Latest news with #OccupyMars'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX Starship breaks up over Indian Ocean in latest bumpy test
Another SpaceX Starship prototype broke up over the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, capping the latest bumpy test flight for the rocket central to billionaire Elon Musk's dream of colonising Mars. The biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built lifted off at 6.36pm local time from the company's facility near a southern Texas village that earlier this month voted to become a city also named Starbase. The first signs of trouble emerged when the first-stage Super Heavy booster blew up instead of executing its planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. A live feed then showed the upper-stage spaceship failing to open its doors to deploy a payload of Starlink satellite 'simulators'. Though the ship flew farther than on its two previous attempts, it sprang leaks and began spinning out of control as it coasted through space on a suborbital path before re-entering the atmosphere out of control and eventually breaking apart. Related: Fear, hope and loathing in Elon Musk's new city: 'It's the wild, wild west and the future' 'Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly,' SpaceX posted on X, using a familiar euphemism for failure, adding it would learn from the setback. Musk, meanwhile, vowed to pick up the pace: 'Launch cadence for the next three flights will be faster – approximately one every three to four weeks,' he said. He did not say, however, whether he still planned to deliver a live stream about Mars that SpaceX had been promoting. Federal regulators granted SpaceX a licence for Starship's latest flight attempt just four days ago, capping a mishap investigation that had grounded Starship for nearly two months. Its last two test flights – in January and March – were cut short moments after liftoff as the vehicle blew to pieces on its ascent, raining debris over parts of the Caribbean and disrupting scores of commercial airline flights in the region. The Federal Aviation Administration expanded debris hazard zones around the ascent path for Tuesday's launch. Ahead of the launch, dozens of space fans gathered at Isla Blanca Park on nearby South Padre Island hoping to catch a glimpse of history. Several small tourist boats also dotted the lagoon, while a live feed showed Musk sitting at ground control in Starbase, wearing an 'Occupy Mars' T-shirt. Piers Dawson, 50, an Australian, told AFP he was 'obsessed' with the rocket and planned his family vacation around the launch – his first trip to the United States, with his wife and teenage son whom he took out of school to be there. Another enthusiast Joshua Wingate, a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur from Austin, said after the launch: 'I know in science there's never a failure, you learn everything from every single test so that was still super exciting to see.' With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Hindustan Times
Out of DOGE, Elon Musk Returns to His Bruised Business Empire
Elon MuskElon Musk is ready to get obsessed with his companies again. He has a lot to contend with. Tesla is about to launch its first robotaxis, SpaceX is trying to launch a spacecraft to Mars, and xAI is racing to develop human-level artificial intelligence before the competition does it first. 'Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms,' he posted on X Saturday. 'I must be super focused on X/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week).' Musk is known for maniacal focus on whatever is in front of him, and for years has carved up his time to try to advance difficult technologies across his business empire. The companies he is returning to are still wrestling with those kinds of heady challenges, but now must do so with Musk transformed into a deeply polarizing figure. At SpaceX's Starship launch earlier this week, he appeared locked into mission details, wearing his trusty 'Occupy Mars' shirt during interviews and when he was in a company flight-control facility near Brownsville, Texas. There was no 'Make America Great Again' hat in sight. On Wednesday evening, Musk said he was stepping down from his work with DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency), a four-month project to slash government spending that promised as much as $2 trillion in cuts and, in reality, has accomplished a tiny fraction of that. Still, many allies of President Trump have called Musk's work a valiant effort to eliminate waste from federal spending, and other budget hawks are carrying the torch forward. Combined with the $300 million he spent on Republican races in the latest election cycle, Musk has become one of the most powerful political donors in the U.S. while also introducing new uncertainty into his business empire of five companies, including three where he holds the role of CEO. At Tesla, damage to the electric vehicle maker is clear, evidenced by a steep downturn in sales in the U.S. and Europe, which analysts say reflects car buyers' distaste for Musk's controversial role in the Trump administration. In Musk's absence this spring, members of Tesla's board reached out to executive search firms to work on a formal process for CEO succession planning, The Wall Street Journal reported. The current status of the succession planning couldn't be determined. It