• SpaceX launched the 10th test flight of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket booster tonight. Both achieved successful splashdowns on opposite sides of the world during the roughly hour-long test.
• The test flight marked a signficant and encouraging stride forward for SpaceX’s Starship program, which had experienced a string of explosive missteps dating back to January.
• Tonight’s success could queue up SpaceX to conduct another boundary-pushing flight next month, aimed at improving the vehicle’s performance before SpaceX upgrades to a larger version of Starship next year.
[TIME SUBJECT TO CHANGE] Liftoff NET 6:30 p.m. central [23:30 UTC] — One hour launch window.
SpaceX is launching the 10th full stack Starship with its Super Heavy booster. The booster will not be caught as SpaceX will attempt some more hazardous engine out scenarios with the booster, so it will splashdown off the coast.
But perhaps the biggest milestone is whether or not Starship S37 will be the first Version 2 vehicle to reach the goals of deploying dummy payloads, testing radical heatshield options, and ultimately propulsively splashdown in the Indian Ocean after the setbacks of Flight 7, Flight 8, Flight 9 and S36’s failures.
Want to know what’s new with Starship Version 2? We’ve got a video for you! — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQZbi8HBRcQ
Want more information on how exactly they’ll catch Super Heavy? WATCH THIS — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAPt5vbr-YU
Want to know where to watch this live? I made a video on how to visit Starbase and where to watch a launch from — https://youtu.be/aWvHrih-Juk.
“There’s a widening schism between the technologists who feel the A.G.I. – a mantra for believers who see themselves on the cusp of the technology – and members of the general public who are skeptical about the hype and see A.I. as a nuisance in their daily lives,” they wrote.
It’s unclear if the industry will take heed of these warnings. Investors look to every quarterly earnings report for signs that each company’s billions in capex spending is somehow being justified and executives are eager to give them hope. Boosting, boasting about and hyping the supposed promise and inevitability of AI is a big part of keeping investor concerns about the extra $10bn each company adds to its spending projections every quarter at bay. Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, recently said in the future if you’re not using AI glasses you’ll be at a cognitive disadvantage much like not wearing corrective lenses. That means tech firms such as Meta and Google will probably continue making the AI features that they offer today an almost inescapable part of using their products in a play to boost their training data and user numbers.
That said, the first big test of this AI reality check will come on Wednesday when chipmaker Nvidia – one of the building blocks of most LLMs – will report its latest earnings. Analysts seem pretty optimistic but after a shaky week for its stocks, investor reactions to Nvidia’s earnings and any updates on spending will be a strong signal of whether they have a continued appetite for the AI hype machine.
