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☆ Environmental groups are suing the FAA over SpaceX's failed Starship rocket launch over Texas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Environmental groups are suing the FAA over SpaceX's giant rocket launch in April. Debris from the Starship explosion was hurled thousands of feet from the launch pad, officials said. SpaceX's Starship rocket exploded over the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 after soaring 24 miles (39 kilometers) into the sky. The launch pad is on a remote site on the southernmost tip of Texas, just below South Padre Island, and about 20 miles from Brownsville. It was the first launch of a full-size Starship, with the sci-fi-looking spacecraft on top the huge booster rocket.

In the test mission, SpaceX’s Starship launched toward space atop a Super Heavy rocket booster. That could be the determining factor in how long it takes the company to get a new Starship on the launch pad. Such investigations are routine and have taken place after previous — but smaller-scale — Starship test launches in South Texas. Joe Skipper/ReutersSpaceX is not permitted to make another launch attempt of a Starship vehicle until that review is complete. NASAThe US space agency was not directly involved in the Starship flight test, but it has a major stake in Starship’s overall success.

☆ What’s next for SpaceX’s Starship after a dramatic first launch
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Michael Sheetz | In Michaeljsheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Starship launches for the first time on its Super Heavy booster from Texas on April 20, 2023. Soon after the launch, SpaceX began the process of cleaning up the launchpad and assessing the damage to its infrastructure. Fish and Wildlife Service disclosed this week that the Starship launch started a 3.5-acre fire on land owned by Texas' Boca Chica State Park. A SpaceX Starship prototype stands in a bay at the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas on April 18, 2023. As with any rocket-development program, and especially the largest ever assembled, SpaceX's timeline for the next Starship flight is likely to evolve and change.

☆ Chevron tops estimates with Q1 profit gain despite slide in oil prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Sabrina Valle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HOUSTON, April 28 (Reuters) - Oil major Chevron Corp (CVX.N) beat market expectations on Friday as profit nudged higher in the first-quarter, with earnings from refining compensating for a slide in energy prices and in oil and gas production. Net profit climbed 5% to $6.57 billion or $3.46 per share. That compares with a Wall Street consensus for flat profit at $3.38 per share, according to figures compiled by Zacks Investment Research. The company's standout business was oil refining, where higher margins helped income surge more than five-fold to $1.8 billion. But its oil and gas production division saw its net profit tumble 25% on a big year-over-year declines in prices.

☆ Chevron tops estimates with first-quarter profit gain despite slide in oil prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Oil major Chevron beat market expectations on Friday as profit nudged higher in the first quarter, with earnings from refining compensating for a slide in energy prices and in oil and gas production. Net profit climbed 5% to $6.57 billion or $3.46 per share. That compares with a Wall Street consensus for flat profit at $3.38 per share, according to figures compiled by Zacks Investment Research. The company's standout business was oil refining, where higher margins helped income surge more than five-fold to $1.8 billion. But its oil and gas production division saw its net profit tumble 25% on a big year-over-year decline in prices.

Fish and Wildlife Service. Damage to the launch pad, the floor of which was largely demolished during liftoff, was visible in photos of the aftermath. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Fish and Wildlife Service findings. The April 20 launch was days after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted SpaceX a license to launch the Starship via its Super Heavy rocket booster. REUTERS/Joe Skipper 1 2 3The report by the Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the U.S.

None of the agencies disputed the allegation, and each paid penalties of $5,050, the maximum state levy for a child labor violation. The U.S. and Alabama investigations began after a Reuters report last July first exposed the use of child labor at Hyundai parts makers in the state. The U.S. Department of Labor said in February the number of child labor violations in 2022 had soared by nearly 70% compared with the tally recorded in 2018. They said false documentation, even shoddy credentials like those filed by the boy's employers, makes child labor laws difficult to enforce. An Alabama labor department spokesperson told Reuters the agency is still working to determine who exactly hired the child to work at Hyundai Glovis.

☆ SpaceX wins approval to add fifth U.S. rocket launch site
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Space Force said on Monday that Elon Musk's SpaceX was granted approval to lease a second rocket launch complex at a military base in California, setting the space company up for its fifth launch site in the United States. Under the lease, SpaceX will launch its workhorse Falcon rockets from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, a military launch site north of Los Angeles where the space company operates another launchpad. A Monday night Space Force statement said a letter of support for the decision was signed on Friday by Space Launch Delta 30 commander Col. The new launch site, vacated last year by the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, gives SpaceX more room to handle an increasingly busy launch schedule for commercial, government and internal satellite launches. SpaceX's grant of Space Launch Complex-6 comes as rocket companies prepare to compete for the Pentagon's Phase 3 National Security Space Launch program, a watershed military launch procurement effort expected to begin in the next year or so.