was also unclear if Musk, who is also a Tesla board member, was aware of the effort or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla affected succession planning, the Journal reported. After publication, Tesla's chair denied that the board contacted firms to initiate a CEO search and said the board was confident in Musk's ability to execute on an exciting growth plan. Around the same time, the board put pressure on Musk to spend more time on Tesla and incentivized him with the promise of a new compensation package. Tesla's market capitalization hit $1.5 trillion in the aftermath of Trump's election, before losing more than half its value as Musk got more involved with the government. It has soared back above $1 trillion on news of Musk's return, with investors hopeful that he will make good on his long-promised vision of a robotic future. Next month, Tesla plans to roll out a new autonomous vehicle ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas. On Thursday, Musk trumpeted road tests of self-driving Model Y cars with nobody in the driver's seat, saying there had been 'no incidents.' Tesla is counting on autonomy to bring a new wave of growth at the company. While Tesla remains the bestselling electric vehicle maker in the U.S., sales are falling and its market share is shrinking. In April, European sales declined for the fourth month in a row, putting it behind Chinese rival BYD for the first time. Musk's challenges extend beyond Tesla. SpaceX is racing to develop Starship, a rocket that Musk wants to use to send people to Mars—some day—and that NASA is counting on for missions coming soon. Musk hasn't been shy about how tough meeting his goals will be. 'Starship is a hard, hard, hard, hard project,' he told The Wall Street Journal in a 2021 interview. The company is trying to prepare Starship for an uncrewed test mission to Mars in 2026, when Earth and the red planet will be closer to each other. It is far from clear if the vehicle will be ready, given the inherent challenges of blasting a spacecraft tens of millions of miles from Earth and following recent setbacks, including back-to-back explosions earlier this year. The latest Starship launch failed to meet a key objective Musk laid out for it: testing tiles designed to protect the vehicle's spacecraft from intense heat and forces as it returns to Earth. Before the flight, Musk told Tim Dodd of the Everyday Astronaut site that conducting those tests was the most important part of the mission. The spacecraft made it to space, but SpaceX lost control of it and wasn't able to see how the tiles performed. The Texas-based company, valued last year at $350 billion, has powerful positions with other business lines, including its fleet of partially reusable Falcon rockets and Starlink, a network of more than 7,500 internet satellites. It has used those technologies to forge close relationships with NASA, the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies. On Friday, the company is scheduled to launch a GPS satellite for the military. Musk recently merged X, his social-media platform, with his xAI business, as he tries to beat rivals like OpenAI in the race to build what he calls 'digital superintelligence,' or artificial general intelligence. He recently worked behind the scenes—unsuccessfully—to ensure his AI company was included in a major Middle East deal, the Journal reported. Meanwhile, the combined company is trying to extend the reach of its chatbot Grok by forging high-profile partnerships, including one with Microsoft. Other Musk companies have full slates, though Musk is less involved. Neuralink, which is run by Shivon Zilis, his friend and co-parent to their four young children, said earlier this month that it would begin a new clinical trial in the Middle East focused on motor and speech impairment. Competition is heating up in the brain-implant space, where Neuralink is among a small cohort of startups implanting their devices in human patients. As of February, three paralyzed patients have received Neuralink's brain implants, enabling them to interface with computers using only their thoughts. Musk's tunneling startup, The Boring Company, is run by Steve Davis, a longtime deputy who made his own mark on the federal government by joining the cost cutting at DOGE. The company has been developing a 68-mile tunnel loop in Las Vegas, setting plans one day to move tens of thousands of people around the city every hour. Projects in other cities have yet to come to fruition. The White House confirmed that Davis also left DOGE this week. Write to Becky Peterson at and Micah Maidenberg at Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Not just Elon Musk: How Donald Trump turned on the tech bros who supported him
