Residents of Brownsville, a small city in Texas, are divided.Their town is now home to SpaceX's rocket-production facilities, which only promises to grow bigger.

Some locals told Insider they're at their wits' end with SpaceX as the aerospace company sets off explosions and pushes locals out of the area. But others see it as a positive impact on the economy and residents' wellbeing.

Brownsville, which lies 20 miles west of SpaceX's launch facilities on the Gulf Coast, is known for being one of the poorest areas in the US. The 300,000-person city also has a very high unemployment rate.

When SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted at the end of March that he was donating $30 million to Brownsville $20 million to schools and $10 million for revitalization it split the city.

Musk also announced that he was building a new city called Starbase at SpaceX's launch facilities which would be "much larger" than Boca Chica Village, where the company is developing its Starship rocket.

Brownsville's mayor Trey Mendez was surprised at Musk's announcement and said in an interview with KSAT 12 it was "exciting" that the community could have the chance to become the face of "space exploration and innovation."

Mendez said he hoped Musk's capital would help "accelerate the progress [in Brownsville] even more."

But there is division between those living in the south Texas city. Some are concerned that SpaceX's developments will be devastating for the people, nature, and ecosystems there. Others welcome the job opportunities, economic prosperity, and modernization that Musk's company could bring to the town.

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Every time a rocket blows up on the launchpad, it hurls debris into the nearby nature sanctuaries in the area. SpaceX has witnessed four out of five of its Starship prototypes explode, meaning that metals and pieces of machinery are lying in areas that have never been disturbed before.

"These ecosystems are our community's lifeblood," said Bekah Hinojosa, resident of Brownsville and member of Another Gulf is Possible, an organization working on environmental issues along the southern Gulf Coast.

"SpaceX explosions are littering our ecosystems, home to the endangered ocelot, aplomado falcon, and numerous migratory birds," she said.

Xandra Trevio is a member of the art collective Las Imaginistas. It's an initiative that aims to connect with officials and lower-income residents in the Rio Grande Valley, where Brownsville is situated, to improve quality of life. As a resident, she told Insider that she's already seeing the negative effects of SpaceX in the area.

"Any SpaceX expansion would be occupying more land considered sacred to the local indigenous Carrizo Comecrudo tribe," Trevio said, who lives in the area.

Residents face disruption every time they're told to leave their homes before a SpaceX launch, she added.

In March, Musk encouraged people to move to the Brownsville area, saying that SpaceX needs specific jobs in engineering, tech, and other sectors.

Residents felt that Musk's Twitter callout, however, wasn't directed at them, but instead anyone in the US who wanted a career at SpaceX.

Claudia Michelle Serrano, a digital content coordinator for Las Imaginistas, who lives in Brownsville told Insider that Musk's job proposals via Twitter were offered on a national level to those interested in working for the space company.

"The jobs being created aren't for us," she said. "There is zero transparency on the jobs SpaceX created locally."

Jobs in Brownsville are low-wage, meaning that residents on those salaries won't be able to keep up with increasing costs in the city, according to Serrano.

Christine Leal, a 17-year-old high school student living in the Rio Grande Valley, told Insider that although her dream is to work for SpaceX after studying engineering at university, she's worried about "the immense danger," which the company will bring to the area.

Pulling in engineers from outside of the valley will lead residents to be financially disadvantaged and pushed out of their homes, she said. "There's a large probability that [Musk] will further develop Brownsville, but neglect the locals who were already here."

Leal said although the company's project will be amazing for the local economy, "Elon and SpaceX need to make sure that locals have a role in that development and don't push us aside. If he doesn't, then we risk losing our culture, land, customs, and traditions."

Low-income residents could be forced to leave their homes due to spiking prices caused by SpaceX's presence in the area, locals told Insider.

Musk announced the construction of SpaceX's facilities in 2014. Since then, the cost of living in the area has gradually increased as more people from across the US flock to Brownsville to work for the billionaire.

If the city of Starbase goes ahead, the small village and its leaders would have access to eminent domain, which could let them legally force holdouts to sell their homes, Insider reported May 8.

"The biggest concern is displacement," said Serrano. "Our home could be lost with rapidly increasing taxes or others who rent will be priced out."

Investors have been rushing to Brownsville to buy homes, sending house prices rocketing, Insider reported in April. But many residents aren't able to afford these prices, leaving them with a tough decision of whether to stay in the area or not.

Serrano said this could have a huge impact on the Buena Vida area of downtown Brownsville, a historically immigrant and Spanish speaking area.

Many of the locals who spoke to Insider believe the local leaders have a lot to answer for. Freddy Jimenez, editor of media platform Trucha, told us the leaders of Cameron County and City of Brownsville don't represent the everyday people living in the area as they look to profit from the space company's developments. Conversations between the representatives and SpaceX have been kept under the wraps, he added.

"Working people, community members, indigenous people, and the beautiful ecology of the region is being put at risk and exploited," Jimenez said. "Shame on our local leaders and shame on the interests they serve."

Robert Avitia, who was born and raised in Brownsville, still lives in the city where he runs his business. He thinks that SpaceX has done wonders by pumping more money into the area.

Although Avitia believes there are more positives than negatives with Musk coming to Brownsville, he agrees that rocket debris in the wildlife sanctuaries and the closing off of Boca Chica beach are serious issues in the community.

Boca Chica beach was a place where people could hang out whenever they wanted, Avitia told Insider.

"Now it's controlled. You can't get in and out whenever you want to. It's only when they allow it, based on what's happening at SpaceX," he said.

The beach was a big part of the culture in the area. Avitia recalled the fond memories he had with his father of coming down to the beach to fish. Now, SpaceX sometimes doesn't allow people to fish as it's too close to the facilities.

Hinojosa, who raised concerns about rocket litter earlier in this report, also said SpaceX closing off the beach access for locals threatens people's livelihoods by preventing people from fishing and feeding their families, and enjoying the beach.

But Avitia is one of the many people who welcome SpaceX's expansion in Brownsville. Beforehand, the city was a "ghost town" with little to offer, he said. Now, it's become more modern as new restaurants and businesses pop up on the streets, the tourism sector grows, and highways are updated he added.

"There is division here," he said. "You have people that are just comfortable and don't want to change... I hate to say this but the ones that want to stay comfortable are going to lose, they're going to miss out."

Restricting access to the beach and fishing comes with change, said Avitia.

"[Musk] donating money was like him saying, "Hey, I'm here to help. I'm not here to take away. I'm here to help." And I truly believe he's here to help," he added.

Four other people who spoke to Insider said they were also excited about Brownsville being the home of SpaceX.

One of them, Rudy Guzman, a lifelong resident of Brownsville, told Insider that SpaceX is exactly what the city needs "to attract outside investors and grow our local economy." Others said it would motivate children and make a huge improvement to education.

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SpaceX is causing division in Brownsville over disruption, economic impact - Business Insider

BOCA CHICA, Texas The text arrived late at night: For your own safety, leave home by morning, it read. Nancy and James Crawford, no longer surprised but still unsettled, raced away in their S.U.V. after sunrise, occasionally twisting their necks to catch a glimpse of the space rocket towering behind them.

Moments later, the Crawfords, who are in their 70s, watched from a 12th-floor balcony on South Padre Island, a few miles up the coast, as the rocket shattered on impact during an attempted landing, spreading fiery debris along the sand dunes and tidal flats. The building shook, Mr. Crawford recalled, and in the distance, there was a ball of fire.

It was exciting, echoed his wife, but too dangerous if we had stayed home.

Home for the Crawfords is a remote coastal community a stones throw from Mexico, a village so small that water has to be trucked in. With a single road in that ends at the shoreline, it has long attracted people eager to escape congested cities, and retirees eager to escape the harsh winters of the North and Midwest.

From the community tucked among lush wetlands, wildlife refuges and sandy beaches, the nearest supermarket is about 20 miles away, past long stretches of gravel roads and a Border Patrol checkpoint. Until a few years ago, the handful of residents could not have imagined that rockets designed for interplanetary travel would be as much a part of their view as the Rio Grande.

But ever since the billionaire Elon Musk brought his private space company, SpaceX, to the area, life has not been the same. A gargantuan gray rocket, surrounded by chain-link fencing less than a mile from the ranch-style brick homes, is a constant reminder that the Crawfords and their remaining neighbors live near a space launching pad.

SpaceX representatives usually give the 10 or so residents plenty of warning that a rocket is scheduled for launching. Other times, loud sirens warn them, and some, like the Crawfords, choose to put on heavy-duty headphones to block some of the noise. When a rocket engine is tested, the roar and trembling are so powerful that they can blow windows inward.

Humans are not the only species who cower. The earsplitting sound of rockets shrieking above the tidal flats has caused some, such as shorebirds, to flee in terror or to stop nesting in the area altogether. And heavy machinery brought in to retrieve whatever debris has scattered often damages the road and scares away other wildlife, environmentalists said.

While the Federal Aviation Administration has given SpaceX environmental clearance for the tests, environmentalists worry that recent explosions could have a lasting effect on the ecologically rich area, home to a number of endangered species, like ocelots and Kemps ridley sea turtles.

