Latest news with #MarsMission
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘It's absolutely shocking:' Space Coast reacts as Trump administration pulls NASA pick
The search is back on for a new NASA administrator. The Trump administration announced Saturday that they were pulling Jared Isaacman's nomination to lead the agency just days before he was set to face a confirmation vote. The move caused a stir on the Space Coast, with many in the space community expressing shock at the move. So far, no replacement has been named. Isaacman, a billionaire philanthropist and private astronaut, had bipartisan support and had advanced past the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this year. Nearly 30 former astronauts had supported Isaacman's nomination, stating he was uniquely qualified to lead the agency. 'It just came out of nowhere,' said researcher and scientist, Dr. Ken Kremer with Space UpClose, 'Everybody in the space community pretty much was united that this was a great nomination.' Isaacman had been working his way through the confirmation process since December. Kremer said it will likely be months before a new nominee is confirmed. 'Everybody supported his nomination, and it still took a long time,' said Kremer, 'They've got to go through background check, they've got to fill out all kinds of financial forms.' The White House said it's looking for someone to lead the effort to put humans on Mars and plant an American flag. During Isaacman's Senate Committee Confirmation hearing, Isaacman said he believed a mission to the Moon should come first, but also wanted to see a mission to Mars in the future. The White House released a statement saying, 'The Administrator of NASA will help lead humanity into space and execute President Trump's bold mission of planting the American flag on the planet Mars. It's essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump's America First agenda and a replacement will be announced directly by President Trump soon.' Kremer said that months into the new administration, a new appointment needs to come quickly. 'Like any federal agency, they need a head to fight for their budget, fight for their point of view, lay out to the president why what they're doing is important,' said Kremer. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Gizmodo
Musk Still Thinks Mars Is a Go for 2026, Despite Starship's Epic Losing Streak
The SpaceX CEO outlined upcoming changes to the rocket while staying committed to a 2026 mission to the Red Planet. Despite a disappointing streak of Starship launches, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk remains optimistic about using the megarocket to transport humans to Mars within the next few years. During a recent talk, the rocket billionaire remained intent on launching Starship to Mars during an upcoming window in 2026. He also awkwardly mentioned that humanity would need to move to the Red Planet in case World War III breaks out. On Thursday, SpaceX released a video of Musk addressing employees during a company talk titled, 'The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary.' The talk was originally meant to be streamed on Tuesday, the same day Starship lifted off for a less-than-ideal test flight. Musk was a no-show, leading us to wonder where he was. Then, without explanation, the company dropped the 42-minute video on its X page, though it's not clear when Musk delivered the talk. As expected, Musk made some big promises for Starship while ignoring the rocket's three consecutive failures. 'Progress is measured by the timeline to establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars,' Musk said during his talk. 'Each launch is about learning more and more about what's needed to make life multi-planetary and to improve Starship to the point where it can be taking, ultimately, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people to Mars.' Musk sees Mars as a vital lifeline for humanity, describing it as essential 'for the long term survival of civilization.' He claims that any civilization is likely to last 10 times longer if it is multiplanetary, because 'there's always some chance that us humans could do something crazy like World War III,' he said. 'Hopefully not, but it's possible.' Starship is at the center of Musk's overly ambitious plan to establish human settlements on Mars. Before its most recent test flight, Starship suffered back-to-back glitches that resulted in the rocket exploding twice in a row. SpaceX stated that there were several improvements made to Starship ahead of Flight 9, but the rocket fell into an unrecoverable spin about 30 minutes after launch. SpaceX managed to push Starship further than in the previous two tests but it still failed to meet a lot of its flight goals, including the deployment of eight simulated Starlink satellites, relighting one of its engines in space, and testing the rocket's engine during reentry. During his talk, Musk failed to refer to Starship's recent losses and instead boasted about clear highlights from the rocket's launch journey thus far, including that epic booster catch on October 13, 2024. Starship, the largest rocket ever built, currently stands 397 feet (121 meters) tall, but an upcoming version of it will be even bigger. Version 3, according to Musk, will be at around 408 feet (124.4 meters). Aside from its bigger frame, Starship will also have an upgraded design that Musk hopes will make it more reliable, with an upper stage that can be refueled in Earth orbit so that it can reach more distant destinations like Mars. The vehicle will also have upgraded Raptor engines. 'The upgraded Raptors have a complete redesign of the aft end of the booster and the ship,' Musk said during a recent interview with Ars Technica. 'So, because we don't need the heat shield around the upper portion of the engine, it greatly simplifies the base of the booster and the ship. It'll look a little, frankly, naked, especially on the booster side, because the engines will just be there, like, not with stuff around them.' The SpaceX CEO is aiming for Starship's Version 3 to fly by the end of this year. From there, he hopes to catch an upcoming launch window for Mars that opens at the end of 2026. 'We'll try to make that opportunity, if we get lucky,' Musk said during his talk. 'I think we probably have a 50/50 chance right now.' We've learned not to take Musk's timelines too seriously, but a Starship redesign will probably be necessary to lift the rocket out of its recent slump. And until SpaceX successfully demonstrates in-orbit refueling—an absolute requirement for reaching Mars—Starship remains more fantasy than spacecraft.