Elon Musk learned the hard way that Donald Trump is beyond control—or even the illusion of it. In Captain America: Brave New World, Harrison Ford plays a President who becomes the Red Hulk—transforming into something so powerful, so uncontrollable, that not even his own office can contain him. In 2025, Silicon Valley's elite are learning they backed their own version of the Red Hulk. Elon Musk learned it the hard way. A SpaceX rocket, after all, can be stabilised. It might blow up mid-flight, but it obeys the rules of physics. Donald Trump, by contrast, is pure political radiation—volatile, vengeful, and far more combustible. One moment, Musk was onstage at CPAC with a chainsaw. Weeks later, he was disillusioned, publicly exiting Trump's orbit. Guests including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk, ahead of the inauguration Musk thought he could 'optimise' Washington like one of his chaotic startups. Trump let him try. He even handed him a bespoke cabinet role—chief of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But politics doesn't run on engineering. It runs on power. And Trump, like Ross in Brave New World, doesn't just wield power. He becomes it. Musk isn't the only one who thought he could contain Trump. Bezos tried détente. Cook tried diplomacy. Zuckerberg tried appeasement. All of them believed they were in the room where it happened. But by mid-2025, it was painfully clear: Trump isn't an operator. He's the transformation. And no one, not even the tech bros who helped bring him back, is immune. I. Elon Musk: From Chainsaw Hero to Sidelined Billionaire WATCH: Elon Musk waves chainsaw on stage at CPAC In February 2025, Musk stormed CPAC wielding a red chainsaw gifted by Argentina's libertarian president, Javier Milei. He theatrically sliced through government waste onstage and declared: 'It's wild how easy it is to save billions in an hour.' Trump had made him the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a bespoke post for cutting federal spending. Musk promised $1 trillion in cuts and pledged $100 million to Trump's political machine. But the rocket man soon realised the swamp bites back. By May, the alliance had frayed. Musk criticised Trump's massive tax-and-spend bill, protested a lucrative AI deal granted to OpenAI in Abu Dhabi, and found himself learning from The New York Times—not the Pentagon—that he was about to receive a classified China briefing. Trump wasn't amused. Musk's public exit from DOGE came days later. He announced his departure on X before informing Trump. The billionaire lamented 'toxic bureaucracy,' wasted effort, and reputational damage. He returned to SpaceX, posting launch videos and wearing an 'Occupy Mars' shirt. The message: even the richest man on Earth can't steer Trump for long. II. Jeff Bezos : From Truce to Tariff Threats Bezos tried subtlety. The Washington Post dialled back its progressive tone. Amazon donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration. The founder even met Trump one-on-one before the swearing-in. But April 2025 exposed the fault lines. Reports surfaced that Amazon might show tariff costs directly to consumers. Trump called Bezos to complain. The White House branded the idea 'a hostile and political act.' Amazon backtracked. Trump publicly praised Bezos—for now. Yet Amazon remains in the crosshairs of the FTC's antitrust crusade. Trump continues to blast Amazon's dominance, labour practices, and media arm. The détente was temporary. The regulatory threat is not. Bezos learned the Musk lesson early: accommodation buys time, not loyalty. III. Tim Cook : Between a Tariff and a Hard Place Apple's Tim Cook has long walked the diplomatic tightrope between globalist pragmatism and America First bluster. But in May 2025, even his balancing act faltered. Trump vowed to impose a 25% tariff on all imported iPhones, just days after a private meeting with Cook. Apple's stock fell. Cook remained silent. Behind closed doors, Trump bragged: 'I told [Cook] long ago that I expect their iPhones to be built in the United States. ' In reality, Apple's pivot to Indian manufacturing is already deep underway. Shifting production to the US isn't financially viable—and Trump knows it. Meanwhile, the DOJ's antitrust suit against Apple's App Store, launched under Biden, remains alive under Trump. His DOJ enforcers have refused to back down. Cook's fate shows the limits of soft power: you can't MAGA your way out of tariffs or trials. IV. Mark Zuckerberg: Antitrust and Appeasement Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg Zuckerberg tried a full pivot. He: Called Trump's 2024 shooting response 'badass.' Axed Meta's US fact-checking and DEI programs in January. Donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration. Met the president at Mar-a-Lago. None of it worked. In April 2025, the Trump-led FTC brought an antitrust case that could dismantle Instagram and WhatsApp. Zuckerberg took the stand. Trump said nothing. Inside Meta, dissent is growing. Engineers are unhappy. Investors are uneasy. And the courts aren't friendly. Zuck's wake-up call: pandering doesn't protect against prosecution. V. Why the Tech Bros Keep Failing 1. Trump Is Loyal Only to Himself Alliances are transactional. When your usefulness ends—or you challenge the narrative—you're expendable. Musk criticised the budget. Bezos flirted with tariff transparency. Cook got too cozy with India. Zuckerberg tried to please everyone and pleased no one. 2. Policy Alignment ≠ Policy Immunity Backing Trump doesn't shield you from antitrust, tariffs, or regulatory pain. DOGE didn't protect Musk. Inaugural donations didn't protect Bezos or Zuckerberg. Trump's agenda is pro-Trump, not pro-tech. 3. Internal Revolt Is Real At Meta, at Amazon, even within Tesla—employee backlash is mounting. The political U-turns have alienated workforces, confused investors, and undermined credibility. These CEOs are caught between nationalist politics and global business. VI. The Trump Tech Trap The break-up is real. Silicon Valley can no longer pretend Trump is a means to libertarian ends. He's not a partner. He's a movement. Unpredictable. Personal. Unmanageable. Musk thought he could code the bureaucracy. Bezos thought he could edit the narrative. Cook thought diplomacy could tame tariffs. Zuckerberg thought appeasement would spare him the courts. But Trump doesn't follow scripts. He rewrites them mid-sentence. The Tech Bros thought they could ride the tiger. Instead, they're realising—the tiger rides them. Or to quote an actually far more watchable movie than Captain America: Brave New World, when Alfred explains to Bruce Wayne the psychology of men like the Joker: "...