will25u said:

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JUST IN: SpaceX is reportedly in talks with the Trump administration over donating stock to help fund children’s Trump Accounts.

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) June 30, 2026

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This was one thing that Cruz mentioned several times when hyping the Trump Accounts in his podcast. NOT SpaceX specific, but charitable funds in general.

There are already numerous ultra wealthy that have pledged to fund eligible Trump Accounts with funds. Most of them are accounts within certain zip codes, such as near where that particular wealthy person lives.

The ultra wealthy are very charitable in general. BUT you are looking at quite literally needing a full time person, or persons, to evaluate and vet requests for donations. For some very worthwhile organizations, $5,000 would be a windfall. Other equally worthwhile organizations spend $5,000 before breakfast and need $5,000,000. SpaceX or Bill Gates, or T. Boone, Bezos, et al would be buried in legitimate requests for $5,000 -- $10,000 and could without blinking underwrite, for example, the Houston Rodeo.

Making contributions to Trump accounts is a way they can easily share their great wealth while also making meaningful investments in those kids futures.

RED AG 98 said:

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I would argue that particular analogy is just perception and in fact not time dilation, which as you say has real and measurable effect, to the point where it causes clocks -- whether electrical, quartz, mechanical, atomic, whatever -- to *actually* run faster.

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Clocks of whatever type always run the same rate. If you're in motion, time in your frame moves slower relative to the stationary frame you left behind.

The time axis is perpendicular to the 3 spatial axis. When you're looking at a frame that's in motion relative to you space and time in that frame do a hyperbolic rotation relative to yours.

No time in any frame "runs faster" on its own. It can run faster or slower relative to another frame.

It doesn't make sense to say how fast time flows in any frame in isolation. That would equate to "how many seconds per second does time flow". Your units cancel out. Spacetime is a static 4D structure and at each point in spacetime we have a different perception of the time and our location.

My take in it is that because of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, entropy only goes one way. Just like you can only break an egg and you can't unbreak it, our memories can only be chemically encoded in the positive time direction, so we only remember the past. That's why time seems to flow forwards for us.

I understand that. I was speaking relative to someone that remained in the initial frame on earth. If you were to travel at a high speed and then return to earth, the slowing effect would be observable by both parties.

My main point was mostly that time dilation is not the same thing as any "perceived delay" in observing a fast-moving object.

Not REALLY space, but we have discussed it here before, and it IS interesting. Plus, didn't want or really need it's own thread.

JUST IN: FAA moves to legalize civilian supersonic flights over U.S. land for the first time in 53 years.

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) July 1, 2026

Ars Technica has a good writeup about the development of the plane NASA is testing.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/nasas-x-59-frankenjet-tests-supersonic-flight-without-the-sonic-boom/

Lex has a decent show on this, but again it's all over my pay grade.

S40 static fire again went well I saw. Hopefully on-track for a mid-July launch.

Starship 40 performing a 60 second full duration 6 engine static fire test at Starbase Massey's test site in preparation for Starship test flight 13. (4k)

7/1/26 pic.twitter.com/TazrIcnt86

— Starship Gazer (@StarshipGazer) July 1, 2026

TexAgs91 said:

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No time in any frame "runs faster" on its own. It can run faster or slower relative to another frame.

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This is true for special relativity but in general relativity the accelerating frame permanently diverges which is why the previous clock analogy breaks when the car turns around and returns to the original clock.

PJYoung said:

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Starship 40 performing a 60 second full duration 6 engine static fire test at Starbase Massey's test site in preparation for Starship test flight 13. (4k)

7/1/26 pic.twitter.com/TazrIcnt86

— Starship Gazer (@StarshipGazer) July 1, 2026

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I don't know what is more impressive. The deluge system or whatever is holding it down.

Starship 60-second static fire ahead of the thirteenth flight test pic.twitter.com/HKZkaXo7WN

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 2, 2026

The details of the upper stage startup appear to have changed to accommodate a better controlled flip vs. the previous flight.

Can see changes to the Starship startup sequence. Using 2 RVac engines and 1 sea level engine to initiate separation and flip for Super Heavy. This is different from the planned maneuver for Flight 12 using 3 RVac engines and 1 sea level. https://t.co/Nh7mmiSGW7

— Ryan Hansen Space (@RyanHansenSpace) July 2, 2026

Researchers at Texas A&M are working on novel ways to explore Alpha Cenntauri:

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell and her husband have announced that they are donating ~$325 million of SpaceX stock to Trump Accounts for more than two million children across the U.S.

Every one of those kids will now have a direct stake in a company whose mission is… https://t.co/pNn7KjXsEf pic.twitter.com/nc1AnAsSWG

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 6, 2026

Another F9 rideshare mission went up, I think 80 payloads.

SpaceX just aired this Starlink ad during the U.S. vs Belgium World Cup game tonight. pic.twitter.com/wDK0EFDJHP

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 7, 2026

That this is plausibly (not really) a week away is pretty incredible given the lack of coverage/comments.

