By Steve Holland and Joey Roulette
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will travel to Texas on Tuesday to attend in person the launch of a SpaceX rocket, in a sign of his close ties to the billionaire founder and CEO of the company, Elon Musk.
A source familiar with the trip confirmed Trump's plans after the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday issued temporary flight restrictions for the “VIP Movement” over Brownsville, Texas, a practice that typically precedes a high-profile visit.
Flight restrictions in place over Trump's oceanfront property in Palm Beach, Florida, will be temporarily lifted during the same period.
Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the president-elect's plans.
A close friendship has developed between Trump and Musk, the CEO of Tesla (NASDAQ:) and the world's richest man, who founded SpaceX in 2002. Musk has become a close advisor to Trump and has remained a long-term at his Mar-a-Lago. Club in Palm Beach.
The launch will be SpaceX's sixth test flight into space for Starship, the company's next-generation rocket system at the center of Musk's goal of sending humans and cargo to Mars.
NASA plans to use Starship to land people on the moon this decade under its Artemis program, an effort that is expected to involve more missions to Mars and further the cosmic plans of SpaceX and Musk under Trump.
Using large arms attached to a launch tower, SpaceX will again try to catch the “Super Heavy” booster from Starship's 233-foot (71-meter) tall first stage about 10 minutes after liftoff, a novel reuse technique. which intrigued Trump the first time SpaceX tried it out in October.
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