with the upper stage disintegrating in a fiery stunt over the Turks and Caicos Islands. This prompted efforts to clean up the fallen debris.

On February 28, the FAA announced that Starship could make its next flight before the agency completes its review of SpaceX's "accident investigation."

During Joe Biden's presidency, Musk often accused the FAA of excessive oversight of SpaceX's safety and environmental problems.

Now, as President Donald Trump's chief economist, the world's richest man faces accusations of exerting undue influence over the regulatory agencies that oversee his companies.

The administration has taken aim at the FAA in particular over its hiring policies, and a labor union says hundreds of agency employees were fired last month.

For the upcoming flight, SpaceX said it has implemented numerous upgrades to the spacecraft's upper stage that increase its reliability and efficiency.

The mission, which is expected to last just over an hour, includes another attempt to capture the booster stage using the launch tower's arm "sticks." It's an action SpaceX has successfully performed twice, including on the last flight.

In addition, Starship will deploy Starlink simulators designed to mimic the Starlink satellites that will burn up upon re-entry into the atmosphere.

Eventually, SpaceX aims to recover the upper stage as well, but for now aims to crash into the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, as in previous flights.

In a recent interview on Joe Rogan's podcast, Musk said the most difficult engineering hurdle is building a "fully reusable orbital heat shield - a problem that has never been solved before."

Despite this challenge, Musk remains optimistic. He predicts that Starship will be fully and rapidly deployable by next year. It's a milestone he describes as "a fundamental breakthrough needed for multi-planet life." | BGNES