When youre testing brand-new technology and brand-new rockets, brand-new engines, stuff like that happens, said Jim Chapman, president of Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a nonprofit group with a mission to protect the native habitats of the Rio Grande Valley. Well, our feeling is, that shouldnt be happening here.

But the story of how SpaceX came to Boca Chica, about 22 miles from Brownsville, Texas, begins with a promise of a much-needed economic boost to one of the poorest regions in the country.

For decades, Brownsville and the broader Rio Grande Valley have struggled with a lack of opportunities and a brain drain, with many college graduates opting to leave for careers elsewhere.

Before SpaceX became entrenched in Brownsvilles consciousness, the economy had relied heavily on jobs with the government, schools, health care and some low-paying retail stores, officials said.

Representatives for SpaceX, which is investing a fortune in its quest to send people to Mars, did not respond to a request for comment. But officials of Cameron County, which includes Boca Chica, said the company had infused hope and optimism into the region.

When the company announced plans to move to the area in 2014, it promised to create about 500 jobs, said Eddie Trevio Jr., the Cameron County judge, the countys top elected official. But as of late last year, he said, the actual figure was more than triple that, with more than 1,600 jobs in construction, clerical and other fields, most of them given to local residents, he said.

The benefits to the Brownsville area, where according to the U.S. Census Bureau at least 30 percent of the population lives in poverty, will eventually outweigh whatever tension and disruptions the company has brought, Mr. Trevio said.

We have to balance the good with the bad, he said.

The search for the ideal SpaceX launching pad began more than 10 years ago. Sites were considered in other states, including Georgia, California and Alaska, with engineers needing a mostly desolate area close to the ocean. Boca Chica, a retirement community with only a few year-round residents, fit the bill.

After SpaceX signed a deal to set up operations near the village, the testing of rockets that would one day reach outer space began a few years later in earnest, Mr. Trevio said. The company has taken a fail-fast, fix-fast approach, which essentially means that engineers use the tests to identify shortcomings in the design and then make adjustments before the next test.

Over the past year, those who still live in the community have had to flee before every launch. Four rockets have exploded, spreading debris across the area. (The most recent test, this month, did not result in an explosion, and an elated Mr. Musk took to Twitter to celebrate the milestone: Starship landing nominal!)

This was not the Crawfords idea of a peaceful retirement. Both worked in government jobs in Michigan, he in law enforcement and she with a deeds department. And though they still spend their summers in Michigan, they bought their home in Boca Chica 10 years ago in search of nature and some quiet.

Then came the knocks on their door, and on the doors of their neighbors. SpaceX wanted their homes. Representatives with the space giant had appraised the Crawfords single-story, three-bedroom brick house at $50,000 and was willing to pay three times that, they were told. The Crawfords dismissed what they considered to be a paltry offer from one of the richest men in the world.

We cant buy a new house with that money, Mr. Crawford said with a chuckle.

Last October, the offers finally stopped.

We are pretty certain that we will be able to remain in our home, Ms. Crawford said with a sigh of relief.

But many of their neighbors, who like them once found Boca Chica the perfect winter oasis, took the checks and left.

And one by one, the ranch homes have been replaced by modern white houses with solar-powered rooftops, the occupants younger space professionals who work for SpaceX, residents said.

You can tell which homes are SpaceX because they are the ones that look the same, a stale white and black, said Rosemarie Workman, 72, who spends most of the year in Boca Chica and has turned down offers to sell her home.

One of her new neighbors has stood out. Mr. Musk has been spotted staying in an unassuming ranch-style house. Ms. Workman and her neighbors sometimes see him taking a stroll with two men they assume are part of his security detail.

He doesnt really make an effort to say hi or get to know us, said Jim Workman, 75, who lives across the street from the billionaire.

The feeling, he admitted, is mutual. He pointed to a flag on his front porch that reads Come and Take It below the image of a cannon, the flag fashioned for the Texas Revolution and long a symbol of defiance in the state.

I think he gets the message, Mr. Workman said.

Concerns over SpaceX extend beyond Boca Chica.

In downtown Brownsville, Elias Cantu, an activist with the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Mexican-American civil rights organization in the country, stood beside a mural of Mr. Musk that read Boca Chica to Mars and shrugged. He said he feared it would be only a matter of time before Boca Chicas extreme redevelopment found itself encroaching into Brownsvilles poorest neighborhoods.

Its inevitable, Mr. Cantu said. Hell need homes to house all the people he wants to bring down here. Im afraid hes going to push out a lot of low-income families who have lived here for generations.

Xandra Trevio, a member of Fuera SpaceX, an organization pushing back on SpaceXs rapid expansion (its name translates as Leave SpaceX), said she and many other activists felt ignored by area policymakers.

I feel like people believe that SpaceX is going to be good for the community, when in fact, they are too large to control, too large to hold accountable, Ms. Trevio said. Local officials are only seeing money signs. Local officials are star-struck.

But area officials said they could not turn away millions of dollars and the promise of high-paying jobs in a region that for decades has been starved for investment.

In the build it and they will come philosophy, the space giant has already attracted other employers to the region. Space Channel, an entertainment network devoted to covering space, recently announced that it would move part of its operations from Los Angeles to Brownsville, including six executives, with local positions to follow. Other companies are likely to do the same, said Rose Gowen, who sits on the city commission.

One of the very important things for me to support, and us to support, is growing the wealth, Ms. Gowen said.

Mr. Musk seems to agree. He recently announced on Twitter that he planned to donate $30 million for city revitalization projects and schools. The mayor of Brownsville, Trey Mendez, did not respond to a request for an interview. But in a statement, he said he supported money coming in. We look forward to a discussion about how this could help our community prosper as we take a front seat to the next chapter of space exploration and innovation, he said.

But that growth is no consolation for the holdout residents of Boca Chica. The Crawfords like to sit in their backyard and admire the several species of birds looking for respite, or the delightful sightings of those migrating.

But reminders that they live near a launchpad are never far away. Every now and then, loud sirens startle them, signaling that the testing of rocket engines is about to begin. Or they receive a text asking them to leave their home, a cue that a launch is imminent.

When a sheriffs vehicle drives by with its sirens on, the Crawfords know they are supposed to run to the street or at least leave their home. They know their windows could shatter. But the last time they heard the siren, on one afternoon this spring, the couple looked at each other and shrugged.

We grew tired of running out, Ms. Crawford said. This is life near SpaceX, after all.

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A Serene Shore Resort, Except for the SpaceX Ball of Fire - The New York Times

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (KVEO) Boca Chica Boulevard in the city of Brownsville has had more than 200 accidents every year since 2018 and it is on the top 100 roads with the most traffic incidents in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

TxDOT paired up with the City of Brownsville to build a raised median, add sidewalks, and new drainage projects, but some residents say traffic has not gotten better.

Sometimes they dont even pay attention to what theyre doing, said Mariano Abalos, an employee at a gas station on Boca Chica Boulevard. In order to get to one point they cross through [the gas station] so sometimes you see accidents.

The manager at Angelitas Casa de Cafe on Boca Chica said that he has probably seen more accidents because of the construction.

As far as accidents I believe that theyre even going further up because people not knowing which way to go, said Leal.

Leal sent us this video from the incident that took place Sunday.

Octavio Saenz, the spokesperson for the regional TxDOT, said that this part of Boca Chica has always been busy.

For us, the most important part of this road is that its one of the top 100 roads with the most incidents in the state of Texas, said Saenz.

Saenz said that the $4.7 million project started in October of 2019 with the goal to improve the flow of traffic in the city.

People coming from the south part of the road can just cut across lanes to go to the opposite side, said Saenz. That caused continuous conflict points or areas where theres a probability that people can crash.

Though construction is supposed to fix traffic, Leal said in the short term it has posed new challenges for business.

From our customers having issues being able to come into our plaza, to having issues with our plumbing when they reconstructed the sidewalk, said Leal.

Saenz said TxDOT is doing what they can and it is up to drivers to drive safe.

2020 when the number of drivers went down because of COVID-19, we expected the number of accidents to as well but no the percentage still remained the same, said Saenz. What does that tell us? That those habits are engrained and those habits need to change.

The city of Brownsville said they have asked the state to look for more modifications to improve the current traffic plan.

Saenz said that TxDOTs construction in the area is scheduled to be complete at the end of Fall 2021.

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Boca Chica Boulevard sees over 200 accidents within the last year - KGBT-TV

SpaceX tycoon Elon Musk has shared a picture of his latest Starship prototype, the SN16, which is being readied for the projects biggest test yet: the first orbital flight of a Mars-bound ship, due for blast off in July.

The towering 50-metre-long stainless steel craft is seen in a hangar at Mr Musks Starbase facility at Boca Chica in Cameron County, Texas, its sci-fi nose cone and fins cast against the night sky.

Starships development brings the Tesla billionaire closer to realising his dream of landing an astronaut on the hostile surface of Mars this decade, with a view to ultimately colonising the Red Planet and even constructing cities among its craters by 2050, a project that has already seen him secure a multi-billion dollar contract with Nasa.

SpaceX has ambitions to launch crewed missions to Mars as early as 2024 and currently has the field to itself, with no government agency or rival private company on course to challenge it.

