Elon Musk’s SpaceX is gearing up for the seventh orbital flight test of Starship, the colossal prototype rocket the company hopes will help humans colonize Mars.A launch window from the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, opens at 4:00 pm (2200 GMT) Wednesday and will be carried in a live webcast on Musk’s X platform.Space enthusiasts will be eager to see if SpaceX can replicate the stunning feat of catching the first-stage Super Heavy booster in the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms during descent, approximately seven minutes after liftoff.The maneuver was successfully achieved in October but not during the following flight in November, when President-elect Donald Trump joined Musk to witness the test from mission control.Instead, Super Heavy made a more subdued splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. This time around, SpaceX announced it had implemented “hardware upgrades to the launch and catch tower to increase reliability for booster catch,” including enhancements to sensor protections on the chopsticks that were damaged during the launch, causing the booster’s offshore diversion.Starship has also undergone several design refinements. Its latest iteration now stands at 403 feet (123 meters) tall, slightly taller than previous versions and roughly 100 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty.Upgrades include a redesigned upper-stage propulsion system capable of carrying 25 percent more propellant, along with modifications to the forward flaps. The flaps have been reduced in size and repositioned to reduce their exposure to intense heat during atmospheric reentry.For the first time, Starship will deploy a payload: 10 Starlink simulators, comparable in size and weight to the company’s internet satellites. Both the simulators and Starship’s upper stage are set to splash down in the Indian Ocean about an hour after launch.- Betting on Starship -SpaceX already dominates the orbital launch market with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, which serve commercial clients, NASA and the Pentagon.But the company has made it clear it sees Starship as its future, with Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell recently indicating it would succeed the Falcon rockets around the turn of the next decade. Designed to be fully reusable, Starship’s test flights currently cost around $90 million, according to analytical group Payload Research, though Musk has expressed confidence in eventually reducing that figure to as low as $10 million per launch.The first three test flights ended in dramatic explosions, resulting in the loss of vehicles. However, SpaceX has rapidly iterated on its design, reflecting its “fail fast, learn fast” philosophy.Musk is aiming to drastically ramp up the frequency of tests, requesting permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to carry out 25 in 2025.The FAA is currently holding public meetings over the issue. Critics have accused the company of causing environmental harms, including disruption to nearby ecologically sensitive areas and alleged violations of wastewater regulations at the launch site.But with Musk now part of Trump’s inner circle, the billionaire could find a more favorable regulatory landscape under the incoming administration.

The deadly Palisades fire is still raging in Los Angeles, but Chuck Hart and his construction crew are already several days into their self-appointed mission to clean up and rebuild their shattered community.”We never left,” said the local contractor, taking a brief pause from shouting directions to his army of workers, as they shovel  scorched debris from the roads and sidewalks into giant pickup trucks and trailers.”We’re going to do everything we can to get this place back up and running as quickly as possible.”At least eight people died in the Palisades fire alone, of 25 across Los Angeles. It razed entire blocks of this upscale neighborhood, and left much more shrouded in an unlivable carnage of ash, mud and collapsed structures.Hart and his team of employees are not being paid or contracted by officials to do this clean-up work.In fact, they are not technically even meant to be here. Due to roadblocks barring entry to Pacific Palisades, they cannot leave because they would not be able to re-enter, and they are “having to sneak in materials and supplies” in order to carry out their work.”We’re staying at my house. We’re sleeping on the floors, on my jiu jitsu mats, couches, beds… no hot water, cold shower, 31 dudes — it’s gnarly,” he said.When the fire broke out, Hart and his crew were working on a construction site within the neighborhood.Hearing that his mother’s house was close to encroaching flames, Hart told his team to “stop everything you’re doing,” and rallied them to protect her property with hoses.”We just rock-and-rolled,” he said.”We were fighting fires. And then we went round all the houses… cleaning debris up out of the streets. “We’ve just been doing that non-stop ever since.”- ‘Vouched for me’ -As far as Hart is aware, nobody else has begun clearing up Pacific Palisades.So far, his team are not touching any private property, focusing on roads and sidewalks.He appears to have the tacit approval of the police and fire officials who regularly circle the streets, checking for smoldering hotspots or looters. A local fire station even shared their meals with his workers. “People in this community that know me really well, that know the higher ups, have vouched for me 100 percent,” he said.For the first few days, he paid his crew out of his own pocket, but has now launched a GoFundMe, which has so far raised $170,000.Still, Hart said convincing his crew to stay was never an issue, many of whom “are like family” and have worked for him for as long as 25 years.”I stayed to protect the area where I work, and also save the company, because that’s where my employer’s house is,” said Raul Lopez Acosta.While the Palisades’ affluent residents might “have the money” to rebuild, “there are many things besides the construction — many memories, feelings, people, who have been living here for two or three generations,” he said. With no access to waste disposal sites to dump the mountains of debris, Hart and his team have “hi-jacked” a neighbor’s lot that had already been totally wiped out by the fire.He has not been able to make contact with the owner to ask permission, but intends to haul out the rubble as soon as the roads are opened.And in any case, he is confident that they will understand, given the extraordinary circumstances.”We’ll get it straightened out. It’s an emergency,” he said.- ‘Uniquely positioned’ -Hart is adamant that Pacific Palisades — where his great-grandparents first settled — will rebuild. He believes that many fellow residents are itching to return and help, but are currently being slowed down by bureaucracy.Officials have warned that the area could reignite, along with other dangers such as downed power lines, and has no safe water or electricity.Jackie Irwin, who represents the Palisades in California’s state assembly, said Tuesday that the official debris cleanup would be “done as quickly as possible.”But Hart does not want to wait — particularly with his construction company’s resources, from dump trucks and trailers to skid steers and grapple buckets, so readily at hand.”I am uniquely positioned to be of maximum service to my community, and I’m going to do it,” he said.”I got all the trucks. I got all the equipment. I got the guys.”Is there anything more he would like?”I really wish we could go home and take a hot shower.”