Month: April 2023

SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, took off from a launch pad on the coast of South Texas on Thursday at 9:28 a.m. ET, but exploded midair before stage separation. Thursday’s launch marked the vehicle’s historic first test flight.

The massive Super Heavy rocket booster lifted off and sent a massive boom across the coastal landscape as it soared out over the Gulf of Mexico. About two and a half minutes after takeoff, the Super Heavy rocket booster was scheduled to expend most of its fuel and separate from the Starship spacecraft, leaving the booster to be discarded in the ocean. The Starship was meant to use its own engines, blazing for more than six minutes, to propel itself to nearly orbital speeds.  According to SpaceX, the flight reached its highest point 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) above the ground and the explosion occurred about four minutes after liftoff.

Clearing the launch pad was a major milestone for Starship, and although it ended in an explosion, Thursday’s test met several of the company’s objectives for the vehicle. SpaceX tweeted, “With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary. As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation” 

In a post-launch tweet, Elon Musk congratulated the team on “an exciting test launch” and said they “learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”  In addition, NASA administrator Bill Nelson took to Twitter to share his congratulations on the flight test: “Congrats to @SpaceX on Starship’s first integrated flight test! Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test—and beyond.”

SpaceX will need a new launch license from the FAA to make another attempt, but the company does not expect the process to be as laborious as securing the license for Thursday’s launch.

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The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday that effectively would ban transgender women and girls from competing in female school athletics.  The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would bar federal funding for schools that allow transgender girls to play on women’s sports teams, passed the House by a 219-203 vote.

Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities that receive funding from the federal government, and applies to schools and other educational institutions. According to the legislative text. the bill passed by the House, authored by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., would amend Title IX to prohibit transgender women and girls from playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. It seeks to amend federal law to require that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” for the purpose of determining compliance with Title IX in athletics.  The text of the bill says it would a violation “for a recipient of federal financial assistance who operates, sponsors, or facilitates athletic programs or activities to permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designed for women or girls.”

The bill is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, however, and President Biden said Monday that he would veto the bill was it to reach his desk: “Politicians should not dictate a one-size-fits-all requirement that forces coaches to remove kids from their teams. At a time when transgender youth already face a nationwide mental health crisis, with half of transgender youth in a recent survey saying they have seriously considered suicide, a national law that further stigmatizes these children is completely unnecessary.”

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Authorities announced on Wednesday that two teenage brothers were arrested in connection with a shooting that left four people dead and 32 injured at a weekend ‘Sweet 16’ party in Alabama.

Alabama Law Enforcment Agency Sgt. Jeremy Burkett said that the boys – 16-year-old Travis McCullough and 17-year-old Ty Reik McCullough from Tuskegee, — were taken into custody on charges of reckless murder on Tuesday night. and will be charged as adults.  Sgt. Burkett said during a press conference Wednesday: “There is a tremendous amount of work to do. We’re going to be careful with everything we say and everything we do. We’re going to stay focused on the victims and their families. “

Gunfire erupted at 10:34 p.m. Saturday at a dance studio on Broadnax Street in Dadeville where friends and family were celebrating the birthday of a 16-year-old girl. The four people killed were identified by police as Shaunkivia Smith, 17; Marsiah Collins, 19; Corbin Holston, 23; and Philstavious Dowdell, 18. Dadeville is about 25 miles northwest of Auburn University. Four people remained hospitalized and listed in critical condition on Wednesday.

Prosecutors and police revealed few details on the arrest, such as the weapons used or possible motive for the attack.  Police said they’re at the early stages of the probe and are still in great need of the public’s help, especially from party guests who have yet to speak to investigators. Sgt. Burkett said: “We need you to come forward for the families, for these victims.” Dadeville Police Chief Jonathan Floyd also asked for the public’s help and patience with the investigation: “If we hurry, if we’re careless and we do make an arrest but it doesn’t result in a conviction, it does not result in ultimate justice for our victims, then we’ve failed our victims. Please be patient, please be understanding.”

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The family of Tyre Nichols has filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Memphis, the police department and several individuals over his death at the hands of police officers

The attorney for the family, Ben Crump, said the lawsuit is seeking $550 million for the “torture” of Nichols, 29, who died three days after he was beaten by police during a Jan. 7 traffic stop. Body camera footage of the altercation showed officers striking Nichols repeatedly. Crump said during a press briefing Wednesday outside the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office in Memphis: “This landmark lawsuit is not only to get the justice for Tyre Nichols in the civil courts, but it is also a message that is being sent to cities all across America who have these police oppression units that have been given the license by city leaders to go and terrorize Black and brown communities.”

The suit was filed by Nichol’s mother RowVaughn Wells and the Tyre Nichols estate. The 139-page, 25-count civil complaint includes allegations of excessive force and “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs,” and called the traffic stop “unreasonable.” It also claims the police department failed to properly train its officers, including those in the now-deactivated SCORPION unit that was involved in Nichols’ arrest: “The City of Memphis, through the Memphis Police Department, maintained a custom of tolerance for SCORPION Officers’ unreasonable search and seizure of individuals, use of excessive force, and the violation of the Fourth Amendment prior to the violation of Tyre Nichols’ constitutional rights and death.”

The lawsuit names the city of Memphis, Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, individual police officers, and three Memphis Fire Department employees. It Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis and the five now-former officers charged in connection with Nichols’ death — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — are among the defendants named in the lawsuit. Preston Hemphill, a police officer who was fired but not charged, is also named in the lawsuit. In addition, emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge, Memphis Fire Lt. Michelle Whitaker, who was also in the first ambulance to arrive, and DeWayne Smith, who was a police lieutenant who retired before he could be fired, were also named in the suit.

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