Interview
One giant, cheap for mankind: SpaceX’s Starship
- Brazilian politics are shifting significantly rightward, with a conservative candidate projected to perform strongly in the 2026 presidential election and incumbent mayors achieving an 81% re-election rate, well above the historical 58% average.
- Former President Bolsonaro is expected to fade from political influence due to potential legal consequences, while President Lula faces aging concerns (turning 81) and a lack of a designated successor by 2026.
- