Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on Donald Trump and Elon Musk watching the test flight for SpaceX’s Starship rocket

SpaceX's sixth Starship test flight splashed down in the Indian Ocean following today's highly-anticipated test mission. 

The booster earlier plunged into the Gulf of Mexico soon after the launch.

President-elect Donald Trump joined Elon Musk to watch the test - and wrote a supportive post about Musk and the team on his Truth Social network.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says the pair have been inseparable after the US election - when Musk was made a key adviser to Trump.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dan Mitchins and US Correspondence with US. Hello Dan, Hi,
Heather Dan. So in New York City's using drones? Is
it to try and crime fight?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, you know, I was a little skeptical when I
first started hearing about this. These are going to be
deployed remotely, and they'll fly to the exact long, longitude
and latitude of these emergencies right here. And this is
a program that's kind of trying to get the drones
to the scene before the officers can get there. And
once they arrive there, they're going to have a location

(00:28):
taken into account. They'll be able to see what's going on.
They've got cameras and night vision technology and stuff like that.
I think what they're trying to do is really stop
a lot of the wild goose chases that police are
often sent on, you know, reports of shots fire that
aren't or a robbery that wasn't, or calls people make
just to annoy the police and tie up their resources,
so that means other crimes are are sometimes pushed back.
So I think maybe this is actually a good use

(00:50):
of money and resources and could be rolled out in
other cities if you're proved successful.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, but I mean, the thing is a lot of
people will start to you know, people are a little
suspicious at the moment, right and they funny ideas and stuff,
and I wonder if people are going to think that
this is actually surveillance.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
That's that was my other thought too, that if this
gets a pushback at all, it's going to be from
people that are saying, well, these drones are spying on people,
or they're out in public right now and I haven't
given them permission for my usage. It's the same way
when you see Google go around and you know, take
shots of neighborhoods, they often blow out you know, license
plates and people's faces and addresses and stuff like that,
which at this point these drones aren't going to be

(01:24):
able to do.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, I suppose that's a fair point. Now, Elon Musk
and Donald Trump, I'm surprised that they don't sick of
each other by now.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know, your your producer, Laura, she called this a bromance,
and I said, that's exactly I think what it is
right now. I mean, he Trump was attending the space
launch in Texas with with Elon Musk just a short
time ago, and of course, you know Musk has been
tapped ahead, you know that the KIA to oversee the
Yes doge to improve the government efficiency here. And I'll

(01:56):
tell you howther In the last couple of weeks since
the election, I mean, these guys have been pretty much inseparable,
and he's Musk is hopped on the phone with at
least a couple of foreign leaders, and he's been tapped
in lead this efficiency commission, and he's offered advice to
Trump's transition team and you know, hunker down at the
President of Lex place in Florida. And my question is
is this going to last? Or are these two of

(02:16):
the world's biggest personalities and egos. Yeah, and they're gonna
say after a while, it's going to be ah.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
So, I was listening to Anthony Scaramucci's podcast, which is
actually surprisingly brilliant, I have to be honest, and he
made the point that when he first was taken into
the White House to work for Trump, he was warned
by I think it was by Callianne Conway or somebody
like that, and she said, be careful. You will be
the teacher's pet for about two weeks, and then after

(02:41):
that he's going to be sick of you, and he's
going to get rid of you. And this this is
the risk that Elon Musk runs, right, that he gets
way too much Trump Trump time, and Trump Trump just
gets bored of him and then there's some sort of
an explosion.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I think you're right, you know, I mean, I mean
it's a boost to both her egos, and I mean
Trump's got a guy next to him that's got up.
You know, he's like a money printing press with a
lot of resources from satellite to cars to social media.
But I think you're right. I think in six months
from now, we're going to say, hey, whatever happened to
that bromance, and he's going to be on to somebody else. Honestly,
I think that's why.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, and then Elon Musk will be hosting podcasts about
how much he also hates Donald Trump. Listen. Why is
it that so many adults young adults are still living
with their parents.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's because the cost of housing. I mean, pre pandemic,
I mean most of the eighteen to thirty four year
olds were living with their moms and dads. There were
a number of them. It pushed upwards after the pandemic.
And I know it's not cheap. In fact, I was
doing some digging around. You're part of the world and
Auckland right now. A median home price can be, depending
on where you live, anywhere from about nine hundred and

(03:43):
seventy thousand, they're saying to a million dollars. And if
you look at a city, say like where I grew
up in San Diego in California, less than a third
of people there can afford to buy it. The medium
price is about one point two million dollars. And and
this is what blew my mind. I mean I had
to check a couple of people I know that are
in the real estate business. The median age for a
person to buy a home in a city like San

(04:04):
Diego fifty four years old. I mean, think about that,
fifty four. That's when you're thinking about retiring in me.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Hey, you want your movie it's paid off by fifty
four if you can.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, you'd like that, not you know, not getting into
something that you're going to pay off over another twenty
five or thirty years and have to worry about taxes
and stuff. So, I mean, this is why we're seeing
people all around the world now staying with mom and dad. Yeah.
Good luck.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, Dan, thanks very much, appreciate good luck and get out, Dan,
thank you very much, appreciate it. Dan Mitchens and now
US correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessye Allen Drive, listen
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