President-elect Donald Trump witnessed the sixth test launch of SpaceX’s Mars-bound spacecraft, Starship, alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday in Brownsville, Texas. The event was hosted by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, making another public appearance in what appears to be a burgeoning alliance between the two figures.
Before arriving in Texas, Trump shared on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he wished Elon Musk good luck and the “great patriots involved in this amazing project.”
In the two weeks following his presidential election victory, Trump has made joint appearances with Musk, accompanying him to nearly every event. The President-elect sat next to Musk at a UFC match in New York and brought him along to meet with House Republicans in Washington. The Associated Press reported that this joint appearance at the Starship test launch could have far-reaching implications for U.S. politics, foreign policy, and humanity’s potential Mars exploration.
Musk has been an influential supporter of Trump, contributing $200 million to his campaign and advising him on personnel recommendations for his second administration. He also participated in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and has been nominated co-chair of the new “Department of Government Efficiency,” tasked with streamlining the federal bureaucracy.
William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted that Trump greatly respects individuals who defy the rules and achieve success. He highlighted Musk’s exceptional exemplification of this.
Musk has denied expecting any favors in return for his support of Trump in the presidential election. In September, he posted on X (formerly Twitter), “There is no quid pro quo,” asserting that with the Trump administration, “we can execute major government reform, remove bureaucratic paperwork that is smothering the country, and unlock a new age of prosperity.”
During the launch, SpaceX conducted its sixth Starship rocket test but did not attempt to recover the booster rocket using a giant mechanical arm. The recovery attempt was aborted just four minutes into the test flight, with the booster rocket plummeting into the Gulf of Mexico. A SpaceX spokesperson stated that not all conditions for booster recovery were met but did not specify the exact issue.
The launched spacecraft completed a test flight similar to the one conducted in October. It orbited nearly once around the Earth before splashing down in the Indian Ocean after approximately an hour of demonstration flight.
SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to make Starship fully reusable, a crucial milestone in its ambition to develop a 121-meter (400-foot) spacecraft capable of supporting missions to the Moon and Mars. NASA has already committed over $4 billion to SpaceX for a project to land astronauts on the Moon using the Starship in the early 2030s.
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