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. " Much like the Joker, Donald Trump is one of those men. The Dark Knight (2008) - Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn Scene | Movieclips
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk has tried to launch Starship 9 times – here's what happened each time
Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship flew out of control and exploded after a test launch in Texas on Tuesday evening – marking another high-profile setback for the mission which aims to supply reusable spacecraft for Moon and Mars missions. Fuel leaks meant that the craft began to spin out of control 30 minutes after launch, and it broke up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, with both the Super Heavy booster and rocket exploding before their planned splashdown into the Indian ocean. It's the third high-profile failure for the unmanned craft in a row, and part of a longer history of difficulties that stretch back to Starship's maiden flight in April 2023. Yahoo News outlines what the purpose of Starship is and how each of the previous launches have gone. SpaceX's Starship is a two-stage fully reusable spacecraft and launch system and, on launch in 2023, it became the heaviest vehicle to ever fly. Its purpose is to lower the costs of launching heavy payloads into space, and it is built to carry large cargoes into Earth orbit, to the Moon's surface and beyond. The two stages - the Super Heavy booster (the first stage, or booster, of the Starship launch system) and the Starship spacecraft - are both built to be 'caught' on re-entry and re-used. Over the longer term, SpaceX hopes that the vehicle can support ambitions such as landing astronauts on the Moon and building cities on Mars. Musk has been pictured in an 'Occupy Mars' T-shirt at Starship launches. The maiden flight of Starship saw the Super Heavy booster and Starship fly together for the first time. The vehicle was destroyed less than four minutes after lift off – quashing plans to complete an Earth orbit and controlled descent. SpaceX wrote: "The vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble. The flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship. As is standard procedure, the pad and surrounding area was cleared well in advance of the test, and we expect the road and beach near the pad to remain closed until tomorrow. "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and we learned a tremendous amount about the vehicle and ground systems today that will help us improve on future flights of Starship." The second flight test of Starship saw both the Super Heavy booster and the starship second stage destroyed. The booster experienced multiple engine failures and exploded, while Starship continued to accelerate, reaching 93 miles above the planet. But it vented liquid oxygen during an engine burn and exploded: the failure of the launch meant that the Federal Communications Commission rejected SpaceX's Starlink broadband service as being suitable for federal subsidies. Starship for the first time completed a full-duration second-stage burn, and reached orbital velocity, but the craft broke up during re-entry to the atmosphere. SpaceX said: "Starship's six second stage Raptor engines all started successfully and powered the vehicle to its expected orbit, becoming the first Starship to complete its full-duration ascent burn. "Starship went on to experience its first ever entry from space, providing valuable data on heating and vehicle control during hypersonic reentry." The lift-off from Starbase marked significant successes for both the Super Heavy booster and Starship. The Super Heavy booster did not return to a tower, but simulated the landing with a 'soft splashdown' in the gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, Starship showed off the ability to make a "controlled re-entry" into Earth's atmosphere. SpaceX said: "Starship made a controlled reentry, successfully making it through the phases of peak heating and max aerodynamic pressure and demonstrating the ability to control the vehicle using its flaps while descending through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. "Flight 4 ended with Starship igniting its three centre Raptor engines and executing the first flip maneuver and landing burn since our suborbital campaign, followed by a soft splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean one hour and six minutes after launch." Flight 5 marked a major milestone for Musk's goal to make Starship a reusable rocket system. The 20-storey Super Heavy booster successfully returned to the arms of the launch tower just seven minutes after launch. SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the live webcast: 'Are you kidding me?' What