Trump plans to watch SpaceX launch in Texas, source says

By Steve Holland and Joey Roulette

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is heading to Texas on Tuesday to attend a SpaceX rocket launch in person in a sign of his close ties with the company’s billionaire founder and CEO Elon Musk.

A source familiar with the trip confirmed Trump’s plans after the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday issued temporary flight restrictions for “VIP Movement” over Brownsville, Texas, a practice that usually precedes a high-profile visit.

Flight restrictions in place over Trump’s oceanfront property in Palm Beach, Florida, will be lifted temporarily during the same timeframe.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment about the president-elect’s plans.

A close friendship has developed between Trump and Musk, the Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO and world’s richest man, who founded SpaceX in 2002. Musk has emerged as a close adviser to Trump and has stayed a lengthy stretch at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.

The launch will be SpaceX’s sixth test flight to space for Starship, the company’s next-generation rocket system at the center of Musk’s goal to send humans and cargo to Mars.

NASA plans to use Starship to land people on the moon this decade under its Artemis program, an effort that is expected to more heavily involve Mars missions and favor SpaceX and Musk’s cosmic plans under Trump.

Using large arms attached to a launch tower, SpaceX will again try to catch Starship’s 233 foot (71 metres)-tall first stage “Super Heavy” booster roughly 10 minutes after it lifts off, a novel reusability technique that intrigued Trump the first time SpaceX tried it in October.