keneci
News • Science & Tech • Comedy
Flight 6: SpaceX Launches Starship's Sixth Test Flight As Trump, Elon Musk Watch In Person From The Rocket Company's Starbase
November 21, 2024
post photo preview

With President-elect Donald Trump in attendance Tuesday(Nov. 19) at the company's Starbase site in Boca Chica, South Texas, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its 122-meter-tall Starship at 2200 UTC, on the megarocket's sixth test flight mission to space.

Following stage separation, the megarocket's first stage or Super Heavy(Booster 13) returned to earth about 7 minutes after liftoff, landing into the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike during flight 5 when booster 12 was caught by the mechanical 'chopstick' arm back at the launch tower, Tuesday's flight's data didn't support an attempt to catch booster 13, so it instead came in for a controlled splashdown. "We tripped a commit criteria," SpaceX's Dan Huot said during the company's Flight 6 webcast.

Meanwhile, the megarocket's second stage or Ship 31 continued skywards on the same semi-orbital trajectory that as Flight 5's, splashing down 65 minutes after liftoff, in the Indian Ocean off the northwestern coast of Australia. The splashdown which this time, occurred during the day was captured by a nearby buoy camera.

Tuesday's mission aimed, among many test objectives, to put the 50-meter-tall Ship 31 through its paces. It briefly re-lit one of its six Raptor engines for the first time, about 38 minutes into the flight. (Super Heavy employs 33 Raptors). This burn helped show that Ship can perform the maneuvers needed to come back to Earth safely during orbital missions.

Ship, like Super Heavy, is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable. SpaceX eventually intends to catch it with the chopstick arms as well. Musk in post on X Tuesday, suggested the company may try to do so during Flight 9. Landing directly on the launch mount, rather than on a ship at sea or a designated touchdown pad, will enable quicker and more efficient inspection, refurbishment and reflight, SpaceX has said.

Flight 6 also tested modifications to Ship's heat shield, which protects the vehicle during reentry to Earth's atmosphere.

"The flight test will assess new secondary thermal protection materials and will have entire sections of heat shield tiles removed on either side of the ship in locations being studied for catch-enabling hardware on future vehicles," SpaceX wrote in a mission description. "The ship also will intentionally fly at a higher angle of attack in the final phase of descent, purposefully stressing the limits of flap control to gain data on future landing profiles."

"Incredible! We really pushed the limits on Ship, and it made it all the way back down to Earth," Jessica Anderson, SpaceX manufacturing engineering manager, said during Tuesday's webcast.

"I am shocked, to be honest," added webcast co-host Kate Tice, a senior quality engineering manager at SpaceX. "I think many folks are. The fact that it survived all the way through while flying a lesser-gen heat shield is just absolutely incredible."

Flight 6 also carried the first-ever Starship payload -- a plush banana onboard Ship, which served as a zero-gravity indicator. (It was not deployed into space).

Trump made the trip to Starbase to watch Flight 6 in person. Musk contributed money and campaigned for Trump's election arguing that his opponent Kamala Harris would continue the left's anti-innovation policy of over-regulation of the engineering and tech sector.

The President-elect who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, has appointed Musk to co-lead the "Department of Government Efficiency." This advisory group, Trump said, will help his administration "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies."

Musk is apparently targeting 25 Starship launches in 2025 and 100 a few years after that. SpaceX has already launched 113 missions of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket so far in 2024.

The rocket company is likely to enjoy a more favorable regulatory environment under Trump. The Tesla CEO has railed repeatedly in recent months, against overzealous 'woke' regulators in the Biden administration which he argues, slow down the pace of innovation.

community logo
Join the keneci Community
To read more articles like this, sign up and join my community today
0
What else you may like…
Videos
Posts
Articles
SpaceX Starlink Internet Satellites

With Starlink internet, data is continuously being sent between a ground dish and a Starlink satellite orbiting 550km above. Furthermore, the Starlink satellite zooms across the sky at 27,000 km/hr! MORE VIDEOS ON KENECI NETWORK RUMBLE CHANNEL: https://rumble.com/c/Keneci

00:28:08
Elon Musk, DOGE Speak On Waste And Fraud

US Department of Government Efficiency Services (USDS) led by Elon Musk speak on the "mind-boggling" fraud and waste in UInited States federal government

00:00:45
January 17, 2025
SpaceX Launches Starship 7th Test Flight

SpaceX successfully executed its second-ever “chopsticks” catch of a Super Heavy booster (or Booster 14) using the “Mechazilla” launch tower on Thursday(Jan. 16), during the seventh uncrewed test flight of the company's 123-meter Starship rocket. However, the megarocket's upper stage(or Ship 33) was lost approximately 8.5 minutes into the flight in a “rapid unscheduled disassembly(RUD)” or explosion

00:10:30
Welcome to Keneci Network!

Join the conversations!

September 17, 2024
Charges Against Sean 'Diddy' Combs In Grand Jury Indictment

The rapper was charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution in the indictment unsealed Tuesday(Sept. 17)

Combs-Indictment-24-Cr.-542.pdf
"Dear husband"

A Dubai princess took to social media to announce she's divorcing her husband who's worth $40B.

She claims the billionaire is busy with his "other [female] companions"

post photo preview
post photo preview
Trump Threatens Tariffs, After EU Hit Google With $3.5B Antitrust Violations

The European Union has fined Google $3.46 billion for abusing its dominant position in the digital advertising market, accusing the company of creating inherent conflicts of interest by controlling both the buy and sell sides of online advertising. In response, US President Donald Trump has threatened to initiate a Section 301 trade investigation, which could lead to retaliatory tariffs, calling the fine "unfair" and "discriminatory" against American companies.