we just saw, that looked like magic.' SpaceX launched its sixth Starship test flight to space from Texas, eyeing an array of improvements on the rocket as US president-elect Donald Trump watched in person. The roughly 400 foot-tall (122m-tall) rocket system, designed to land astronauts on the Moon and ferry crews to Mars, lifted off successfully. Starship splashed down successfully but an attempt to dock the Super Heavy booster was called off after a loss off communications with the launch tower. Flight 7 experienced a propellant leak and fire, leading to an explosion over the ocean which rained debris below. Nonetheless, the upgraded 'Block 2' design of the upper stage was the heaviest flying object ever built by mankind. The Super Heavy booster successfully performed its 'catch' for the second time. The Starship capsule, however, exploded. SpaceX said: 'Following stage separation, the Starship upper stage successfully lit all six Raptor engines and performed its ascent burn to space. 'Prior to the burn's completion, telemetry was lost with the vehicle after approximately eight and a half minutes of flight. Initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly.' Flight 8 launched from the SpaceX Starbase test facility in Texas, but a mishap led to commercial flights being disrupted over fears of debris. While the Super Heavy boosters flew back to Starbase to be 'caught' by the Mechazilla arms, the Starship blew up during its ascent burn. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted flights to several Florida airports. After the incident, the FAA said in a statement that it 'activated a Debris Response Area and briefly slowed aircraft outside the area where space vehicle debris was falling or stopped aircraft at their departure location. Normal operations have resumed.' The back-to-back failure occurred in early test-flight phases that SpaceX had easily achieved before, in a setback for SpaceX. The 400-foot Starship rocket launched successfully, but sprang a fuel leak about 30 minutes into flight, and was unable to deploy its payload of eight mock Starlink satellites. Musk hailed the test flight as a 'big improvement' after previous failures, and promised that the pace of flight testing will accelerate. Space X said: "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability."
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk bemoans DOGE being used as a ‘whipping boy' by Trump admin as he reveals the agency's next target
Elon Musk bemoaned his Department of Government Efficiency becoming a 'whipping boy' for the Trump administration as he revealed the agency's next target in a new interview. Approximately 1,500 miles away from the White House on the factory floor of SpaceX's facility in Starbase, Texas, Musk issued a rare rebuke against President Donald Trump, arguing his federal government slashing force had become a scapegoat if 'something bad would happen.' 'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' Musk told The Washington Post on Tuesday. 'So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.' After bankrolling Trump's presidential campaign and being one of his closest allies during his first 100 days in office, the president's 'First Buddy' has significantly reduced his presence in frontline politics. Last month, Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles revealed the world's richest man was no longer working from the White House. Despite a shift in attention, Musk stated that his work with DOGE is not yet complete. He said he plans to focus on a less-controversial task than dismantling federal agencies: improving the federal bureaucracy's computer systems. 'There's, like, so many situations where the computers are so broken,' he said. 'And this is just literally a thing that was brought to my attention.' Musk's perceived sway on the president and cuts enacted by DOGE, leading to more than 280,000 layoffs, did not come without costs. Tesla was caught in the political crosswinds, with the electric vehicle company's share prices plunging to historic lows and a spate of arson attacks erupting across the globe. 'People were burning Teslas,' Musk said. 'Why would you do that? That's really uncool.' Musk returned to Texas ahead of a test flight Tuesday of Starship, the world's most powerful rocket, which spun out of control once it reached space and broke apart as it returned to Earth. The tech billionaire also revealed a renewed focus away from D.C.: returning astronauts to the moon and sending people to Mars. 'I'm physically here. This is the focus, and especially around launch,' he said, sporting an 'Occupy Mars' t-shirt. 'Everything comes together at the moment of launch.' Musk described his 'maniacal sense of urgency' to propel the first humans onto the Red Planet. 'I think the primary goal should be Mars,' he said. 'We could perhaps go back to the moon along the way. But the primary goal should be Mars, because that's really the next great leap beyond Apollo.' Earlier Tuesday, Musk sharply criticized Trump's 'one Big, Beautiful Bill' and argued it 'undermines' the work done by DOGE. Trump's showpiece tax bill is predicted to increase the federal deficit by more than $3.3 trillion over the next decade, contradicting Musk's efforts to reduce the U.S. national debt through cost-cutting measures drastically. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' he told CBS News.