Sky News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Elon Musk reveals when he hopes to launch mission crewed by robots to Mars
Elon Musk has said he wants to send a spacecraft crewed by humanoid robots on a voyage to Mars by the end of next year. The tech billionaire outlined his latest schedule for Starship in a video presented at the project's Starbase home in Texas and posted online on Thursday. The SpaceX founder had been set to give a presentation, called The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary, on Tuesday night, following a ninth test flight of the spacecraft earlier that evening. But the speech was cancelled after the vehicle spun out of control about 30 minutes into the launch, having not achieved some of its most important test goals. 0:32 And on Wednesday, Musk confirmed his brief but tumultuous spell in the Trump administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was ending. Musk warned there was no guarantee he would be able to meet the Starship timeframe he set out and much depended on overcoming a number of technical challenges, during flight-test development, especially a post-launch refuelling operation while orbiting Earth. He previously said he aimed to send an unmanned vehicle to the red planet as early as 2018 and had targeted 2024 to launch a first crewed mission there. Humans would land on Mars as part of the second or third flights, he said on Thursday, but the first trip would be in the hands of one or more humanoid Optimus design robots built by Tesla, the electric vehicle and battery maker he leads. The current target to land a human on Mars using Starship is 2028, but it has yet to make an orbit of Earth. Musk said he wants to make it so that "anyone who wants to move to Mars and help build a new civilisation can do so. Anyone out there. How cool would that be?". At the end of 2026, Mars and Earth align around the sun, reducing the distance between the two planets to its shortest, but still seven to nine months' travelling time by spacecraft. Musk said they had a 50-50 chance of meeting that deadline and if Starship isn't ready by then, SpaceX would wait another two years before trying again. NASA, which hopes to land astronauts on Mars sometime in the 2030s, is planning to use Starship to return humans to the surface of the moon as early as 2027 - more than 50 years after the last lunar landings of the Apollo era. Starship's previous test flights in January and March also failed, with the spacecraft exploding moments after lift-off, raining debris over parts of the Caribbean and forcing scores of commercial jets to change course as a precaution. Musk shrugged off the latest mishap on Tuesday with a brief post on X, saying it produced a lot of "good data to review" and promising a faster launch "cadence" for the next several test flights.
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Elon Musk sets ambitious 2026 target for first uncrewed Starship voyage to Mars
Two days after the latest in a string of test-flight setbacks for his big new Mars spacecraft, Starship, Elon Musk said on Thursday he foresees the futuristic vehicle making its first uncrewed voyage to the red planet at the end of next year. Advertisement Musk presented a detailed Starship development timeline in a video posted online by his Los Angeles area-based rocket company, SpaceX, a day after saying he was departing the administration of US President Donald Trump as head of a tumultuous campaign to slash government bureaucracy. The billionaire entrepreneur had said earlier that he was planning to scale back his role in government to focus greater attention on his various businesses, including SpaceX and electric car and battery maker Tesla Inc. Musk acknowledged that his latest timeline for reaching Mars hinged on whether Starship can accomplish a number of challenging technical feats during its flight-test development, particularly a post-launch refuelling manoeuvre in Earth orbit. A Starship test-launch in 2024. File photo: SpaceX via AFP The end of 2026 would coincide with a slim window that occurs once every two years when Mars and Earth align around the sun for the closest trip between the two planets, which would take seven to nine months to transit by spacecraft. Advertisement Musk gave his company a 50-50 chance of meeting that deadline. If Starship were not ready by that time, SpaceX would wait another two years before trying again, Musk suggested in the video.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Musk aiming to send uncrewed Starship to Mars by end of 2026
LOS ANGELES, May 29 (Reuters) - Two days after the latest in a string of test-flight setbacks for his big new Mars spacecraft, Starship, Elon Musk said on Thursday he foresees the futuristic vehicle making its first uncrewed voyage to the red planet at the end of next year. Musk presented a detailed Starship development timeline in a video posted online by his Los Angeles area-based rocket company, SpaceX, a day after departing the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump as head of a tumultuous campaign to slash government bureaucracy. The billionaire entrepreneur had said earlier that he was planning to scale back his role in government to focus greater attention on his various businesses, including SpaceX and electric car and battery maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), opens new tab. Musk acknowledged that his latest timeline for reaching Mars hinged on whether Starship can accomplish a number of challenging technical feats during its flight-test development, particularly a post-launch refueling maneuver in Earth orbit. The end of 2026 would coincide with a slim window that occurs once every two years when Mars and Earth align around the sun for the closest trip between the two planets, which would take seven to nine months to transit by spacecraft. Musk gave his company a 50-50 chance of meeting that deadline. If Starship were not ready by that time, SpaceX would wait another two years before trying again, Musk suggested in the video. The first flight to Mars would carry a simulated crew consisting of one or more robots of the Tesla-built humanoid Optimus design, with the first human crews following in the second or third landings. NASA is currently aiming to return humans to the surface of the moon aboard Starship as early as 2027 - more than 50 years after its last manned lunar landings of the Apollo era - as a stepping stone toward ultimately launching astronauts to Mars sometime in the 2030s. Musk, who has advocated for a more Mars-focused human spaceflight program, has previously said he was aiming to send an unmanned SpaceX vehicle to the red planet as early as 2018 and was targeting 2024 to launch a first crewed mission there. The SpaceX founder was scheduled to deliver a live webcast presentation billed as "The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary" from the company's Starbase, Texas, launch site on Tuesday night, following a ninth test flight of Starship that evening. But the speech was canceled without notice after Starship spun out of control and disintegrated in a fireball about 30 minutes after launch and roughly halfway through its flight path without achieving some of its most important test goals. Two preceding test flights in January and March failed in more spectacular fashion, with the spacecraft blowing to pieces on ascent moments after liftoff, raining debris over parts of the Caribbean and forcing scores of commercial jetliners to change course as a precaution. Musk shrugged off the latest mishap on Tuesday with a brief post on X, saying it produced a lot of "good data to review" and promising a faster launch "cadence" for the next several test flights.
