Stephen Green, PJMedia:

So Who Wants to Watch the World Change Again on Friday?

A revolution started in the launch industry almost exactly 11 years ago, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster safely returned to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral after putting a set of Orbcomm satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Just 15 months later, the revolution was complete when a Falcon 9 booster successfully flew for a second time on March 30, 2017.

Falcon 9's reusability promised — and then delivered — price reductions that opened up all kinds of previously impossible activities in space, along with saving American tax payers tens of millions of dollars for each crewed mission to the International Space Station.

On Friday, the planned Starship Flight 15 promises to do more than change the launch industry again. It might just change the world.

Starship's Super Heavy Booster achieved reusability in May of last year, when Booster 14 flew a second time, using 29 (out of 33) "flight-proven" Raptor 2 engines. Booster 15 made its second flight in October 2025.

But this is the big deal: The Ship upper stage has yet to achieve reuse. It's never even been caught in the tender embrace of the Mechazilla landing platform giant steel chopstick arms.

SpaceX hopes to change all that on Friday, November 13.

…. Assuming regulatory approval, and no tech hiccups, Flight 15 will light up Friday afternoon.

….. If all goes well — everything from the engines to passing the heat tile inspection — Ship will fly 14 orbits on a planned 22-hour mission. And then it will do something never done before, and land right back at the launch site, same as the Super Heavy Booster.

“If successful, this will mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system and a breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket,” the company said in a statement.

Once the concept is proven, the rest is just getting good at it.

But that isn't where the revolution lies.

Currently a couple of weeks is generally required for the recovery and re-flight of a Falcon 9. But Starship — and its ambitious launch and catch and refuel pad — is supposed to be capable of re-flight every few hours. SpaceX aims to turn around the largest and most powerful ever built in not much time than a passenger jet.

Not only does Starship enable orbital data centers at a cost less than terrestrial-based ones, it opens up possibilities like:

Orbital manufacturing at scale of products like drugs and chips best made in microgravity.
Plus 30-minute delivery of the finished products.
Space stations on the cheap (a single Ship could have about the same habitable space as the entire ISS in a single launch and without any expensive and risky orbital assembly)
Much bigger yet much cheaper (due to much higher size limits) space telescopes.
"90 minutes from New York to Paris," or to anywhere else in the world.

…. I keep hammering readers over the head with this, but we have to get out of the mindset that space is the most expensive place to do anything.

The Space Shuttle was remarkably useful, but cost about $54,500 per kilogram to LEO, and each Shuttle flew maybe a couple times a year. Starship promises $67 (that's sixty-seven dollars, no missing zeroes) per kilogram to LEO, and might fly every couple of hours.

That's the future, and it could begin as soon as 5:45 p.m. Eastern this Friday.

AI Overview

Following the November 2026 midterm elections where Democrats won control of Congress, Senator Elizabeth Warren and incoming House Oversight Committee leader Robert Garcia announced plans for aggressive congressional investigations targeting tech billionaire Elon Musk and his role in federal policies. [1, 2]

Key aspects of the relationship and recent developments include:

Post-Midterm Investigations: Following Democratic victories in the midterms, Warren and Garcia vowed to launch probes into Musk's involvement in federal employment cuts and restructuring through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Warren stated that corporations and figures who profit by exploiting families or skirting accountability should prepare for serious oversight. [1, 2]
Campaign Spending and Political Clashes: Warren has sharply criticized Musk's massive financial footprint in American elections, accusing him of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to attempt to influence congressional and presidential outcomes. [1]
Foreign Policy and Starshield Scrutiny: Warren criticized Musk earlier in late 2026 over reported unilateral decisions regarding access to the Starshield satellite network in Ukraine, warning that private billionaires should not dictate U.S. foreign policy. [1, 2]
Wealth and Tax Policy: Warren has frequently targeted Musk's personal wealth—noting his status as a multi-billionaire/trillionaire—to advocate for a federal wealth tax and a broader overhaul of corporate and individual tax codes. [1, 2]
Senate Banking Committee Leadership: With Democrats taking the Senate majority, Warren is set to lead the Senate Banking Committee, positioning her to exercise subpoena and legislative power over financial, tech, and government-efficiency operations. [1, 2]

David Strom, HotAir:

The Campaign to Kill Elon

Scott Galloway calls Elon Musk a “traitor to the West” and invokes the Rosenbergs, who were EXECUTED after WWII. GALLOWAY: “We took the Rosenbergs and put them up against a wall and executed them for being traitors.” “And I realize this is an incendiary statement, but I’ll make it and I believe it. I think Elon Musk is a traitor to the West.” “If this had happened in any other age where we were not obsessed with innovators and money, a much different reaction would be playing out to Elon Musk.” These people are absolutely unhinged. CONTEXT: Scott Galloway is not some random but a bestselling author with a top podcast who regularly appears on cable news. His net worth is over $100 million, and he’s openly suggesting Musk deserves death. This is what the Democratic Party has become, and people voted for it.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) November 6, 2026

Anyone else here remember the pseudo-conservative, Bill Kristol? He’s still around:

"SpaceX isn’t a tech company. It’s an aerospace and communications company. It is vital to America’s national security and it must be brought to heel and aligned with America’s interests." https://t.co/0CyFiky1bH
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) November 3, 2026