Elon Musk has vowed to get “anyone who wants to be a space traveller” to Mars – but not if Kamala Harris becomes US president.
On Sunday night, Musk told his X followers that in just two years, he will send five spaceships to Mars.
“Eventually,” he added, “there will be thousands of Starships going to Mars and it will [be] a glorious sight to see!”
However, the vocal Donald Trump supporter said another Democratic presidency “would destroy the Mars programme and doom humanity” by drowning it in red tape.
Musk also said earlier in the month: “We will never reach Mars if Kamala wins.”
It’s a claim repeated by Republican candidate Mr Trump.
On Saturday, he vowed to reach Mars during his presidency if his supporters get him to the White House.
“I’ll talk to Elon,” he said at a rally. “Elon, get those rocket ships going.”
SpaceX is known for its high-risk high-reward attitude to space exploration, and is now NASA’s main mode of transport for getting astronauts to the International Space Station.
The company has consistently innovated in space; just two weeks ago, it helped an American billionaire become the first person to take part in a risky private spacewalk.
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How private spacewalk made history
But despite the leaps made by SpaceX in the two last decades, Musk says he is frustrated by how “stifling” bureaucracy and restrictions are in the US.
“One of my biggest concerns right now is that the Starship programme is being smothered by a mountain of government bureaucracy that grows every year.”
If Musk’s unmanned Starships can arrive safely on Mars in two years, he says he will send crewed missions by 2028.
He has previously said he would like to see a self-sustaining colony on Mars in just 20 years.
So would Donald Trump make that a reality?
While he was in office, Mr Trump had an outsized impact on US space activity, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His government created the space security team Space Force and pushed NASA to reach the moon again by 2024 – although that has since been delayed to 2025.
However, vice president Harris is a space advocate herself, having been chair of the National Space Council since 2021.
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In her time, she has been praised for pushing 37 countries to sign up to the Artemis Accords, a peace agreement that says outer space “shall be the province of all mankind”.
“I believe that she’s a space aficionado,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at an event on space policy held by Politico in Washington.
Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.
Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.
“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.
“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.
“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”
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Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’
Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obamaat Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
The pairsat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.
Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.
Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.
“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.
“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.
On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”
The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.
Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.
By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.
Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.
At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.
Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.
Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.
Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.
Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.
Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.