The bond between Elon Musk and Donald Trump appears to be getting stronger.
Musk was a big supporter of Trump’s campaign over the past few months, and the president-elect recently appointed the SpaceX founder and CEO to co-lead the new “Department of Government Efficiency,” which aims to slash regulations and reduce government spending.
And today (Nov. 19), Trump made the trek to South Texas to watch SpaceX launch its giant Starship rocket for the sixth time ever.
“I’m heading to the Great State of Texas to watch the launch of the largest object ever to be elevated, not only to Space, but simply by lifting off the ground. Good luck to @ElonMusk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project!” Trump posted today on X, the social media platform that Musk owns.
Musk gave Trump and several other VIPs a tour of mission control before the Starship launch, which occurred from SpaceX’s Starbase site, near the Texas border city of Brownsville.
Trump watched the liftoff from a safe distance, taking the action in from across a decent-size body of water.
SpaceX wanted to catch Starship’s first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, with the “chopstick” arms of Starbase’s launch tower during today’s test flight, as it did during the most recent Starship flight, on Oct. 13. But engineers noticed something in the flight data today and called the attempt off, instead diverting Super Heavy to a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
Pretty much everything else went according to plan today, however. For example, Starship’s 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper stage, called Starship or simply “Ship,” successfully re-lit one of its engines in space, demonstrating a capability that will be needed during orbital missions down the road.
And Ship survived its return trip through Earth’s atmosphere in one piece today, hitting its target splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean about 65.5 minutes after liftoff.
Trump has shown enthusiasm before for Starship, which SpaceX is developing to take people and cargo to the moon and Mars.
For instance, in a speech broadcast on election night (Nov. 5), Trump recalled watching the “chopsticks” booster catch of Super Heavy on Oct. 13
“And I called Elon. I said, ‘Elon, was that you?’ He said, ‘Yes, it was.’ I said, ‘Who else can do that? Can Russia do it? ‘No.’ Can China do it?’ ‘No,'” Trump said. “‘Can the United States do it, other than you?’ ‘No, nobody can do that.’ I said, ‘That’s why I love you, Elon, that’s great.'”