The US space enterprise is desperately waiting for Starship—will it finally deliver? "This is such a wild ride. The highs are high. The lows are low." https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/the-us-space-enterprise-is-desperately-waiting-for-starship-will-it-finally-deliver/
Includes this graph of how much upmass has been carried by each provider; SpaceX launched 82 percent of all mass into orbit in 2025
Friday's launch of the new V3 Starship went well:
SpaceX's Starship V3—still a work in progress—mostly successful on first flight https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/spacexs-starship-v3-still-a-work-in-progress-mostly-successful-on-first-flight/
Eh... not really sure its making america great TBH... how is that occuring? Everything they do is destroying the economy bit by bit. Yes its impressive the success they have had with satallites... but who the hell cares? Pretty much the military? not sure it really matters a ton otherwise.
Trump mentioned Elons rockets to no where. Based on NASA's fake moon launch and I have seen the video, it is one let down after another.
I am very disappointed. I don't like being lied to.
Much more than people realize. Took my 65,000 ft version, added a lot of money, and put it in space. Separate civilian and military capabilities. Plus a bonus.
I have no idea what that means, but it sounds excellent.
That number again. A lazy google search returns: "McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle: While primarily a fighter jet, the F-15 has an operational service ceiling that exceeds 65,000 feet."
During Trump's first term I remember an interesting Trump comment from the Oval Office desk, about Elon. "He has to do what we say. We've given him so much money." Considering his family's history and his early life, I don't think Elon started out on our side. Somewhere along the line he got flipped.
I too believe Elon was flipped. I don’t think he was very far gone. Just traveling in green circles to have Tesla succeed.
Though I did fly the F-15E, the 65,000ft reference was for a version of Global Hawk. Most people don’t realize that even in enemy territory, there are a lot of low threat dead spaces. At 65,000 ft, the air is very thin. Making a laser comm network among several Global Hawks in the sky possible. High bandwidth, unjammable, self healing, and equipped with a universal translator. The latter is because the Army and Air Force don’t typically work in the same frequency range. It allows the construction and distribution of the Common Operation Picture and many other things. Now move that to space and everywhere above the planet.
Interesting.