The European Commission announced the $3.46 billion fine on Friday, stating that Google's control of both the buy and sell sides of the online advertising market created "inherent conflicts of interest." The investigation, which began in 2021, found that Google favored its own advertising services, violating EU competition laws Regulators have ordered Google to end its "self-preferencing practices" and resolve these conflicts of interest, with the company having 60 days to propose a remedy.

The Commission noted that structural remedies, such as a forced divestiture of parts of its adtech business, remain a possibility if Google's proposals are inadequate.

President Trump reacted swiftly on Truth Social, calling the fine "unfair" and "discriminatory" towards US companies. He claimed the $3.5 billion penalty was taking money that would otherwise go to "American Investments and Jobs" and stated, "Very unfair, and the American Taxpayer will not stand for it!" Trump explicitly threatened to start a Section 301 proceeding to "nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these Taxpaying American Companies."

A Section 301 investigation paves the way for Washington to impose import taxes under a fortified legal basis through the Commerce Department, and the president has a lot of latitude to issue tariffs over unfair trade practices under the provision. Section 301 is the same trade tool Trump used to justify tariffs on China starting in 2018.

Trump also referenced a previous $17 billion fine against Apple, suggesting it should be reversed He claimed the total fines against Google from the EU now amount to $16.5 billion, including the latest penalty.

The fine marks the fourth antitrust penalty for Google from the EU The investigation focused on Google's dominance in online display advertising, where personalized banners and text ads appear on websites. The EU has previously warned that past penalties and requirements have not effectively curbed anti-competitive practices.

Google has rejected the decision, calling it "wrong" and stating it would appeal, arguing that the fine is unjustified and that the required changes would harm European businesses.

The company maintains that providing services for both ad buyers and sellers is not inherently anticompetitive and that there are more alternatives available than ever before.

The timing of Trump's threat is notable, as it comes just a day after he hosted Google's CEO Sundar Pichai, co-founder Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and other tech leaders at a White House dinner to discuss artififical intelligence implications with First Lady Melania Trump. This confrontation adds tension to a recently agreed-upon US-EU trade deal aimed at reducing US tariffs on EU imports.

“The European Union must stop this practice against American Companies, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read full Article
post photo preview
Trump Rebrands US Dept. Of Defense To Dept. Of War, Restoring Its Pre-1947 Name

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday, formally changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, a move he framed as a restoration of American military strength and a rejection of what he termed "woke" policies within the Pentagon.

The rebranding, which requires congressional approval for permanence, was announced in a ceremony in the Oval Office, where Trump, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, stated the change was necessary because the U.S. "never fought to win" under the previous name, attributing past military stalemates to political correctness.

Hegseth declared the change was about "restoring the warrior ethos" and fighting "to win, not to lose," while Caine's remarks were not detailed in the provided sources.

"Really it has to do with winning. We should have won every war. We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct or wokey and we just fight forever," Trump said, flanked by Hegseth and Gen. Caine. "We had it, and we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything before, and as I said, we won everything in between," Trump added. "And we were very strong. But we never fought to win. We just didn’t fight to win. We would have won every one of those wars quickly, but they went a route that I think was probably politically correct, but not correct for our nation. So I think the Department of War sends a signal." He also stated, "We won the first world war, second world war- everything before that and in between and then we decided to go woke and changed the name to 'Department of Defense', so we're going 'Department of War'"

Hegseth on his part said, "This name changing is not just about renaming, it is about restoring. Words matter... Restoring the warrior ethos, restoring victory and clarity, restoring intentionality... The War Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It's going to fight to win, not to lose. We are going to go on offence, not just defence; maximum lethality, not tepid legality; violent effect, not politically correct. We are going to raise up warriors, not just defenders"  He also stated, "We won World War I and World War II not with the Department of Defence but with the War Department"

The Department of War was established by President George Washington in 1789 and served as the primary agency for the U.S. Army until 1947. In that year, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act, which merged the Department of the Army (formerly the Department of War), the Department of the Navy, and the newly created Department of the Air Force into the National Military Establishment. This entity was renamed the Department of Defense in August 1949.

The recent rebranding is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration and Defense Secretary Hegseth to reverse policies deemed "woke" or politically correct, including reversing the renaming of military bases from Confederate names and renaming a Navy ship previously named after gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

The White House has already updated its social media and the Pentagon's website to reflect the new name, with the domain changing to "war.gov." The move has been met with enthusiasm from some on the right, but skepticism and scorn from others.

Read full Article
post photo preview
500th Falcon Landing: SpaceX Launches Starlink 10-57 Mission

SpaceX successfully launched the Starlink 10-57 mission on Friday, Sept. 5, deploying 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 1232 UTC. The Falcon 9 first stage booster(B1069) landed about 8.5 minutes after liftoff on the 'Just Read the Instructions' drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 8.5 minutes after liftoff, completing its 27th flight, and marking the 500th successful recovery of Falcon, an orbital-class rocket, a significant reusability milestone for SpaceX.

"Falcon 9 touchdown on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, completing the 500th launch and landing of an orbital class rocket," SpaceX wrote on X.

B1069 had previously flown on missions including CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, and 22 prior Starlink missions. This landing was the 135th recovery for the "Just Read the Instructions" drone ship.

The Falcon 9 upper stage deployed the 28 satellites into a north-easterly trajectory in low Earth orbit(LEO), about one hour and four minutes after launch.

Starlink 10-57 was the 111th Falcon 9 mission for SpaceX in 2025 out of a total of 529 since 2010. The company's broadband megaconstellation now numbers more than 8,370 active satellites.

Read full Article
See More
Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
google store google store app tv store app tv store amazon store amazon store roku store roku store
Powered by Locals