SpaceX is preparing to launch the eighth flight of Starship on Monday, with the goal of completing the objectives set out during Flight 7 when Ship 33 was lost during its post-staging burn. Flight 8 will attempt the third successful booster catch, while Ship 34 will splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

"The FAA issued a license modification authorizing the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 launch," FAA officials said in an emailed statement today (Feb. 28). "The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight."

The test flight will be a repeat of what SpaceX hoped to achieve on the previous Starship launch in January, when the rocket broke apart and showered debris over the Atlantic Ocean and Turks and Caicos Islands.

The goals of Flight 8 will be similar to those of Flight 7, SpaceX wrote in a mission description. SpaceX will try for another Super Heavy chopsticks catch — its third overall, if successful — and Ship will attempt to deploy mock Starlink satellites on its suborbital trajectory (but four this time, not 10).