Musk to launch SpaceX Starship rocket with Trump at his side

The president-elect travels to Texas with SpaceX CEO to ticker the latest trial of the billionaire’s Starship rocket.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is astir to motorboat the sixth trial of his SpaceX rocket with United States President-elect Donald Trump joining him to watch.

Trump and Musk travelled to Brownsville, Texas, connected Tuesday to be the motorboat of the elephantine Starship rocket astatine SpaceX’s trial tract successful adjacent Boca Chica.

Trump’s attendance is portion of a growing enslaved with Musk – the proprietor of SpaceX, the electrical carmaker Tesla and the social media level X – who is simply a beardown governmental supporter, having spent adjacent to $130m to assistance get the erstwhile president re-elected.

Trump is expected to beryllium joined by his lad Donald Jr and Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas for the 4pm (22:00 GMT) launch.

Starship, the largest rocket ever built, is designed to beryllium a reusable conveyance for flying cargo and radical beyond Earth.

The past Starship trial formation successful October made headlines aft the Super Heavy booster made a stunning instrumentality to the motorboat tract wherever it was captured midair by a brace of elephantine mechanical “chopstick” arms attached to SpaceX’s motorboat tower.

Musk’s changeless presence

Trump’s beingness astatine the motorboat is “another illustration of Musk’s expanding relation successful Trump’s orbit”, according to a study by CNN.

Since Trump won the US November 5 statesmanlike election, Musk has been a changeless beingness astatine the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago property successful Palm Beach, Florida.

He has counselled Trump connected nominees for the caller medication and joined the president-elect’s telephone telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Musk besides flew with Trump for a gathering with Republicans from the House of Representatives successful Washington, DC past Wednesday, and joined him for the Ultimate Fighting Championship astatine Madison Square Garden successful New York connected Saturday.

Trump has precocious rewarded Musk for his governmental enactment by appointing him, on with Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, to counsel the recently created Department of Government Efficiency with a ngo to slash authorities spending.

“Importantly, we volition thrust retired the monolithic discarded and fraud which exists passim our yearly $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending,” Trump said successful a connection astir the appointment, 1 of his archetypal aft winning the election.

Musk’s businesses could payment personally from his adjacent ties with Trump. SpaceX – which has among its goals to eventually commencement a colony connected Mars – has billions of dollars successful authorities contracts. The billionaire has besides battled with US national regulators implicit information concerns involving autonomous driving, which is disposable successful his Tesla electrical vehicles.

“Trump has the biggest imaginable respect for radical who interruption the rules and get distant with it,” said William Galston, a elder chap successful governance studies astatine the Brookings Institution, told The Associated Press quality agency.

“Musk has demonstrated bonzer accomplishment successful doing that.”

Not ever friends

The 2 person not ever been that close, however. Trump utilized to mock Musk successful his predetermination speeches and Musk had erstwhile said it was clip for Trump to “hang up his chapeau & sail into the sunset” due to the fact that helium was excessively aged to beryllium president.

But that changed aft Trump survived an assassination attempt successful the lead-up to the election. Musk endorsed Trump and became a cardinal fig connected the Republican run trail.

Trump adjacent started to speech astir Musk’s abstraction accomplishments portion campaigning. He was intrigued erstwhile Starship’s reusable rocket booster returned to the motorboat operation and was caught by mechanical arms.

“Did you spot the mode that sucker landed today?” Trump asked the assemblage astatine a governmental rally aft that Starship test.

So far, determination are nary indications that the relationship forged during the predetermination is astir to cool.

Last week, Musk was a impermanent of honour astatine a black-tie lawsuit held astatine Mar-a-Lago.

Trump, successful his remarks that night, said Musk’s IQ was “about arsenic precocious arsenic they tin get” and praised him arsenic “a truly bully guy.”

Musk was past invited to talk to the crowd.

“The nationalist has fixed america a mandate that could not beryllium much clear,” Musk said of the predetermination results, sounding much similar Trump’s moving mate than a buddy.

Source

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies