WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — SpaceX Founder Elon Musk watched the launch of the Starship, the most powerful rocket in the world, with some of the most powerful people in the world.
NASA intends to use the Starship to take astronauts back to the moon. Administrator Bill Nelson said in July the NASA rocket will take the astronauts into lunar orbit and SpaceX’s Starship will take them to the surface.
Musk watched the launch with President-elect Donald Trump, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Trump tapped Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to dismantle the bureaucracy and “slash excess regulations,” the president-elect said in a release.
Musk has publicly feuded with federal regulators, accusing the FAA of slowing SpaceX’s progress. In September, lawmakers asked the FAA administrator about it.
“I think safety is in the public interest,” Administrator Michael Whitaker said. “SpaceX has been a very innovative company, but I think they’re also a mature company. They’ve been around 20 years, and I think they need to operate at the highest level of safety.”
The FAA has proposed fines of $633,009 against SpaceX for violating regulations in launches of its Falcon 9 rocket. Musk criticized the FAA in a series of tweets, posting the FAA is “smothering the national space program,” and accused the agency of “improper, politically-motivated behavior.”
In a statement, the FAA said it has a productive working relationship with SpaceX.
Musk said he’s not expecting any favors from a Trump administration.
