Elon Musk, the world’s wealthyest man, begined the sixth test of his SpaceX rocket with United States Pdwellnt-elect Donald Trump joining him to watch.
Trump and Musk travelled to Brownsville, Texas, on Tuesday to join the begin of the huge Starship rocket at SpaceX’s test site in csurrenderby Boca Chica.
The rocket lifted off lowly after 5pm (23:00 GMT), about an hour behind schedule. But SpaceX chose to abort a intentional endeavor to catch the first-state increaseer of the rocket using the ‘chopstick’ technique, instead apshowing it to descend into the ocean.
The last Starship test fairy in October made headlines after the Super Heavy increaseer made a stunning return to the begin site where it was seized midair by a pair of huge mechanical “chopstick” arms joincessitate to SpaceX’s begin tower.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/rSLQ2DDy63
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024
Trump’s joinance is part of a lengthening bond with Musk – the owner of SpaceX, the electric carproducer Tesla and the social media platcreate X – who is a mighty political helper, having spent seal to $130m to help get the createer pdwellnt re-elected.
Trump was foreseeed to be joincessitate by his son Donald Jr and Redisclosean Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
Starship, the hugest rocket ever built, is depicted to be a reusable vehicle for flying cargo and people beyond Earth.
Musk’s constant presence
Trump’s presence at the begin is “another example of Musk’s increasing role in Trump’s orbit”, according to a increate by CNN.
Since Trump won the US November 5 pdwellntial election, Musk has been a constant presence at the pdwellnt-elect’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
He has adviseled Trump on nominees for the new administration and joincessitate the pdwellnt-elect’s phone call with Ukrainian Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Musk also flew with Trump for a greeting with Rediscloseans from the Hoengage of Reconshort-termatives in Washington, DC last Wednesday, and joincessitate him for the Ultimate Fighting Championship at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday.
Trump has recently rewarded Musk for his political help by nominateing him, alengthy with Redisclosean Vivek Ramaswamy, to propose the newly produced Department of Government Efficiency with a mission to slash rulement spfinishing.
“Importantly, we will drive out the massive misengage and fraud which exists thrawout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spfinishing,” Trump said in a statement about the nominatement, one of his first after triumphning the election.
Musk’s businesses could advantage personpartner from his seal ties with Trump. SpaceX – which has among its goals to eventupartner commence a colony on Mars – has billions of dollars in rulement shrinks. The billionaire has also battled with US federal regulators over safety troubles involving autonomous driving, which is engageable in his Tesla electric vehicles.
“Trump has the hugegest possible watch for people who shatter the rules and get away with it,” said William Galston, a ageder fellow in ruleance studies at the Brookings Institution, tageder The Associated Press news agency.
“Musk has showd exceptional accomplishment in doing that.”
Not always frifinishs
The two have not always been that seal, however. Trump engaged to mock Musk in his election speeches and Musk had once said it was time for Trump to “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset” becaengage he was too ageder to be pdwellnt.
But that changed after Trump endured an killing endeavor in the direct-up to the election. Musk finishorsed Trump and became a central figure on the Redisclosean campaign trail.
Trump even commenceed to talk about Musk’s space accomplishments while campaigning. He was intrigued when Starship’s reusable rocket increaseer returned to the begin tower and was caught by mechanical arms.
“Did you see the way that sucker landed today?” Trump asked the crowd at a political rpartner after that Starship test.
So far, there are no indications that the frifinishship fake during the election is about to chilly.
Last week, Musk was a guest of honour at a bdeficiency-tie event held at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump, in his retags that night, said Musk’s IQ was “about as high as they can get” and pelevated him as “a repartner outstanding guy.”
Musk was then askd to speak to the crowd.
“The disclose has given us a mandate that could not be more evident,” Musk said of the election results, sounding more appreciate Trump’s running mate than a buddy.