Such a plan would involve Mr Musks company building up to 100 Starships a year, with each one capable of housing 100 crew members and boasting private cabins, large common areas, centralised storage, solar storm shelters and a viewing gallery, according to SpaceXs user guide for the rocket.

The firm only began testing Starship prototypes in January 2020 but has so far set about its task at an astonishing rate.

After two successful 150-metre hops at its Starbase centre, SpaceX began a series of high-altitude flight tests at a frequency of nearly one a month. Although the first four of these ended in explosions, each represented a milestone in Starships progress.

Alongside Starship, the company is also building a 70-metre Super Heavy booster that will also be fully reusable and capable of supporting regular rocket launches from Earth.

When combined, this two-stage rocket will stand at 120 metres and make for the worlds most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.

The craft features six Raptor engines fed with liquid methane and liquid oxygen by propellant tanks, producing methalox in a combustion process that takes place in several stages, the engine design serving to minimise waste, according to the BBC.

Mr Musk hopes the use of methane as its fuel will mean it can be synthesised with subsurface water and atmospheric carbon dioxide should it eventually reach Mars, creating a Sabatier reaction that would enable it to power its way back to Earth self-sufficiently.

The Super Heavy rocket will meanwhile be filled with 3,400 tonnes of cryogenic methalox and be powered by a further 28 Raptor engines, providing 72 Meganewtons of maximum thrust and rendering it more powerful than the huge Saturn V launcher that was used for the Apollo Moon missions in the 1960s and 70s.

Speaking at a Nasa panel event in April, Mr Musk observed that it is now almost 50 years since man last landed on the Moon and commented: We need to have a big permanently occupied base on the Moon, and then build a city on Mars and become a spacefaring civilisation. We dont want to be one of those single planet species, we want to be a multi-planetary species.

The tech developer has previously described his motivation as lying in the prospect of existential threats to our planet, telling a conference in Mexico in 2016 that the future for the human species amounts to staying on Earth and awaiting some eventual extinction event - like the planet succumbing to the effects of the climate crisis or being struck by an asteroid - or establish new colonies elsewhere to increase humanitys chances of survival.

Mr Musk has been serious about cultivating life on Mars since at least 2001, when he attempted to buy three intercontinental ballistic missiles for $20 million in order to blast a robotic greenhouse to the planet in order to grow plants in its soil.

Continued here:

Elon Musk reveals Starship progress ahead of first orbital flight of Mars-bound craft - The Independent

Over the past year, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has made it known that he dreams of incorporating a new city near the companys Boca Chica, Texas, launch site into a city called Starbase. While the idea of creating a space-age haven just miles from where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico is an as-of-yet unrealized vision, a similar spaceport halfway around the worldand in the polar opposite climatemight just serve as some inspiration as the commercial space race heats up.

Near Kiruna, Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle, Esrange Space Center is taking shape thanks to revitalization efforts overseen by the publicly owned Swedish Space Corporation. With companies in the U.S. and Europe hoping to significantly increase the number of commercial satellites launched into space this decade, the Arctic space research center first handed over to Sweden by the European Space Agency in 1972 has taken on a renewed sense of purpose.

Taking off from above the Arctic Circle has its advantages, as launching into polar orbit over the North and South poles gives satellites a more comprehensive view of Earth, while requiring less energy for a satellite to actually get into space.

Although Americans likely picture Florida or Texas as the place to launch rockets, taking off from above the Arctic Circle has its advantages. Launching into polar orbit over the North and South poles gives satellites a more comprehensive view of Earth, while requiring less energy for a satellite to actually get into space. Thats not to mention the 2,000-square-mile landing zone a relatively remote location like Esrange has to offerespecially critical given the facilitys plans to test Europes first reusable rocket by the end of 2022.

Beyond its natural attributes, the area around Kiruna already has an infrastructural head start when it comes to space travel. The Swedes have used the site for a variety of space research projects over the years, and the countrys top scientific minds are already familiar with the area thanks to the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. The space engineering Ph.D. program at Lulea University of Technology and a specialized Space High School program in Kirun also attract the next generation of (literal) rocket scientists to the area. Thats on top of the hotel, church, and visitors center, all of which can expect to see more activity in the near future.

Outside the Esrange Space Center offices.

There should be no shortage of interested parties on hand as Esrange ramps up its efforts to become Europes preeminent launching pad for orbital rockets. As The New York Times reports, German rocketry startups (one of which, ISAR Aerospace Technologies, secured $100 million in funding from an ex-SpaceX VP) are already on site testing out engines, and more are sure to follow once the launchpads that will carry orbital rockets beyond Earths atmosphere are completed.

Though the effort is certainly ambitious (and has elicited occasional concerns from locals who appreciate the areas vast wilderness), the Swedish Space Corporation believes Esrange is vital not just for the Scandinavian countrys ambitions but for the continent as a whole.

Europe really needs to build infrastructure to get to space, Swedish Space Corporation senior VP Stefan Gustafsson told the Times. We can provide a proper space base. Whether or not that ends up being the case should be clearer by the end of 2022. But if Swedens plan to launch commercial satellites into orbit ends up paying dividends, dont be surprised if spaceports are the next major infrastructural frontier.

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Sweden Is Building a Massive Space ComplexAnd Itll Be Europes First Orbital Launch Site for Satellites - Architectural Digest

Rocket engine startup Firehawk Aerospace is moving to Dallas to grow its 3-D printed rocket engine and fuel concept and join the space race as Texas becomes a growing hub in the commercial rocket world.

Firehawk is looking for space for its primary research facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area after getting $1.2 million in investment funding from local startup fund Harlow Capital Management and CEO Colby Harlow.

The company is moving from Floridas Space Coast, where Kennedy Space Center has long been a magnet for commercial space research.

But that is quickly shifting as companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Firefly are growing in the Lone Star State and the new generation of multibillionaire space magnates look for a future beyond the government confines of NASA.

Just this week, the focus of the space exploration world once again focused on Texas and Boca Chica beach as SpaceX tested its Starship concept with a test launch to 10 kilometers that ended in a spectacular explosion as the rocketship tried to land. And last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rocket company, Blue Origin, declared its 14th rocket launch in West Texas a wholly successful mission that moves human flight one step closer.

We want to tap into everything thats going on here in Texas and really provide Dallas with a new kind of company, Firehawk Aerospace CEO Will Edwards said.

Firehawk uses 3-D printing technology to make a hybrid-style rocket engine, which it says is simpler, cheaper and more stable than traditional solid-fuel-style rockets. The company says its fuels can be loaded earlier onto rockets and can be stored for months or years at a time.

The kind of explosions that SpaceX has demonstrated during its research phases wouldnt be possible with a Firehawk-style rocket engine, Edwards said.

Firehawk is still in its early stages, but the company considers its technology to be promising. It has conducted tests with 200 pounds and 500 pounds of thrust and is working on an engine with 5,000 pounds of thrust. Thats small compared with the 1.2 million pounds of thrust used to launch the space shuttle or the 1.9 million pounds on SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket. But Firehawk says the technology can be easily scaled up.

Weve been able to eliminate some of the historical shortcomings of hybrid rockets, company founder and chief scientist Ron Jones said. Our fuel is much denser than liquid fuels and our engines are less expensive to develop.

The engines could also have potential military applications. Thats another reason North Texas is an attractive landing spot for Firehawk with Lockheed Martin operating a major rocket and missile technology and manufacturing center in Grand Prairie and Raytheon Technologies space and airborne systems business based in McKinney.

We have some prospective clients and they vary between defense-type operations and commercial space flight, Jones said. What weve discovered is that they are not in Florida.

Florida does have a robust space industry, but companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin primarily have manufacturing facilities there to keep their big rockets close to the launch center at Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX is headquartered near Los Angeles International Airport in Hawthorne, Calif., and Blue Origins base is in Kent, Wash., near Seattle.

Of course, space rocket companies come in all shapes and sizes. SpaceXs Falcon 9 rockets are among the biggest ever developed, but Firefly, which is based outside of Austin in Cedar Park, is developing rockets for small- and medium-size payloads. Its larger engines have about 40,000 pounds of thrust and are combined to achieve the kind of power needed to get into space.

Firehawks rockets could be put into use on smaller engines in as little as 15 months, Edwards said.

One big key factor, Jones said, is that the rockets and the printing technology can be easily modified, allowing rockets to be designed and built in just a few months for custom applications.

Firehawk is working on moving operations to Dallas and looking at opening another facility in Oklahoma, hoping to take advantage of that states aerospace manufacturing capabilities.

The company plans on doing research, design and manufacturing of rockets.

We intend to draw aerospace engineering graduates, so we think that Dallas is one of the best places to locate, Edwards said.

The company is considering spaces in the Plano-Richardson area, he said. Its in the process of moving its small research team from Florida and hiring about 20 more researchers and developers in North Texas.

Harlow, who runs Harlow Capital Management, said his firm put the $1.2 million into Firehawk because the company demonstrated its product has high growth potential.

Space has been very popular in the last couple of years with a lot of big name investors, from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos, Harlow said. Because the engine technology can be so uniformly shared across the industry, it can be modified to work with any company.

