The first orbital launch of SpaceX's Starship Mars rocket has been pushed back by at least another month.

SpaceX aims to launch that milestone test mission shortly after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wraps up an environmental assessment of Starbase, the South Texas site where the company builds, tests and launches Starship vehicles.

That review was initially supposed to be done by Dec. 31. But a few days before the deadline, the FAA pushed the estimated completion date back to Feb. 28, citing the need to consult further with other agencies and review the thousands of public comments submitted in response to the draft assessment, which was released in September. 

And today (Feb. 14), the agency announced that the final report has been delayed again, this time to March 28, to allow yet more time for comment review and interagency consultation.

The timeline shift probably doesn't come as a shock to SpaceX or its founder and CEO, Elon Musk. During a livestreamed Starship update last week, for example, Musk said the company has "gotten sort of a rough indication" that an FAA approval may be coming in March.

If that does indeed happen, don't expect a long wait before Starship's first-ever orbital attempt.

"So right now, I think we're tracking to have the regulatory approval and hardware readiness around the same time," Musk said during the Starship update.