☆ Former Rep. Will Hurd might launch a 2024 GOP presidential campaign. He's still waiting to see if his party agrees that 'we're better together.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Former GOP Rep. Will Hurd, a Trump critic, is considering running for president in 2024. He says he won't support Trump in 2024 and suggested DeSantis will struggle to appeal to voters. the former Texas congressman told Insider in an interview before his address to the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's Annual Spring Kick-off. "We have four years," he told Insider, "before we could potentially get surpassed by the Chinese government as a global superpower." On abortion, Hurd told Insider it "probably makes sense" to institute a nationwide ban after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

☆ SpaceX Starship’s explosion is not the failure it appears to be, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Rocket launches are like opening a box of chocolates, only riskier — you never know what you’re going to get. When a rocket is set to leap off the launchpad, there’s a good chance of seeing a stunning liftoff or a spectacular failure. The lead-up to this week’s launch of SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, was a dramatic roller coaster. The rocket blasted off from the launchpad in South Texas and roared 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) over the Gulf of Mexico. Now, researchers have a new theory about why the Vikings abruptly departed in the mid-15th century: rising sea levels.

☆ Elon Musk’s SpaceX to Make Second Attempt to Launch Starship Rocket
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Micah Maidenberg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Reginald Mathalone/Zuma PressSpaceX is set to try for the second time this week to blast off its massive Starship rocket, a flight test that Elon Musk has said poses steep challenges and risks. The company is preparing to ignite the vehicle as soon as 9:28 a.m. ET Thursday from a site in South Texas. SpaceX has said it would have a bit more than an hour to attempt the launch, the first for the rocket, and plans to live stream proceedings on its website.

SpaceX cleared the final regulatory hurdle standing before the inaugural launch of its Starship rocket last week. “After a comprehensive license evaluation process, the FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and financial responsibility requirements,” the FAA said in a statement. Some background: SpaceX had been waiting more than a year to get FAA approval for this launch. In June, the FAA granted SpaceX one key approval for launching Starship, though it laid out a list of “mitigating actions” the company would need to take before the first launch. The FAA official also said government personnel will be on the ground to ensure SpaceX complies with its license during the test launch.

☆ SpaceX’s Starship Explodes Shortly After Launching Uncrewed Test Flight
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Micah Maidenberg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: SpaceXSpaceX’s Starship exploded a few minutes after launching an initial, uncrewed test flight Thursday morning, abruptly ending the inaugural flight of a vehicle that Elon Musk wants to use one day for pioneering deep-space missions. The company launched the rocket at roughly 9:30 a.m. ET from a launchpad in South Texas, according to a SpaceX live stream. A trail of flames poured out of the engines installed on the booster used for the first stage of the flight.

REUTERS/Joe SkipperLOS ANGELES, April 20 (Reuters) - The spectacular explosion of SpaceX's new Starship rocket minutes after it soared off its launch pad on a first flight test is the latest vivid illustration of a "successful failure" business formula that serves Elon Musk's company well, experts said on Thursday. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECTAt least two experts in aerospace engineering and planetary science who spoke with Reuters agreed that the test flight delivered benefits. "This is a classical SpaceX successful failure," said Garrett Reisman, an astronautical engineering professor at the University of Southern California who is a former NASA astronaut and is also a senior adviser to SpaceX. Reisman called the Starship test flight a hallmark of a SpaceX strategy that sets Musk's company apart from traditional aerospace companies and even NASA by "this embracing of failure when the consequences of failure are low." She said the risks of a single flight test were small in comparison to the ambitious gains at stake.

Space fans walk the dunes as workers prepare the SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket as they attempt to schedule another launch launch from Starbase after it was scrubbed on April 17, 2023. SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — Elon Musk's SpaceX is again attempting to launch of its towering Starship rocket to space after scrubbing an attempt earlier this week. The Starship orbital launch, out of a private facility in Texas along the Gulf Coast, represents the culmination of years of regulatory work and technological tests. The company had hoped to conduct the first orbital Starship launch as early as summer 2021, but faced delays in development and in winning FAA approval, which came late Friday. Watch SpaceX's live stream below and follow along for live updates out of South Texas.

☆ SpaceX’s Starship ‘Learning Experience’ Ends in Explosion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded above the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, minutes after lifting off from a launchpad in South Texas. There were no people aboard the spacecraft, the most powerful ever to launch. While it failed to reach orbit, it was not a fruitless failure for the private spaceflight company. Before the launch, Elon Musk, the company’s founder, had tamped down expectations, saying it might take several tries before Starship succeeds at this test flight. The brief flight produced reams of data for engineers to understand how the vehicle performed.