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Firehawk Aerospace wants to 3-D print rocket engines and is moving to Dallas to join the space race - The Dallas Morning News

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (KVEO) SpaceXs Boca Chica launch site will one day send people to the Moon and Mars.

Sending people to infinity and beyond is still a few years away for SpaceX. Right now, the aerospace company is bringing people into the Rio Grande Valley from near and far to watch porotype rocket go through test flights.

SpaceXs Starship SN9 launch was supposed to lift off as early as Monday morning, but that didnt happen due to extremely high winds in the area.

Takeoff was once again delayed Tuesday, this time due to dense fog, disappointing people from all across the country who came to see the latest porotype take flight.

One person who traveled quite a long distance was Mark Stoorza.

Stoorza, a self described snowbird, came down to South Texas from Alaska to watch SN9 take flight.

He told KVEO that watching the launch on TV was fun, and that he is excited to watch history in the making when SN9 finally gets the go-ahead.

That was a big party when we watched it up there.

Were advancing our history, said Stroorza. Our generation gets to do something that my parents generation didnt do, he said. Well, they went to the moon, but were going farther.

Early Monday morning, Stoorza drove down from where he was staying near San Antonio in hopes of witnessing the historic launch. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans.

Well, they went to the moon, but were going farther.

We were out there with everyone, and when the news came in that they scrubbed the launch, that disappointed all of us it seemed like, said Stoorza.

However, the setback was a small blessing in disguise. Because the launch was moved back, Stoorza was able to visit the launch site and see SN9 up close and personal.

I was a little kid in a candy store, said Stoorza. That was so unreal. Being able to come up that close to that machine just blew my mind.

Certainly, there is a lot riding on the success of these rockets. Not just for SpaceX, but for humanity.

Its the future, right? asked Stoorza. My dad grew up during the Apollo ages and I think thats kind of what were in, the new era of the Apollos. Going not only to the moon but to Mars to continue on with our planet.

Continued here:

SpaceX: From the Last Frontier to the Final Frontier - KGBT-TV

SpaceX is gearing up to test the ninth prototype of its big, shiny rocket, Starship SN9 Wednesday (Jan. 20), lighting up its engines for what should be the last time before its inaugural flight. The test is expected before 5 p.m. Central Time.

The rocket won't go anywhere during this "static fire" test. (Or, at least, it's not supposed to.) But if all goes according to plan, this test should clear the way for a launch in the near future, though SpaceX has not set a date. NASA Spaceflight is livestreaming the test from the Boca Chica, Texas, site where SpaceX builds and tests its Starships.

Related: Here's every spaceship that's ever carried an astronaut into orbit

This will be the second static fire test of SN9, after a trio of Jan. 13 tests ended inconclusively, with the engines not firing for the full intended duration, as NASA Spaceflight reported. The company has since swapped out the engines used in the past tests.

Starship is SpaceX's moonshot literally. The company has suggested the 160-foot-tall (49 meters) and 30-foot-wide (9 m) vehicle could one day land large groups of people on the moon or Mars. It has also sold tickets to board a future Starship for an orbit around the moon. To do all that will require a far-larger "Super Heavy" booster rocket to loft Starship into space, and that rocket has not yet been built.

For now, SpaceX is focused on developing the Starship vehicle itself. The last prototype, SN8, demonstrated impressive capabilities during a December 2020 test flight. That test saw SN8 loft to the cruising altitude of a jetliner and make a controlled approach to its landing site before exploding on contact, as LiveScience reported at the time. SpaceX hasnt said what its goals are for this next launch, though a successful landing of the mammoth vehicle could be on the menu.

Originally published on Live Science

Excerpt from:

SpaceX is about to run its final test of Starship SN9 before 1st launch - Livescience.com

Marques Brownlee was saving up his allowance money in high school when he decided to launch a YouTube channel.

The money he was saving up would help him buy a new laptop, where he could film and edit videos.

To help run the day-to-day of his creator business, Brownlee signed with the talent agency WME, and he has a small team of motion graphics artists, cinematographers, and assistants.

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"Oh, this is the number one holiday family reunion question," Brownlee told Nilay Patel in a recent episode of The Verge's podcast "Decoder."

For most YouTubers, their main source of revenue comes from the ads placed in their videos by Google.

"So, YouTube ads is the primary, fundamental way that YouTubers make money," Brownlee said on the Verge podcast. "You upload a video, there's ads somewhere on it or in it, and the YouTuber gets paid for the placement of those ads because they brought the eyeballs to the video."

Here is a breakdown of the main ways Brownlee makes money as a creator:

Creators who are part of YouTube's Partner Program are able to make money from their YouTube channels by placing ads within a video. These ads are filtered through Google's AdSense program.

Brownlee said on the Verge podcast that he also earns money by promoting brands in his YouTube videos.

"I negotiate the rate," Brownlee said on the Verge podcast. "The contract is usually built by my agent. I work with WME. And so, their lawyers will look over the contract and negotiate the terms, so I'm not literally reading the contracts. That's an arm I chopped off. I used to do that, too. They take their cut, obviously, for also bringing some of those contracts and companies to my inbox. But at the end of the day, if you could see the amount of stuff we say no to - it's just like a constant flow of, 'We want to be on the channel. We want to be in a video' - to find the stuff that really makes sense. And then, that's just me going, 'Let's see how we can make this work best.'"

But influencers don't have to run their own merch operation to take advantage of the business opportunity. Many, like Brownlee, partner with a company (he sells merch through the site Cotton Bureau.)

"For example, we have a merch store. You can buy apparel that has our cool designs on it," Brownlee said on the Verge podcast.

Read more: The top 7 merchandise companies helping creators on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok earn money without relying on ads

Original post:

Marques Brownlee details his business as a tech YouTuber and how he makes money on the platform - Business Insider India

Today's inauguration might have been all about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but some former first ladies almost stole the show with their fashion.

Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton both arrived at the event wearing purple and burgundy ensembles that were packed with symbolism. Laura Bush, on the other hand, mirrored Jill Biden's fashion in a baby-blue coat. Melania Trump also made a bold fashion statement on Wednesday, despite not attending the event.

She wore the ensemble while departing the White House sans face mask. The former first lady and her husband did not attend Biden's inauguration.

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Like other first ladies who attended Biden's inauguration, Obama's outfit was majorly symbolic. Not only was it designed by Sergio Hudson, a Black fashion designer who she's worked with in the past, as reported by The Cut, but its purple-hued shade is also representative of bipartisanship and women's suffrage.

She wore a gray dress underneath a baby-blue coat, which she closed with only one button. The former first lady also wore sheer tights, black flats, a gray face mask, and shining pearls.

The outfit's color scheme resembled the blue ensemble worn by Jill Biden at the same event.

Clinton has worn purple to make a statement in the past. In 2017, she and her husband Bill Clinton both wore purple as a sign of bipartisanship after Donald Trump won the presidential election.

Excerpt from:

Here's what former first ladies wore on Joe Biden's Inauguration Day, from stylish jackets to symbolic suits - Business Insider India

SpaceX had a pretty good year.

Elon Musk's company launched 26 missions in 2020, breaking its previous calendar-year record of 21, which was set in 2018. This year's launches included SpaceX's 100th successful space mission overall, as well as the 100th of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.

But the raw numbers tell only a tiny portion of the story. For example, two of SpaceX's launches this year sent astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules the first orbital crewed missions to lift off from the United States since NASA grounded its space shuttle fleet in 2011.

Related: The 10 biggest spaceflight stories of 2020

The first of those groundbreaking Crew Dragon flights, a test mission called Demo-2, launched on May 30 and carried NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the orbiting lab for a two-month stay.

"Today,a new era in human spaceflight begins as we once again launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil on their way to the International Space Station,our national lab orbiting Earth," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement just after Demo-2's launch.

"The launch of this commercial space system designed for humans is a phenomenal demonstration of American excellence and is an important step on our path to expand human exploration to the moon and Mars," Bridenstine added.

Demo-2's success paved the way for Crew-1, the first operational astronaut mission SpaceX has flown under a $2.6 billion contract the company signed with NASA's Commercial Crew Program in 2014. Crew-1, which lifted off on Nov. 15, took NASA's Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to the station for a six-month stint.

SpaceX also flew two other missions to the ISS this year uncrewed resupply flights using the robotic cargo version of Dragon, which launched in March and December, respectively.

But more than half of the 2020 missions 14 of them, to be precise launched in support of SpaceX's Starlink satellite-internet project. Each of those 14 lofted about 60 Starlink spacecraft to low Earth orbit, growing the constellation to epic (and, in many astronomers' eyes, worrying) proportions.

SpaceX has now launched more than 950 Starlink satellites to date, and about 900 of them remain in orbit, constituting by far the largest constellation ever assembled. For perspective: Just 3,300 operational satellites currently zoom around Earth, and humanity has launched 10,500 spacecraft to orbit since the dawn of the space age in 1957, according to the European Space Agency.

Starlink will get much bigger still, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX has secured permission from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites, and the company has filed paperwork for up to 30,000 more.

But 900 satellites is enough to provide at least some internet coverage, and SpaceX began a public beta test of Starlink service in October of this year. And in December, the FCC granted SpaceX nearly $900 million in subsidies to bring broadband to rural areas across the U.S.

