October 14, 2025 • 3 mins
SpaceX is scheduled to test a new starship Monday night. NBC News Radio National Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins us with the latest.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
SpaceX is your landingwere shut down? Rory O'Neil, NBC News
Radio National correspondent, joins us on the liveline.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Rory, thanks for doing this today, sure, Steve, good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
So talk to us a little bit about this thing
that went up, this giant rocket. It hasn't carried people
yet as far as we know, and that's kind of
a good thing.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, right, because this is still the test phase.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
This was the eleventh test flight of Starship, the biggest
rocket ever made, more than four hundred feet tall, taller
than the old rocket that took us to the Moon
fifty plus years ago. It launched from Texas Star Base. Texas,
by the way, is the new name of the city,
and a pretty spectacular successful mission overall, the most successful
(00:47):
of these test flights yet.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's a two stage rocket.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So there's the big part up top, technically the Starship
in the second half. The bottom part is the super
heavy booster that's got thirty three different engines in it.
That boost had flown once before, earlier this year. You
probably saw the video of when that rocket came back
down to Earth and actually was caught by a couple
of arms they called chopsticks and it actually landed and
(01:11):
was caught there in Texas as well. So this was
the second flight of that bottom part after its mission.
This time around, it's splashed down in the Gulf of
Mexico or Gulf of America. Sorry, So it's to and done,
and the top half splashed down off the Australia coast
in just about an hour's time from its launch.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Another big difference between it and the thing that took
us to the Moon is that this is a commercial flight, right,
so talk to us a little bit about the how
that difference could send us to Mars.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, you know, I compare this to what happened about
one hundred years ago when the air when aviation was
just in its early days. I was going to say
taking off, but you get it, you know, Lindberg and
stuff like that. And it was the fact that the
US Post Office was investing so much money to get
air mail to become a thing. That's what a lot
(02:01):
of these companies would build planes because they knew they'd
have contracts to deliver mail. Well, NASA is doing the
same thing in this millennium for the space industry, giving
seed money to companies like SpaceX, like Blue Origin, and
others to get their space programs developed so that they
can essentially work for us as contractors. And NASA is
(02:24):
going to hire SpaceX ships to bring our stuff and
our people to the Moon ultimately onto Mars. But Elon Musk,
you will also use that money to do his own thing.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
As he gets this, finds more people to buy contracts.
He just got to deal with Italy. They're going to
start sending stuff to Mars. And this is how it's
supposed to happen to set up this whole industry thanks
to this seed money from NASA.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Anything more, lastly about a timeline. I mean, I've seen
the Martian. I don't think we should hurry it right.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, and never look at potato salad the same way.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, it's they give you numbers for timelines, but they're
all they don't know what they don't know because one
little thing goes wrong and you're all kerfuffle.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
But you know.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
They're targeting twenty thirty for some kind of a Mars mission.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
You know we're going to see a lot. Jeff Bezos,
his new rocket is going.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
To launch in just a matter of weeks called New
Glenn that you know he's already got the new Shepherd
rocket with the flies, Katy Perry and stuff, the unfortunately
looking one there. But yeah, we're gonna go with the
new Glen is going to launch in just a matter
of weeks, and then Aries too. Artem is too, rather
the other NASA Moon rocket that's gonna launch. They say
(03:37):
winter spring, go for spring, if not summer.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
But you know what I'm saying this NBC News Radio
National Correspondent Rory O'Neil, Great stuff, Thank you, Thanks Steve,
SpaceX is your landingwere shut down? Rory O'Neil, NBC News
Radio National correspondent, joins us on the liveline.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Rory, thanks for doing this today, sure, Steve, good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
So talk to us a little bit about this thing
that went up, this giant rocket. It hasn't carried people
yet as far as we know, and that's kind of
a good thing.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, right, because this is still the test phase.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
This was the eleventh test flight of Starship, the biggest
rocket ever made, more than four hundred feet tall, taller
than the old rocket that took us to the Moon
fifty plus years ago. It launched from Texas Star Base. Texas,
by the way, is the new name of the city,
and a pretty spectacular successful mission overall, the most successful
(00:47):
of these test flights yet.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's a two stage rocket.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So there's the big part up top, technically the Starship
in the second half. The bottom part is the super
heavy booster that's got thirty three different engines in it.
That boost had flown once before, earlier this year. You
probably saw the video of when that rocket came back
down to Earth and actually was caught by a couple
of arms they called chopsticks and it actually landed and
(01:11):
was caught there in Texas as well. So this was
the second flight of that bottom part after its mission.
This time around, it's splashed down in the Gulf of
Mexico or Gulf of America. Sorry, So it's to and done,
and the top half splashed down off the Australia coast
in just about an hour's time from its launch.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Another big difference between it and the thing that took
us to the Moon is that this is a commercial flight, right,
so talk to us a little bit about the how
that difference could send us to Mars.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, you know, I compare this to what happened about
one hundred years ago when the air when aviation was
just in its early days. I was going to say
taking off, but you get it, you know, Lindberg and
stuff like that. And it was the fact that the
US Post Office was investing so much money to get
air mail to become a thing. That's what a lot
(02:01):
of these companies would build planes because they knew they'd
have contracts to deliver mail. Well, NASA is doing the
same thing in this millennium for the space industry, giving
seed money to companies like SpaceX, like Blue Origin, and
others to get their space programs developed so that they
can essentially work for us as contractors. And NASA is
(02:24):
going to hire SpaceX ships to bring our stuff and
our people to the Moon ultimately onto Mars. But Elon Musk,
you will also use that money to do his own thing.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
As he gets this, finds more people to buy contracts.
He just got to deal with Italy. They're going to
start sending stuff to Mars. And this is how it's
supposed to happen to set up this whole industry thanks
to this seed money from NASA.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Anything more, lastly about a timeline. I mean, I've seen
the Martian. I don't think we should hurry it right.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, and never look at potato salad the same way.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, it's they give you numbers for timelines, but they're
all they don't know what they don't know because one
little thing goes wrong and you're all kerfuffle.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
But you know.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
They're targeting twenty thirty for some kind of a Mars mission.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
You know we're going to see a lot. Jeff Bezos,
his new rocket is going.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
To launch in just a matter of weeks called New
Glenn that you know he's already got the new Shepherd
rocket with the flies, Katy Perry and stuff, the unfortunately
looking one there. But yeah, we're gonna go with the
new Glen is going to launch in just a matter
of weeks, and then Aries too. Artem is too, rather
the other NASA Moon rocket that's gonna launch. They say
(03:37):
winter spring, go for spring, if not summer.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
But you know what I'm saying this NBC News Radio
National Correspondent Rory O'Neil, Great stuff, Thank you, Thanks Steve,
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