Connect with us

Published

on

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully performed another launch of its Starship rocket in front of President-elect Donald Trump, but the test flight did not go perfectly.

The 400ft (122m) high rocket system, designed to land astronauts on the moon and ferry crews to Mars, lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas.

The first stage, called Super Heavy, unexpectedly made a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico instead of attempting to return to its launchpad, indicating something went wrong.

SpaceX's Starship launches as seen from South Padre Island near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. November 19, 2024. REUTERS/Gabriel V. Cardenas
Image:
SpaceX’s Starship launched as expected in Texas. Pic: Reuters

Pic: SpaceX
Image:
Pic: SpaceX

Mr Trump’s appearance signals a deepening alliance with Mr Musk, who stands to benefit from his recent election victory.

The billionaire entrepreneur is expected to secure favourable government treatment, not only for SpaceX but also Tesla, and help his companies.

Mr Trump has also appointed Mr Musk as co-leader of a new government efficiency project.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk arrive ahead of the launch. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk arriving ahead of the launch. Pic: Reuters

Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Mr Trump listened as Mr Musk explained how the test would work. Pic: Reuters

After separating from the Starship second stage, the booster returned to Boca Chica in Texas, where it was supposed to be grabbed and clamped in place using what the company describes as “chopsticks”.

More on Spacex

Arguably, they look more like massive pincers mounted on a huge steel tower.

Musk and Trump’s bromance continues – but will it go up in smoke?

Booster catch was a ‘no-go’

But the booster catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight and the booster hit the water three minutes later.

“We are a no-go for tower catch,” said SpaceX, adding the ‘criteria’ was not met, although the firm did not specify what went wrong.

The SpaceX Starship rocket booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after SpaceX operators decided the criteria had not been met for the tower to catch the booster.
Image:
The SpaceX Starship rocket booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. Pic: SpaceX

Pic: SpaceX
Image:
Pic: SpaceX

The Starship rocket also splashed down around an hour later, but this time in the Indian Ocean, off the northern coast of Australia.

It descended in a “belly flop” position before its central engines flipped it around.

Analysis: This is not the outcome any party wanted to see



Tom Clarke

Science and technology editor

@t0mclark3

Elon Musk will be very disappointed by the failure to catch the booster with Donald Trump watching on.

This was their moment to show their prowess in efficiency, reusability, the “fail-fast efficiency” that Donald Trump really wants his presidency to embody.

Donald Trump isn’t somebody who wants to be associated with things that don’t look brilliant or work amazingly.

Instead, Trump wanted to be associated with Musk’s glory and that hasn’t happened.

This was a flight test with a political moment tagged on to it and I think it will have been not the outcome that any party wanted to see.

Step towards moon trip

It was the sixth test for the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket that SpaceX and NASA hope to use to get astronauts back on the moon and eventually Mars.

Among the objectives for the test were igniting one of the engines in space and thermal protection experiments aboard the spacecraft.

SpaceX wants to eventually return and reuse the entire Starship, as full-scale recycling would drive down the cost of hauling cargo and people into space.

NASA is paying SpaceX more than $4bn (£3.1bn) to land astronauts on the moon via Starship on back-to-back missions later this decade.

Continue Reading

US

Manhunt after couple hiking with their children killed in Arkansas park

Published

on

By

Manhunt after couple hiking with their children killed in Arkansas park

A manhunt is under way after a married couple were killed while hiking with their children in an Arkansas state park.

Clinton Brink, 43, and Cristen Brink, 41, were walking with their daughters, who are aged seven and nine, when they were attacked in Devil’s Den State Park on Saturday afternoon, according to Arkansas State Police.

Officers were called to reports of two people dead in the park at around 2.40pm, before their bodies were found on a walking trail.

Arkansas’s state lab are working to determine their cause of death, officials said.

Their children were not injured and are safe with relatives, authorities added.

A statement from the Brink family said the couple “died heroes, protecting their little girls”.

“They deserve justice. They will forever live in all our hearts,” the family added, asking for privacy as they “grieve and learn to navigate this new reality”.

The couple had only moved to Arkansas three weeks ago, having previously lived in California and eastern Montana, Mr Brink’s sister Karina Hutchins said.