Related: SpaceX's Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos

All 26 of the 2020 launches employed the two-stage Falcon 9, which features a reusable first stage. On 23 of those missions, SpaceX managed to land the first stage safely back on Earth so it can fly again in the future.

There were just two missed touchdown attempts in February and March, when a returning Falcon 9 booster failed to stick its landing at sea on one of SpaceX's two robotic "drone ships." (Nineteen of this year's successful touchdowns occurred on such ships, and only four occurred on terra firma.)

One 2020 mission, a January test of Crew Dragon's in-flight abort system, did not feature a landing attempt. Crew Dragon fired its escape thrusters early in the uncrewed flight and jetted clear of its rocket ride, as it would in the event of a real launch emergency. The Falcon 9's first stage was destroyed shortly thereafter by aerodynamic forces, as SpaceX had expected.

And this landing success rate wasn't SpaceX's only notable reusability milestone of 2020. Two of this year's flights a Starlink launch on Nov. 24 and the Dec. 13 liftoff of a Sirius XM broadcasting satellite used Falcon 9 first stages that already had six missions under their belts.

Coming into 2020, SpaceX had never flown a single Falcon 9 booster seven separate times. And the company just did it twice in less than weeks.

Musk has repeatedly said that he founded SpaceX back in 2002 primarily with one aim in mind helping humanity colonize Mars.

The company took significant steps in 2020 toward accomplishing this ambitious goal. The biggest and most dramatic step occurred on Dec. 9, when SpaceX launched a shiny silver vehicle called SN8 on a 7.8-mile-high (12.5 kilometers) test flight from the company's South Texas facility, near the Gulf Coast village of Boca Chica.

SN8 ("Serial No. 8") is the latest prototype of Starship, the spacecraft that SpaceX is developing to take people to and from Mars, the moon and other distant destinations. Like the envisioned final Starship, SN8 is made of stainless steel, stands about 165 feet (50 meters) tall and is powered by SpaceX's next-generation Raptor engine.

The operational Starship will have six Raptors, Musk has said. SN8 had only three, but they were powerful enough to take the vehicle far higher than any Starship prototype had ever gone before. The previous altitude record was 500 feet (150 m), achieved in the summer of 2019 and this past August and September by three single-engine craft Starhopper, SN5 and SN6, respectively.

And SN8 did more than just fly high; it performed a "belly flop" and other complex aerial maneuvers similar to the ones the operational Starship will execute when coming back to Earth from space missions. The prototype also landed where SpaceX wanted it to, though SN8 came in too fast and exploded. (SN8's flight technically takes SpaceX's 2020 launch tally to 27, but I kept it off the "official" list because it was a test involving a prototype vehicle.)

SN8's fiery demise did not dampen the enthusiasm of Musk, who viewed the first high-altitude Starship flight as a resounding success.

"Mars, here we come!" he tweeted shortly after the test.

Starship will launch from Earth atop a giant rocket called Super Heavy, which will sport about 30 Raptors. Like Falcon 9 first stages, Super Heavy will land shortly after liftoff and be used again, Musk has said. (Starship will be powerful enough to launch itself off the moon and Mars, both of which have much weaker gravity than Earth does.)

No Super Heavy prototype has gotten off the ground to date. But the next Starship vehicle, SN9, should soon take a leap: it moved to the pad last week.

SpaceX wants Starship to be up and running soon. Musk recently said he's confident that the vehicle will be flying people to Mars by 2026, and such missions could launch as early as 2024 "if we're lucky."

That timeframe would mesh well with NASA's current crewed moon plans, which the agency is pursuing through its Artemis program. Artemis aims to land two astronauts near the lunar south pole in 2024 and to establish a sustainable human presence on and around the moon by 2028.

Starship could end up helping to make all of this happen. In April, NASA selected Starship as a candidate to take its astronauts to the lunar surface, along with human landers being developed by Dynetics and a coalition led by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. And in October, NASA awarded SpaceX a $53 million contract to demonstrate in-space refueling using Starship, another bright spot in the company's memorable 2020.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX's very big year: A 2020 filled with astronaut launches, Starship tests and more - Space.com

Space rocks crash to Earth carrying compounds that were formed billions of years ago. Spaceships perform fancy flips in the air but explode when they touch back down too quickly. And sometimes, iguanas fall from trees and land belly-up, frozen on the ground.

Here's a list of seven intriguing objects and a few reptiles that made headlines for falling from the sky.

Researchers captured an incredible video when a bright, green meteor zipped over the southern coast of Tasmania, Australia though a bit unfortunately, the video is in black-and-white. A research vessel called Investigator, which is operated by Australias national science agency, CSIRO, filmed the fireball as it burst through Earth's atmosphere, crossed the sky and then disintegrated above the Tasman Sea. People who witnessed the meteor first-hand said that it appeared green to the naked eye.

A rainbow-color space rock broke up over Costa Rica in 2019 and scattered debris between the villages of La Palmera and Aguas Zarcas. Now, ongoing studies hint that the fireball may contain the chemical building blocks of life. The soft meteor originally broke off of a larger asteroid, which formed out of dust from an ancient nebula. That very nebula would later birth our solar system. The rainbow meteor contains complex carbon compounds, which may include amino acids, which can come together to form proteins and molecules like DNA.

SpaceX's Starship program launched a prototype called SN8 during a high-altitude test flight, and all went according to plan other than the landing. The prototype took off from SpaceX's facility Boca Chica, Texas and zoomed about 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) into the sky, performing complex aerial maneuvers on the way. The vehicle then descended onto a designated landing mark on the ground, but it came in too fast and burst into flames. The explosion occurred just 6 minutes and 42 seconds after liftoff.

A meteorite crumbled up in the sky over Hamburg, Michigan, and the pieces fell down onto a frozen lake below. That was in January 2018; this year, after thoroughly analysing the space rock, scientists announced that the meteorite contained thousands of organic compounds that formed billions of years ago. The compounds date back to the early days of our solar system, meaning meteorites that crashed onto young Earth may have carried similar molecules. Back then, organic compounds from meteors could have been incorporated into primitive microbes, the team said, so studying the Michigan meteor can give us a glimpse into early life on the planet.

The prehistoric village of Abu Hureyra in northern Syria housed the first known farmers on Earth, but then some mysterious, fiery incident destroyed the town, leaving mostly remnants of thatched huts coated in carbon. Among the wreckage, excavators also found glass spheres formed from melting soil, melted iron- and sulfur-rich samples and nanodiamonds. Scientists recently examined these glassy materials more closely and found that they could only have formed at temperatures over 3,630 F (2,000 C). The team concluded that fragments from a passing comet likely exploded over the village, releasing an intense heatwave that scorched the village and the soil beneath it.

The monstrous space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs slammed into Earth at such a steep angle that the dinos never really stood a chance. Scientists modeled the path of the asteroid and found that it struck at an angle of about 60 degrees above the horizon. Compared with shallower impact angles, this trajectory caused the asteroid to spew about three times as much sulfur and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to the model. The gas released by the impact triggered global climate change and killed 75% of all life on Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs.

"Cool temperatures with a chance of falling reptiles" this is essentially the warning the National Weather Service sends out when the temperature falls below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius) in southern Florida. That's because, when the weather gets cool, the iguanas that usually hang out in the treetops become too old to hold onto branches. As their metabolisms slow down, the lizards go stiff, fall to the ground and appear dead; but once the weather warms up, they snap back into action.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Fireballs, spaceships and iguanas? 7 strange things that fell from the sky - Livescience.com

It's been less than six weeks since the Boeing 737 Max was ungrounded by the Federal Aviation Administration and the plane is already flying passengers around Brazil and Mexico, with plans to start in the US in just seven days.

American Airlines will fly the aircraft first, following by United Airlines in February and then Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines in March. Brazil's Gol Linhas Areas began flying passengers on the aircraft on December 9, just three weeks after the FAA's ungrounding, and Aeromexico soon followed suit on December 21.

Airlines, however, have been waiting for the moment for nearly two years and are eager to put the grounding behind them.

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A key selling point of the Max is its fuel-efficiency as a hedge against rising fuel costs, which can be a killer for airlines. The past few years have seen a reprieve from high jet fuel prices but countless factors such as geopolitical showdowns, as we saw between Russia and Saudi Arabia in the early days of the pandemic, can drive oil prices way down or way up, at a moment's notice.

It's good for the environment and for the bottom line.

Airlines are also showing that they can't pass up a good deal, even if for a troubled aircraft. Boeing still has a product to sell and every Max sold goes further to restore confidence in the jet so good prices can be had, Aboulafia said.

Boeing not only has to sell new builds but also aircraft that were built and never delivered to a customer, known as "white-tails," since the combination of the grounding and the pandemic led to increased cancellations. Alaska Airlines not only announced a 23-aircraft order on Tuesday, growing its firm order total to 68 jets to be delivered by 2024, but also opted for nine white-tails.

Southwest Airlines was also reportedly in talks to acquire white-tails and will take on 35 Max aircraft in 2021. Despite having the largest Max fleet in the US prior to the grounding, Southwest will be one of the last airlines in the US to fly the Max, waiting until at least March before putting passengers on the aircraft.

