November 16, 2024; New York, NY, USA; President-elect Donald Trump speaks with Elon Musk (right) during UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory
Brad Penner | Usa Today Sports via Reuters Con
President-elect Donald Trump will attend the launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket on Tuesday alongside CEO Elon Musk.
Trump's planned presence at the launch underscores his increasingly close relationship with megabillionaire Musk, whose political action committee strongly supported the Republican in recent elections.
Trump has appointed Musk to co-head a government efficiency division – DOGE – alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Since Trump's election victory, Musk has been a near-constant presence at Trump's side at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, angering some Trump team insiders, NBC previously reported.
Tuesday's launch from SpaceX's Starbase site in Boca Chica will be the sixth for Starship, the largest rocket ever built. The rocket's launch is scheduled for approximately 5:00 p.m. ET.
SpaceX designed Starship as a reusable new vehicle for transporting cargo and people beyond Earth.
The company received a billion-dollar contract from the federal government to use Starship as a manned lunar lander as part of NASA's Artemis lunar program.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also plans to attend Tuesday's launch, NBC News has learned. Cruz is the new chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over space-related issues.
SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft on its powerful Super Heavy rocket is prepared for launch from the company's Boca Chica launch site near Brownsville, Texas, USA, on November 16, 2024.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
According to a FedScout study of federal spending and prime contracts, SpaceX has received $19 billion from the federal government since 2008 and is expected to bring in several billion dollars a year in the coming years.
The Environmental Protection Agency previously found that SpaceX had violated the Clean Water Act during previous Starship launches by discharging hot industrial wastewater at its launch facility without permits.
Research published Monday in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America suggests that the launch of a SpaceX spacecraft “exceeds predicted maximum noise levels and produces a sonic boom so powerful that it ripples through the densely populated residential neighborhood near its launch site Property damage is at risk in South Texas,” according to a New York Times report on the data.
SpaceX and Musk were vocally critical of the Federal Aviation Administration before Trump's election, calling on the regulator to speed up its license reviews for Starship flights.
In September, Musk threatened to sue the FAA for “regulatory overreach.”
Representatives for SpaceX and Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment on Tuesday.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
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