SpaceX's Star ship gears up for its sixth test flight, aiming for reusability milestones, hypersonic re-entry, and a daylight splashdown as Trump attends the launch in Texas.
Nov 19 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX is set on Tuesday to launch the sixth test of its giant Starship rocket from Texas, eyeing improvements in its hypersonic reentry into Earth's atmosphere and a novel technique for landing its booster, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump watches in person.
Trump is expected to be joined by his son Donald Jr. and Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz at the launch of Starship scheduled for 4 p.m. CT (2200 GMT) from SpaceX's sprawling rocket development site in Boca Chica, Texas, according to two people familiar with the president-elect's plans.
The roughly 400-foot (122-meter) tall rocket system is designed to land astronauts on the moon and ferry crews to Mars. The first stage, called Super Heavy, on Tuesday is due to boost Starship into space before returning to land, while Starship travels around Earth for a planned daytime splashdown in the Indian Ocean some 90 minutes later.
In a launch last month, Starship's first stage booster returned to land for the first time by falling into giant mechanical arms at the launch site, a key step in its reusable design.
Musk, the world's wealthiest person, was a prominent supporter of Trump's presidential election campaign, appearing with him at rallies and backing him with roughly $130 million in political support. Musk stands to benefit from Trump's victory, with the billionaire entrepreneur expected to wield extraordinary influence to help his companies and secure favorable government treatment.
Trump on Nov. 13 appointed Musk as co-leader of a new government efficiency project that the SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO has said will rid the federal government of wasteful spending and regulations he has called burdensome.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's regulation of commercial rocket launches has been a source of frustration for Musk, who has complained that the agency impedes his company's progress in getting to Mars.
Musk on Tuesday listed four core objectives for the test flight - restarting Starship's space-tailored engine during flight - key for its in-space maneuverability - and making a more visible ocean landing during the daytime, while past attempts have been at night.
Super Heavy's return to its launch-tower arms and Starship's atmospheric reentry on the other side of the world will be faster and more intense, Musk added.
"There are thousands of small design changes also being tested," Musk said.
Using large arms attached to a launch tower, SpaceX will again try to catch Starship's 233 foot (71-meter)-tall first stage Super Heavy booster roughly 10 minutes after it lifts off, an engineering spectacle that intrigued Trump the first time SpaceX tried it in October.
"Did you see the way that sucker landed today?" Trump asked the crowd at a political rally after that Starship test.
SpaceX is eyeing swift advances in Starship development during a second Trump administration. The administration's space agenda is expected to give NASA's Artemis program, which is due to return astronauts to the lunar surface, a greater focus on the more ambitious goal of landing people on Mars, Musk's premier space aspiration.
"We just passed 400 launches on Falcon, and I would not be surprised if we fly 400 Starship launches in the next four years," SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said at the Baron Investment Conference in New York last week, referring to the company's workhorse rocket.
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Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of former President Fernando Collor de Mello after rejecting his appeals against a corruption conviction, with a ruling from 2023 sentencing him to nearly nine years in prison for money laundering and bribery.
The U.S. military said a missile explosion that killed at least a dozen people near a UNESCO site in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, was caused by a Houthi-fired weapon, not an American airstrike, countering local claims and intensifying scrutiny over the rising civilian toll in the conflict.
The United States is set to host an energy summit in Alaska in early June, where President Donald Trump’s administration hopes Japan and South Korea will commit to the $44 billion Alaska LNG project, a major energy initiative aimed at expanding U.S. gas exports to Asia.
A large-scale missile and drone strike hit Kyiv overnight, killing at least 12 people in what Ukrainian officials called the most significant attack on the capital this year, as diplomatic efforts to reach a resolution continue.
Harvard University’s endowment is in advanced talks to sell about $1 billion in private equity fund interests, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of former President Fernando Collor de Mello after rejecting his appeals against a corruption conviction, with a ruling from 2023 sentencing him to nearly nine years in prison for money laundering and bribery.
The U.S. military said a missile explosion that killed at least a dozen people near a UNESCO site in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, was caused by a Houthi-fired weapon, not an American airstrike, countering local claims and intensifying scrutiny over the rising civilian toll in the conflict.
The United States is set to host an energy summit in Alaska in early June, where President Donald Trump’s administration hopes Japan and South Korea will commit to the $44 billion Alaska LNG project, a major energy initiative aimed at expanding U.S. gas exports to Asia.
A large-scale missile and drone strike hit Kyiv overnight, killing at least 12 people in what Ukrainian officials called the most significant attack on the capital this year, as diplomatic efforts to reach a resolution continue.
Harvard University’s endowment is in advanced talks to sell about $1 billion in private equity fund interests, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
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