As Aboulafia noted, the Boeing 737 Max isn't the first aircraft to be grounded after high-profile incidents, not even the first in the 2010s as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was briefly shortly after its debut.

And despite the following grounding by the FAA, the DC-10 was still flown by passenger airlines for decades and still flies packages today for FedEx Express. A military variant also still flies for the US Air Force as an aerial refueler known as the KC-10 Extender.

Read more: The 16 most outrageous things Boeing employees said about the company, 737 Max program, and each other in released internal emails

All US airlines flying the Max are touting the aircraft's safety while simultaneously vowing to give customers flexibility when booked on the Max to move to another flight free-of-charge if they so desire. But travelers will have to know they're flying on a Boeing 737 Max first.

A more recent example comes from the early days of the airline industry's pandemic recovery with the onboard social distancing debate.

American Airlines and United Airlines were criticized for filling their planes to capacity so early on but just a few months later, airlines that did block seats are now reverting back to full flights. Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways, for example, announced their new plane-filling policies before the first COVID-19 vaccine cleared emergency authorization.

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Why airlines are so eager to get the Boeing 737 Max back in the air despite customer concerns - Business Insider India

Electric vehicle pioneer, aspiring Mars colonist, and part-time Twitter troll Elon Musk announced this month that hes moving to Texas, and many in the tech world were shocked. Not us. Tesla CEO Musk is his generations eccentric billionaire par excellence. Texas has long been a spiritual homeland for vainglorious oddballs of great wealth, from King of the Wildcatters Glenn McCarthy, the inspiration for Giant and Dallas, to self-funding presidential candidate H. Ross Perot. Musk, 49, may have been born in South Africa and made most of his roughly $140 billion personal fortune in California, but he belongs in Texas. Welcome home, Elon.

So far, he hasnt publicly revealed which Texas metropolitan region hes chosen for his next chapter. As part of his house-hunting process, hed be well-advised to review the relative merits of our Lone Star tech hubs. Texas has become a powerful magnet for U.S. tech industry jobs, talent, and capital at the expense of Californias Bay Area, particularly in the past three astonishing weeks. This month, as Musk revealed that he was packing his electric buggy for Texas, the more than $180 billion Oracle Corporation announced that its relocating its headquarters to Austin, and $15 billion-plus Hewlett Packard Enterprise unveiled a move to Houston. After much slow cooking, like a good chopped brisket, Texass statewide tech community is on a roll.

Should Musk follow in the footsteps of one of those two new arrivals or beat his own path to a different Texas city? Here are a few of his best options:

Musk has been closely linked to Austin in recent months, enough that some headline writers have already leapt to the conclusion that his move to Texas could only mean relocation to the states capital. To be fair, the signs are convincing. Last summer, Tesla revealed that its newest automobile factory will be built just east of Austin, in Del Valle. In November, Musks transit-oriented underground tunneling project, the Boring Company, announced that it is expanding to Austin. And just before telling the press about his own move to Texas, Musk relocated his charitable concern, the Musk Foundation, to Austin. Even if hes not personally headed for the City of the Violet Crown, Musk will have a major footprint there for the foreseeable future.

Austin, ranked number one in the Computing Technology Industry Associations Tech Town Index of opportunity and quality of life for IT workers, gets the most hype of all the tech communities in Texas. Musk, whose companies tend to depend on venture capital and government subsidies to survive, thrives on hype. In that sense, he and Austin make a perfect match. He also has a potential friend and near financial peer in personal computing mogul Michael Dell, who put Austin on the tech map in the eighties and whose Dell Computers was the biggest tech firm headquartered in the state until Oracle rolled in a week or so ago. Austin also boasts several other major local firms, like Silicon Labs and Resideo Technologies, and plenty of start-ups and secondary campuses for giant tech companies headquartered elsewhere. Apple has a billion-dollar campus, its second in the city, under construction now that will make it the largest private employer in the area once its open.

That said, in Austin, Musk would be a very big fish in what is still a mid-sized pond. One wonders if the citys traditional slacker ethos would wear on him. Musks persona on Twitter and in the press is that of a relentlessly driven man of action, not one to noodle away his fifties in his little pocket of the Velvet Rut. In Austin, hed also be choosing a city with a potent tech backlash brewing, as real estate prices soar thanks to constant new arrivals. Does Musk really want to become the go-to embodiment of Austins favorite bogeyman, the Californian who shows up and ruins everything cool and authentic?

Musk should also consider the feelings of his girlfriend, Canadian singer Grimes, in that he has been romantically linked in the past to prominent Austinite Ty Haney, founder of Outdoor Voices. If Grimes can get over that, however, Austin could be a welcome landing spot for the baby boy she and Musk welcomed into the world in April. Many scoffed when the couple revealed their babys inscrutable name: X A-XII. In most parts of Texas, a kid with a name like that would be in for serious bullying, if not just downright confusion among his peers. In Austin, it might not even be the strangest name in his Montessori class.

With all the recent focus on Austins tech scene as a result of the Oracle relocation news, its easy to forget that Dallas and its suburbs still constitute the biggest and most storied technology sector in the state. According to the Computing Technology Industry Association, Dallas leads the state in net tech jobs over the last year, ranking eighth nationally. (Houston, for comparison, ranks number twelve in net tech jobs, and Austin comes in at eighteen.) The granddaddy of Lone Star tech firms, Texas Instruments, is still going strong in North Texas, and, though not strictly a tech company in the modern parlance, Dallas-based telecom behemoth AT&T is a crucial part of American information technology history.

Mark Cuban, another potential billionaire friend for Musk in Texas, boosted his citys tech prospects this month as news came in about Musk, Oracle, and HPE:

Cubans advice may entice Musk insofar as the latter is presumably interested in moving to a better city, though not necessarily a cheaper one, as $141 billion goes a long way anywhere. A hard-working proletariat may attract Musk too. After all, hes the mega-billionaire who recently asked employees at Tesla to work as volunteers for the company while on unpaid furlough. Really, though, its the more entertaining aspect of Dallas that is most likely to persuade Musk. Its lonely at the top, and a city like Austin would offer precious few billionaire friends and activities for a man with his bankroll. The DallasFort Worth metro, on the other hand, leads Texas in billionaires, with 27. (Houston comes in second with 15, while Austins 8 could barely fill a high-stakes poker table.) From restaurants to art, professional sports, and beyond, North Texas knows how to keep a billionaire busy and satisfied. Cuban should know.

Another point for Dallas: 2020 has revealed that Musk fancies himself adept at seeing through deep-state lies and faades. In early March, he tweeted that the coronavirus panic is dumb. In April, he came out against social distancing and tweeted FREE AMERICA NOW! More recently, he has insinuated that rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 are a hoax of sorts. By moving to Dallas, Musk could indulge his passion for conspiracy theory full-time. As a professional engineer and amateur dot-connector, Musk could bring his considerable talents and trust-no-one sensibility to finally solving the ballistics question of whether John F. Kennedy was indeed killed by Lee Harvey Oswald or by a second shooter from the Grassy Knoll.

With HPE moving to town, things are looking up for Houstons tech community, but the Bayou City is less defined by tech than either Austin or Dallas. Thats not a bad thingon the contrary, its because Houston is already busy leading the world in other fields, like energy and medicine. Still, Musk would find in Houston a city well positioned to help him reach his biggest and most ambitious goals.

Among U.S. cities, Houston trails only Silicon Valley in engineers per capita, but, whereas Silicon Valley engineers tend to work in software, Houston engineers are often engaged in challenges like mining and deep-water construction. This may appeal to Musk, who is more focused on the physical process of actually making things than most tech baronsbuilding cars, tunnels, batteries, and rocket ships.

This brings us to Houstons biggest asset, so far as Musk is concerned: the Johnson Space Center. Followers of Musks Twitter account know that much of his attention lately is focused on his spacecraft company, SpaceX, and its long-term goal of sending humans to Mars and establishing a self-governing colony there. The company has already achieved extraordinary things, including the first-ever spaceflight on a commercially developed craft, a trip to the International Space Station piloted by NASA astronauts this May. Still, its a long way from the ISS to Mars. To develop such a mission, Musk will have to work closely with NASA and specifically with its human spaceflight hub, the Johnson Space Center. Why not move in next to the astronauts and get it done?

In terms of tech hype, Houston isnt Austin, but it does check an awful lot of boxes for Musk. Also, if he spends much time on Twitterand we know he doesMusk might be aware that there is a robust argument among Texans on the platform about whether Austin has jumped the shark and been supplanted by Houston for the title of coolest city in Texas.

Okay, okay. We know it sounds crazy. The off-the-beaten-track Rio Grande Valley doesnt even have a direct flight to the San Francisco Bay Area, let alone a tech industry to rival any of the three bigger Texas metros mentioned above. So what does it have going for it? Just the fact that Musk has been spending much of his time there in recent months.

Boca Chica, just outside Brownsville at the mouth of the Rio Grande, is the site of Space Xs South Texas launch siteland acquired by Musk with the vision of building toward a Mars launch. During the recent pandemic months, both reporting and his own tweets attest to the fact that Musk has been largely based in or near Boca Chica, working on SpaceXs next-generation launch system and sharing gorgeous photos of rockets against the backdrop of the coastal wetlands.