☆ Live Updates: SpaceX Prepares Again to Launch Starship Rocket
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

PinnedSpaceX’s first attempt on Monday to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, was called off. During a livestream for a different SpaceX launch on Wednesday, the company noted that another Starship postponement was possible. Credit... Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhy didn’t Starship launch on Monday? Splashdown Near Hawaii Launch SpaceX Starbase Boca Chica, TexasStarship is designed to be entirely reusable. About eight minutes after the launch on Thursday, the Super Heavy booster will splash into the Gulf of Mexico.

The pad and surrounding area were cordoned off well in advance of the test, SpaceX said. [1/7] SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft, atop its powerful Super Heavy rocket, explodes after its launch from the company's Boca Chica launchpad on a brief uncrewed test flight near Brownsville, Texas, U.S., April 20, 2023. "Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch," he tweeted. Still even a textbook test flight would have by design ended with crash landings of both portions of the spacecraft at sea.

“As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,” SpaceX tweeted. The massive Super Heavy rocket booster, which houses 33 engines, lifted off and sent a massive boom across the coastal landscape as it fired to life. NASA administrator Bill Nelson took to Twitter to share his congratulations on the flight test. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test —and beyond.”The test flight comes after years of explosive tests, regulatory hurdles and public hyping from Musk. SpaceX's Starship lifted off for the uncrewed test flight in Boca Chica, Texas.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — Elon Musk's SpaceX is attempting to launch its towering Starship rocket to space for the first time Monday from a private facility in Texas along the Gulf Coast. SpaceX had hoped to conduct the first orbital Starship launch as early as summer 2021, but delays in development and FAA approval pushed back the timeline. Starship is designed to carry cargo and people beyond Earth and is critical to NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon. Two years ago, SpaceX won a nearly $3 billion contract from NASA to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander. Watch the run-up to the launch below and follow along for live updates from South Texas.

☆ SpaceX calls off launch attempt of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

South Padre Island, Texas CNN —SpaceX is now targeting Thursday for the next attempt to get Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, off the ground. Starship was left grounded on its launchpad in South Texas on Monday morning because of a technical issue, delaying the vehicle’s historic first launch attempt. But the launch was called off due to what the SpaceX broadcast said was a pressurization issue. “A pressurant valve appears to be frozen, so unless it starts operating soon, no launch today,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted. “If we get far enough away from launch pad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success,” Musk said during a Twitter “Spaces” event on Sunday.

☆ Watch SpaceX launch Starship, the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built, on its first orbital flight as soon as Monday
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

SpaceX plans to launch Starship, its flagship mega-rocket, to orbit for the first time as soon as Monday. If Starship succeeds, it'll be the tallest, most powerful, and only fully reusable rocket ever flown. Watch the launch attempt live in the broadcast below. Starship is the rocket on which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is hinging his biggest aspirations — including building and populating a human settlement on Mars. Shortly after the FAA granted its license, SpaceX announced it would attempt a launch as soon as Monday, with a launch window from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Central Time.

☆ Musk says SpaceX Starship rocket launch slipping to later in April
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - A key SpaceX Starship Super Heavy rocket launch test now is likely to take place later this month rather than sometime this week, the space company's CEO Elon Musk said on Monday. The rocket is scheduled to lift off from SpaceX's Starbase facilities at Boca Chica in South Texas in the first launch of the company's fully stacked 394-foot (120-meter) tall Starship rocket system. "Starship launch trending towards near the end of third week of April," Musk wrote on Twitter a day after stating that it was ready for launch and "awaiting regulatory approval." Musk said last week Starship would be ready to launch this week. The Starship rocket system consists of a Starship rocket sitting atop a "Super Heavy" first stage booster with 33 rocket engines.

☆ 4 real estate investors who have bought property with none of their own savings explain how they raised capital to get started. 'We're using other people's money to make us more money.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Buying real estate typically means coming up with cash for a down payment and closing costs. One of the biggest barriers to entry when it comes to buying real estate is capital. Natia and Jervais Seegars, real estate investors and founders of YourLifeStyleStrategy. "So we were able to continue to save our money while using other people's money to make us more money." They reached out to friends, family, and other San Diego-based real estate investors and ended up raising the $90,000 they needed for that first multi-family in about 30 days.

April 7 (Reuters) - The federal judge who on Friday suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is a former Christian legal activist whose small courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, has become a go-to destination for conservatives challenging Biden administration policies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, had a long track record of opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in 2019 to a life-tenured position as a federal judge. FAVORED VENUESince then, his courthouse has become a favored venue for conservative legal activists and Republican state attorneys general pursuing lawsuits seeking to halt aspects of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda - often with success. In October, Kacsmaryk vacated Biden administration guidance requiring employers to allow transgender workers to dress and use bathrooms consistent with their gender identities. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Bill Berkrot and Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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