Keith’s note: a few minutes ago, during a routine pre-flight test, SpaceX Ship 36 blew up. Video below.

Keith’s 28 May Update: I just did an interview with Al Jazeera about the SpaceX Starship 9 flight Audio. Keith’s 27 May note: I just did live coverage of the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mission on Bloomberg Radio. After two last minute holds the rocket lifted off re-using a first stage that had already flown – 29 engines were being re-flown – and one of them was being flown for its third flight. After staging the first stage was brought back – but under heightened stress loads to test the vehicle. Just as the landing burn was going to happen telemetry stopped and SpaceX confirmed that “Heavy just demised” in SpaceX lingo. The Ship (second stage) made its way into space and tested some engines. The plan was to deploy 8 Starlink demonstrators but the payload door would not open properly so that task was aborted. Upon re-entry the vehicle lost control and spun and was eventually lost.

Keith’s note: The Starship 8 launch resulted in yet another flawless catch of the Heavy booster first stage and the loss of the Ship upper stage.

Keith’s note: I was just on Deutsche Welle TV talking about the IM-2 landing [audio]. The Intuitive Machines Athena Lander is on the Moon. They are shutting down things that are not needed and safing the spacecraft. Power is being generated from solar panels and surface ops have begun. Mission control is waiting for some images and other data so as to see how the vehicle is oriented on the lunar surface. Things were a little confusing to those of us looking over the team’s shoulder as the landing occurred. They apparently had multi-path issues i.e. radio waves taking multiple paths bouncing off of mountains and craters and possibly confusing things a bit. This was expected in places such as the lunar South Pole. I was also on Bloomberg Radio during the landing. I’ll be back on Bloomberg radio and television tonight for the SpaceX Starship 8 launch.

Keith’s note: I was just on Bloomberg TV for live coverage of the SpaceX Starship 7 flight. [Audio] They recovered the first stage perfectly but they lost comms near the end of the Starship burn. This was an upgraded version of Starship. So they’ll just try again to get it right.

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN with Wolf Blitzer to talk about today’s Starship test flight.

Keith’s note: the SpaceX Starship made an apparently flawless launch and return landing this morning – a landing that included being caught by two giant robotic arms at its launch pad – all while its upper stage – the Starship has been placed in its desired orbit. Update: I spoke with Deutsche Welle after the flight about the mission and its significance. [Audio]

Keith’s note: I just spoke with Alhurra TV about the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Starship flights. [Audio]

Keith’s note: The SpaceX Starship had an apparently quasi-perfect flight today. The Super heavy booster separated and made a nice water landing. The Starship itself had a nice ride into space and a colorful re-entry. Despite some rather toasty times heading back to Earth – including partially melted flaps – the flaps still managed to control the vehicle all the way down to a smooth ocean landing with a perfect landing burn. Live telemetry and live video (albeit it from a damaged camera at one point) was obtained 99.99% of the time during re-entry. Oh yes, the “intermission” music while Starship glided over Earth was “The Blue Danube” – made iconically famous in the film “2001: A Space Odyssey”. The 13 year old boy still within me who first saw that film in a theater when it came out just loved the playlist today – as a senior citizen. Well done SpaceX. Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: I did CNN this morning talking about the Boeing Starliner launch, SpaceX Starship, and China’s lunar exploration plans (and my reaction to how NASA Administrator Bill Nelson characterizes them). [Audio] I then did live launch coverage on Bloomberg Radio/Youtube, and then I did a quick interview with BBC World Service [Audio]. I also talked again to Deutsche Welle [Audio].