Trump will attend the sixth SpaceX Starship flight test today

On November 20, 2024By Pranco

President-elect Donald Trump will personally attend the launch of the sixth SpaceX spaceship today (Nov. 19).

Trump confirmed his attendance at the meeting Starship launch on Xformerly Twitter. “Good luck to Elon Musk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project,” Trump added in the post (capitalized) referring to the SpaceX founder and CEO.

Trump’s presence at the launch is another signal of the growing role Musk will play in the next presidential administration. Today SpaceX The launch, called Integrated Flight Test-6 (IFT-6), is expected to take off during a 30-minute period beginning at 5:00 PM EST (10:00 PM GMT; 4:00 PM local time in Texas). That’s possible watch live on Space.com.

Watch live! SpaceX Launches Starship on Sixth Flight, Try a Booster Catch – YouTube

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Trump last week co-appointed Musk to a new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’, together with entrepreneur and politician Vivek Ramaswamy. (The Washington Post notes this this ‘department’ is more of an advisory board; certain departments must be created with the consent of Congress.)

“Together, these two great Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle the government bureaucracy, eliminate excess regulations, reduce wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies – essential to the Save America movement,” Trump wrote in a speech. statement (capitalization are).

Musk has several companies that could benefit from his involvement with the Trump administration, according to NPR.

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“His electric car company Tesla receives government funding and has received millions to install EV charging stations. His rocket company SpaceX has won billions of dollars in government contracts for moon missions. And his satellite internet company, Starlinkhas also received millions in grants from the federal government,” NPR wrote earlier this month.

Prior to Trump’s confirmation that he would personally go to Texas, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued “temporary flight restrictions on VIP (very important persons) movements” near Starship‘s launch site in Brownsville, Texas on Monday (November 18), according to Reuters. At the same time, a flight restriction at Trump’s compound in Palm Beach, Florida, will be temporarily lifted.

Musk has been vocal about the FAA’s role in regulating past spaceship launches. Tagging a post on on spaceship regulation for example, in September Musk told current FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker “must resign.” Musk is also the owner of X.

The Starship mega-rocket contains two fully reusable elements: a massive first stage called Super Heavy and an upper stage spacecraft called Starship, or simply ‘Ship’. Musk plans to use Starship for heavy launch missions to the Moon And Mars; the spacecraft has successfully completed a number of spaceflight tests since 2022, but has yet to reach orbit speed.

This story was updated at 3 p.m. EST with confirmation of Trump’s presence.

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