Musk is 49 and has spoken of building a Mars colony by 2040, when hell be pushing 70. Perhaps the pandemic has helped him refocus on his priorities to such an extent that hes decided to leave the distracting hubbub of the Bay Area for the utter non-hub of Brownsville, where he can directly oversee mankinds next giant leap in rocketry. Stranger things have happened.

And hey, perhaps by 2040, Musk will have also perfected his Hyperloop, a proposed high-speed vacuum train technology that Musk claims could carry passengers 350 miles in about 35 minutes. Thats about the distance from Brownsville to either Houston or Austin, an easy commute. If so, Musk wont even really have to pick which city in Texas he wants to base himself in. He could have breakfast tacos in Austin, a power lunch in Dallas, and dinner at JSC in Houston and be home in Brownsville to check his Martian colony by telescope before bedtimeprovided he can make just a few more of his techno-utopian dreams come true.

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Welcome to Texas, Elon Musk. You Dont Have to Move to Austin. - Texas Monthly

CAMBRIDGE: Private company SpaceX launched SN8, a prototype of its Starship spacecraft, designed to go to the Moon and Mars, on Dec 10. Its short flight attracted a great deal of attention for its final few seconds before landing when it exploded.

But consider the near perfect totality of its six-and-a-half-minute flight. Look at the groundbreaking technology and manoeuvres involved. It is reasonable to view this as a hugely successful test.

Ordinary spacecraft return to Earth by using the aerodynamic drag in the atmosphere to slow their re-entry. Decelerating from 20,000 miles per hour dissipates a lot of heat which is why they carry heat shields, and the final touchdown is controlled by parachutes.

The actual rocket engines dont make a safe landing they burn up and crash into the sea.

This is a real waste of resources. SpaceXs founder and CEO Elon Musk is instead trying to reuse as much of the spacecraft as possible.

If your ultimate destination is the Moon and onward to Mars, this makes a lot of sense because you can much more easily refuel at judicious locations along the way than build a new rocket.

A FULLY REUSABLE ROCKET

Starship is a fully reusable rocket system designed to carry 100 tonnes of cargo into Earth orbit and beyond.

It has a booster first stage which propels it into orbit and separates. The booster stage is designed to land safely and to be reused.

SpaceX figured out how to do this with the Falcon rocket, but thats only two thirds of the system. With Starship, the third of the system that helps propel the spacecraft further than Earth orbit is never ejected.

Landing the first stage booster is easy because it is ejected two minutes after launch and therefore returns to Earth from a relatively low altitude never reaching super high speeds.

NASA defines high hypersonic speed as a Mach number from 10 to 25. The booster only reaches about Mach 6.

Starship itself will be returning from orbit, reaching Mach 25. At this speed, the heat of reentry will melt the engines off.

You therefore need a substantial heat shield which dissipates 99 per cent of the energy protecting the cargo and those all-important rockets that you need for landing.

NASAs partially reusable Space Shuttle had huge wings used to glide the vehicle onto a runway. But wings are heavy and they reduce the potential payload capacity.

Also, they wont work on Mars or the Moon because theres a lack of atmosphere and runways.

BELLY-FLOP DYNAMICS

The ingenuity of Starship is that it just belly-flops all the way down a type of free fall in which the atmosphere gradually slows down its speed.

As it nears the ground, it should be slow enough for a short flip-and-landing burn to touch down softly on the pad.

No other vehicle flies like this on purpose. Planes are designed to keep the air flow attached to the wings to provide lift. If you lose that air flow, you fall out of the sky a condition called stall.

Starship enters the atmosphere at a 90 degree angle. That means it is fully stalled. Just as a leaf flutters to the ground this is an inherently unstable configuration and the aerodynamics are impossible to predict.

This is where active control comes in. Starship has four flaps and theyre used just as a skydiver uses their four arms to control free fall.

With the SN8 test flight, Space X has shown that its possible to control a belly-flop. The drop from 12.5km gave SpaceX the conditions of the last half of a return back from orbit.

SpaceX will have gathered flight data that allows it to know how the aerodynamics of a belly-flop work. In particular, it will know how well the flaps work and how precisely to keep the craft stable and land it on target.

We can see on the videos released by SpaceX that the flaps are under good control. This looks like great news for SpaceX.

ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF FUEL NEEDED FOR LANDING

Being fully reusable, Starship should work out far cheaper than conventional single use craft. But its a tricky business to work out exactly how much fuel you need to carry.

Conventional aircraft always take off with a bit of fuel to spare, but they can always make an emergency landing if they miscalculate.

Rockets need to launch with an enormous amount of fuel just to be sure you have enough for the landing. Its like going on a 14-day camping trip and spending 13 days carrying the water for your last day.

Its likely that the tank for SN8 was almost completely empty when it came in to land.

The amount of fuel you need is given by the rocket equation. This shows that if you want to launch 100 tonnes of payload to the Moon at a speed of 12,000 metres per second you need a staggering 2,000 tonnes of fuel.

When it comes to the type of fuel, its interesting that kerosene and hydrogen (as used by Apollo 11) are still the most popular rocket fuels around. The laws of physics and chemistry havent changed very much in fifty years.

But Starship is actually pioneering the use of methane as a fuel. Despite being harder to work with, it gives a bit more thrust.

And perhaps more importantly theres plenty of methane on Mars, which is obviously the ultimate destination for SpaceX.

So why did SN8 crash?

You can see in the video some green flashes just before landing. The engines are made with copper, which burns with a characteristic green flame.

SpaceX says there was a problem with fuel pressure just at the last moment, meaning the rocket couldnt slow down. The resulting excess oxygen started burning up the engines themselves.

If it werent for the last few seconds then the landing could have been perfect. Engineers will now be looking to fix that problem for SN9.

Hugh Hunt is Reader in Engineering Dynamics and Vibration at the University of Cambridge. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.

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Commentary: Elon Musk's recent trial spacecraft may have exploded, but we are one step closer to Mars - CNA

The cool front that arrived in the Valley brought with it chilly mornings and nice afternoons.

The National Weather Service in Brownsville says temperatures each morning for the rest of the week will range from the mid 40s to low 60s.

The afternoons will be sunny and cool with temperatures from the upper 60s to low 80s through Friday. The weekend calls for great weather lows in the upper 40s and highs in the mid 80s.

Forecasters say surface high pressure will build in the Valley and the northern ranchlands, so that is bringing the mostly cool and dry conditions across deep south Texas through the rest of the week and into the weekend.

Wednesday: Lows in the upper 40s, highs around 70; northwest winds 15 to 20 mph.Thursday: Lows in the lower 50s, highs in the upper 70s; north winds 10 to 15 mph.Friday: Lows in the lower 50s, highs in the upper 70sSaturday through Tuesday: Lows in the mid 50s, highs in the upper 70s.

On the coast, there is a moderate risk of rip currents on the beaches of South Padre Island and at Boca Chica Beach.

Diana Eva Maldonado is the Digital Editor for the Brownsville Herald, Valley Morning Star and Coastal Current. She can be reached at dmaldonado@valleystar.com or (956) 421-9872 or (956) 982-6618.

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Chilly mornings in the forecast - Brownsville Herald

SpaceX took another step forward Thursday in developing its next-generation Starship rocket, conducting the second short flight test of a prototype in the past month.

Starship prototype Serial Number 6, or SN6, took off from the launchpad at SpaceX's facility in Boca Chica, Texas. It gradually rose to about 500 feet above the ground before it returned back to land, touching down on a concrete area near the launchpad. The flight test appeared to be identical to the test SpaceX conducted of prototype SN5 on Aug. 5.

The prototypes are built of stainless steel and represent the first versions of the Starship rocket that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiled last year. The company is developing Starship with the goal of launching cargo and as many as a 100 people at a time on missions to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX's first Starship prototype under construction near Boca Chica, Texas in 2019.

SpaceX

SpaceX has been steadily building multiple prototypes at a time at the company's growing facility in Boca Chica.While SpaceX's fleet of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets are partially reusable, Musk's goal is to make Starship fully reusable envisioning a rocket that is more akin to a commercial airplane, with short turnaround times between flights where the only major cost is fuel.

After SpaceX in May launched a pair of NASA astronauts inits first crewed mission, Musk pivoted the company's attention, declaring thatthe top SpaceX priority is now development of Starship. Musk said in an email obtained by CNBC that Starship's program must accelerate"dramatically and immediately."

SpaceX's prototype Starship rocket SN6 comes back to land after a short flight test on Sept. 3 in Boca Chica, Texas.

@LabPadre

The repeated flight test represents a continuation of what Musk has said about Starship's development, as he's tweeted that SpaceX will launch prototypes on"several short hops to smooth out launch process." The back-to-back successful flights show Starship's development is accelerating, as the program hadsuffered several explosive setbacks in the past year.

Musk also acknowledged on Monday that Starship has many milestones to go before it can take passengers on flights.

"We've got to first make the thing work; automatically deliver satellites and do hundreds of missions with satellites before we put people on board," Musk said.

He expects Starship's first flight tests to orbit won't come until 2021, saying that SpaceX is in "uncharted territory."

