WASHINGTON — SpaceX has received a license from the Federal Aviation Administration allowing the company to carry out suborbital flight tests of its Starship next-generation launch vehicle.

The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation published the launch license May 28 for what it calls the Starship Prototype Launch Vehicle.

SpaceX has been conducting a series of static-fire tests of the latest Starship prototype, called SN4, including one May 28.

Any sort of flight test of Starship would require either a launch license or a less restrictive experimental permit from the FAA.

That event showed off what the company called the Starship Mark 1 vehicle, which Musk promised would soon fly.