Officials have not said how the couple were killed and have not provided a possible motive for the attack.

The suspect has been described as white, of medium build, and was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, a dark baseball cap, and sunglasses.

He was also carrying a black backpack and wearing fingerless gloves.

Police said he could have sustained injuries during the attack and exited the park in a black, four-door car, possibly a Mazda, with the number plate covered with duct tape.

He is then believed to have travelled on State Highway 170 or State Highway 220 to escape.

Read more from Sky News
Gunman kills four in New York
Trump reignites row with Sadiq Khan
Eleven stabbed in US supermarket

Police have urged anyone who was in or near the park that day with smartphone or GoPro footage to come forward.

The park has been closed until further notice.

Continue Reading

US

Has Trump broken from Netanyahu over Gaza?

Published

on

By

Has Trump broken from Netanyahu over Gaza?

Sir Keir Starmer travelled to Scotland for talks with Donald Trump, with the US president publicly distancing himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has said there is no starvation in Gaza. How significant is this moment, as renewed UK-US aid efforts to the Strip are announced?

Plus, Trump cuts down Putin’s deadline to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine. And Martha speaks to one of the 252 Venezuelans deported by Trump to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. He describes brutal torture and dehumanisation – this despite not ever having committed a crime.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

Continue Reading

US

US and EU agree trade deal – with bloc facing 15% tariffs on goods into America

Published

on

By

US and EU agree trade deal - with bloc facing 15% tariffs on goods into America

A number of European leaders have hit out at the terms of the United States and European Union trade deal.

Speaking after talks in Turnberry, Mr Trump told reporters it was the “biggest deal ever made” and will be “great for cars” as well as having a “big impact” on agriculture.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the “big deal” would help bring “stability” to trade after months of turmoil over the threat of a trade war.

The US will impose 15% tariffs on most EU goods entering America, after Mr Trump had threatened a 30% levy.

But French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said of the terms: “It is a sombre day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission.”

Long-time EU critic, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, responded: “This is not an agreement … Donald Trump ate von der Leyen for breakfast, this is what happened and we suspected this would happen as the U.S. president is a heavyweight when it comes to negotiations while Madame President is featherweight.”

President Trump shakes hands with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry. Pic: Reuters
Image:
President Donald Trump shakes hands with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry. Pic: Reuters

Others welcomed news of an agreement but seemed resigned to the terms.

More on Donald Trump

The deal includes $600bn (£446bn) of EU investments in the US, and the bloc will buy $750bn (£558bn) of US energy and also purchase American military equipment.

Mr Trump said: “I think it’s great that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all.”

He said: “We are agreeing that the tariff… for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%.” However, the 15% baseline rate would not apply to steel and aluminium, for which a 50% tariff would stay in place.

Ms Von der Leyen said: “We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world and it’s a big deal, it’s a huge deal. It will bring stability, it will bring predictability, that’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”

She said the agreement would include 15% tariffs “across the board”, and it would help rebalance trade between the two large trading partners.

She said the levy rate was the “best we could get” regarding the car sector.

But she added that there was “no decision” on the spirits sector, which was one of those areas where the details in the framework trade deal would have to be examined in the coming weeks.

Read more from Sky News:
Wildfires break out in Greece, Turkey and Albania
Conservatives vow to ban doctor strikes

Follow the World
Follow the World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Mr Trump had earlier said the main sticking point was “fairness”, citing barriers to US exports of cars and agriculture.

He went into the talks demanding fairer trade with the 27-member bloc and threatening steep tariffs to achieve that, while insisting the US will not go below 15% import taxes.

For months, Mr Trump has threatened most of the world with large tariffs in the hope of shrinking major US trade deficits with many key trading partners, including the EU.

In case there was no deal and the US had imposed 30% tariffs from 1 August, the EU has prepared counter-tariffs on €93bn (£81bn) of US goods.

Ahead of their meeting on Sunday, Ms Von der Leyen described Mr Trump as a “tough negotiator and dealmaker”.

The deal mirrors parts of the framework agreement the US clinched with Japan last week.

Continue Reading

Trending