STARSHIP FLIGHT 13: New @FAAnews documentation shows this flight will also follow the new south-east trajectory, just like last time.

Officially launch is NET July 14, but that's not going to happen based on current Booster and Ship readiness.

🗺️ @FAAnews pic.twitter.com/ZHdqpyxTUg

— Ryan Caton (@dpoddolphinpro) July 7, 2026

Hopefully this month, in any case.

15 years ago today, Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on STS-135, her final mission and the very last flight of the 30-year Space Shuttle era.

Sit back, crank the volume, and soak in every angle of this epic NASA JSC (SE&I department) vid. pic.twitter.com/aeUexxmtRA

— NSF - NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) July 8, 2026

I was there watching from the causeway. They almost missed the launch window due to weather off-shore and a bad sensor for the vent cap arm location/retraction. Once they verified the arm fully retracted, the launch occurred with around a minute left in the window, IIRC

Super Heavy Booster 20 has been lifted onto its transport stand ahead of rollout to the launch site!!!

📸@NASASpaceflight https://t.co/30Af1U7lD4 pic.twitter.com/YD7oHGSsqO

— Ship 25 (@Flight2Starship) July 9, 2026

Ready to roll to the pad. Curious as to the possible timeline for a static fire.

Despite being 1000x further away, the moon absolutely dwarfs the ISS in this photo I captured off the highway in Arizona.

These transits have to be planned down to the second- but anyone can capture them. This one was captured without a telescope- just a 500mm telephoto lens. pic.twitter.com/baWPqG96NH

— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) July 9, 2026

That's no moon…

Booster 20 is outside the megabay. Should head to the pad shortly.

Pretty cool that this didn't break.

Some questions have come up on the launch bridge. It is in good shape and we will reuse. Three cranes are positioned to help lift the almost four-million-pound launch bridge and the two-million-pound launch table out of our flame trench and onto self-propelled modular… pic.twitter.com/lSPGgfYQIV

— Dave Limp (@davill) July 8, 2026

Super Heavy booster moved to the Starbase pad for testing ahead of Flight 13 pic.twitter.com/xY9AO8CPxu

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 9, 2026

Did the USSR cover up previous cosmonaut deaths in space prior to Gagarin? Maybe, maybe not… fascinating look at the space race

The soviets were absolutely brutal with their astronauts. There was a recording of one screaming in fury supposedly at the commies as he descended knowing he had no chance. Communism sucked then, as now.

This is such an awesome structure! Can't wait to see it fully outfitted.

Btw, 420 tons is MASSIVE compared to the existing cranes in the Megabay's which only have a 180 ton lifting capacity. https://t.co/KspdHzAJbo

— Zack Golden (@CSI_Starbase) July 9, 2026

One could not convince me this numerical capacity was chosen simply for requirements.

I am stuck at a train, and saw this on X. Don't know anything about it. But if this is true, the Chinese are catching their reusable rockets with cables. Also looks like a copy of super heavy booster.

Drone footage of the landing burn & catch. via CCTV pic.twitter.com/l5pKUhftr8

— Ace of Razgriz (@raz_liu) July 10, 2026

That thing is puffing black smoke like a Chinese unfiltered cigarette.

That doesn't look real to me.

Agreed. Smoke (exhaust) coming out the sides of the ship didn't look quite right.

I'm calling shenanigans.

My first thought was maybe they were routing pre-burner exhaust from the turbo pumps up there? But it looks very low pressure/velocity. I'm envisioning a scenario where they reroute that exhaust and have capability to use it similarly to a cold gas thruster, but dump it when it's not needed. But that's a lot of work for a system that would only be pressurized for a very short phase of flight.

Gonna guess this is a keralox engine? Not full flow staged combustion etc. Weird to dump at the top though, agreed, maybe they are doing that to keep some better visual etc. at the bottom for guidance.

Cool!
Also... that's a lot of smoke pouring out of the top. Room for plenty of improvement, but it is neat to see new booster recovery going on. https://t.co/BrGcwKELdU

— Marcus House (@MarcusHouse) July 10, 2026

Ok... watching on a real monitor...
1) No landing legs
2) What at first look like cables are cross bracing between those corners... I see nothing running crossways
3) No way cables if they're in there are strong enough to support that weight
4) Chinese are trying to copy Falcon 9... Unless I'm mistaken I haven't seen them yet testing Starship or Super Heavy booster copies
5) Look at the end... Engines cut and the vehicle drops further, then stops... NO way you'd cut engines feet above the catch point and let the vehicle free fall, even inches. The damage would be structurally catastrophic. You're going to integrate laser range finders and weight-on-catch point sensors (strain gages) to command engine throttling and cutoff.

I'm going with fake

The smartest guys in the room are convinced that a cable catch is better than a tower catch.