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SpaceX launches and lands another Starship prototype, the second flight test in under a month - CNBC

WASHINGTON SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company is making good progress on its next-generation Starship launch vehicle despite delays in the schedule of test flights of the vehicle.

In an interview broadcast during the Humans to Mars Summit by the advocacy group Explore Mars Aug. 31, Musk emphasized the progress the company has made not on test flights of the vehicle but instead development of production facilities for Starship at Boca Chica, Texas.

Were making good progress. The thing that were really making progress on with Starship is the production system, he said, referring to the growing campus at Boca Chica. A year ago there was almost nothing there and now weve got quite a lot of production capability.

Those facilities have cranked out a series of prototypes of Starship, which is intended to serve as the upper stage of the overall launch system. Musk said that construction will start this week on booster prototype one, a reference to the Super Heavy first stage of the system.

That production capability, he argued, is essential to the long-term development of the overall launch system. Making a prototype of something is, I think, relatively easy, he said. But building the production system so that you can build ultimately hundreds or thousands of Starships, thats the hard part.

That focus on production belies the lack of progress on actual testing of the vehicle. At a September 2019 event at Boca Chica, Musk, with a Starship prototype standing behind him, said that the vehicle would fly to an altitude of 20 kilometers in one or two months. I think we want to try to reach orbit in less than six months, he said, a schedule he said at the time was accurate to within a few months.

Eleven months later, a Starship prototype has flown only once: an Aug. 4 hop test of a prototype known as SN5 that flew to an estimated altitude of 150 meters before landing on a nearby pad. Another prototype, SN6, was being prepared for a similar hop test Aug. 30 that was scrubbed for undisclosed reasons. Four other prototypes were destroyed in ground tests prior to the SN5 flight.

Musk, asked when Starship would make its first orbital flight, said, Probably next year. He didnt specify if that would be the Starship vehicle alone or the full stack with the Super Heavy booster. I hope we do a lot of flights. The first ones might not work. This is uncharted territory. Nobodys ever made a fully reusable orbital rocket.

He later said he expected the launch system, ultimately intended to transport people to Mars, will do hundreds of missions with satellites before we put people on board.

Musk quoted a cost estimate for developing Starship of $5 billion, a figure he has stated in the past. He played down the NASA Human Landing System award the company received in April, valued at $135 million, to study using the Starship system as a means for landing NASA astronauts on the moon for the Artemis program. Definitely the NASA support is appreciated, he said. Its helpful, but its not a gamechanger.

The overall design of the system is still evolving. While SpaceX previously described Super Heavy as having 31 Raptor engines, Musk said the final number may be less. We might have fewer than 31 engines on the booster, because were trying to simplify the configuration, he said. It might be 28 engines. Its still a lot of engines.

Musk spent a large chunk of the nearly half-hour interview going into technical details about the Raptor engines that will power Starship, discussing chamber pressures, thrust-to-weight ratios and specific impulse. But asked what he thought what sort of headline would accompany a successful human Mars landing, he was stumped. I havent thought about that at all, he said, settling on humanity is on Mars.

We need a lot of people fired up to go to Mars, he said. Its going to be kind of risky, but kind of a cool, fun adventure.

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Musk emphasizes progress in Starship production over testing - SpaceNews

With a first successful hop test under their belts using a full-scale prototype, SpaceX is pressing ahead with the testing of the Starship. Tomorrow (on Sunday, August 30th), SpaceX will be attempting to make a second 150 meter (500 ft) hop test, this time with their sixth Starship prototype (SN6). Its all part of a very busy weekend for SpaceX, with no less than three launches planned.

The previous-hop test took place on August 4th and saw the SN5 successfully fly from the companys launch pad outside of Boca Chica, Texas. Much like its predecessor, the Starhopper test vehicle, the test consisted of the prototypes hull using a single Raptor engine to hover 150 m above the launch pad, move laterally, and then land safely on an adjacent pad.

SpaceXs busy schedule was noted by NASA SpaceFlight reporter Michael Baylor, who shared the details about it via Twitter on Friday (Aug. 28th). In addition to the SN6 hop test, SpaceX also plans to launch another batch of its Starlink satellites (V1 L11) from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida; and Argentinas SAOCOM 1B Earth observation satellite, which will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.

Musk replied to the comment, indicating that with such a packed schedule, something was likely to be scrubbed. This would presumably be due to weather, which is forecasted to be rather iffy around Cape Canaveral tomorrow. Aside from westerly winds of 18 km/h (11 mph) from morning to midday, there is also a risk of thunderstorms and a 40% chance it will rain around the cape.

In any case, the SN6 appears to be good to go for tomorrow, as indicated by a public notice from Cameron County that road closures will be in effect around the Boca Chica site for up to three days. The notice specifies Sunday (Aug. 30th) as the primary date from 08:00 am to 08:00 pm local time (07:00 am 07:00 pm EDT; 06:00 am 06:00 pm PDT) with backup opportunities for Monday and Tuesday from 08:00 am to 08:00 pm.

Meanwhile, the company is busy preparing the next full-scale models for testing. This includes the assembly of the SN7 and SN8 prototypes, which are likely to be making their own short hop tests in the near future. This is in keeping with what Musk tweeted shortly after the SN5 hop test, which was that the company would be performing: several short hops to smooth out launch process, then go high altitude with body flaps

The high altitude flights he was referring to are the 20 km (~12.5 mi) hop test, which will be the curtain-raiser for orbital test flights. As Musk noted, the Starships body flaps, which allow the spacecraft to maneuver during high-altitude flights (not to mention re-entry), will be a key part of that. For this test, three Raptor engines will be integrated and used in the prototype as well.

The last three iterations of the Starship prototype (SN4, SN5, SN6) have also included the new telescoping landing legs that flip out from beneath the fuselage. After the last test, Musk explained that the SN5s landing legs got a little beat up and were in need of repair, and that the SN6 might be making the three-engine 20 km flight sooner than its predecessor.

When all of that is said and done, the final design of the Starship will have six Raptor engines, three that are optimized for sea-level thrust, and three optimized for thrust in vacuum. We can also expect test flights involving the Super Heavy first stage to commence in the near future as well, the final version of which will have no less than 31 Raptor engines!

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SpaceX is Going to Hop Starship Again This Weekend - Universe Today

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Elon Musk aims to one-day colonize Mars and, according to the billionaire, getting there is not the issue it is surviving on the Red Planet that will be challenging.

The SpaceX CEO shared progress on the firm's Starship rocket during the virtual Humans to Mars Summit, saying the craft 'is making progresses,' but also raised concerns about building a base on the planet.

Musk suggested constructing a self-sustaining city will be 'difficult' and there will be a number of dangers settlers may face while developing the galactic civilization.

'I want to emphasize, this is a very hard and dangerous and difficult thing,' Musk said.

'Not for the faint of heart. Good chance you'll die. And it's going to be tough, tough going, but it'll be pretty glorious if it works out.'

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Musk has had his heart set on colonizing Mars for years and has not been shy about how he plans to make it happen.

The key to turning this dream into a reality will be SpaceX's massive Starship rocket, which is has been undergoing tests and construction at the firm's Boca Chica facility in Texas.

Based on his projections, SpaceX would need to build 1,000 rockets over a nine-year period in order to take one million people to Mars.

'We're making good progress,' Musk said, as reported on by CNBC.

'The thing that really impedes progress on Starship is the production system.'

'A year ago there was nothing there and now we've got quite a lot of production capability. So we're rapidly making more and more ships.'

SpaceX has ramped up productions at Boca Chica in a bid to get the Starship off the ground.

The firm conducted the first 'hop' of the rocket last month, which saw the vehicle soar nearly 500 feet in the air and land safely back on the ground.

Musk unveiled the first Starship prototype in 2019, with the main objective of sending humans to Mars.

The CEO had hoped the rocket would be soaring in low orbit by March of this year and have people inside by the end of 2020.

However, the Starship program has seen a number of bumps since 2019, which Musk touched on in the Monday interview.

'I hope we do a lot of flights,' Musk said. 'The first ones might not work. This is uncharted territory.

'Nobody has ever made a fully reusable orbital rocket. So just having that at all is pretty significant.'

Although there has been numerous setbacks, Musk is now aiming for the rocket's first orbital test flight in 2021.

The team is gearing up to add the nose to the rocket, which will being the rocket to around 164 feet tall, and is set to begin construction of the first Super Heavy booster prototype 'this week.'

The Super Heavy is the large bottom half of Starship rocket, which has most of the engines and is used during the beginning of a launch.

Musk has shared that an operational Starship could carry more than 220,000 pounds of cargo to low Earth obit.

He said on Monday that engineers have tweaked the design of the Super Heavy booster by increasing the thrust of its Raptor engines, allowing SpaceX to remove several Raptors from the design.

'So it might be 28 engines,' Musk said. 'That's still a lot of engines. We'll also end up cranking up the thrust on the engines.'

An outer ring of engines on the Super Heavy booster will have fixed nozzles, while an inner group of eight Raptors will vector their thrust to steer the rocket during takeoff and landing.

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Elon Musk says there is a 'good chance you'll die' on Mars - MSN Autos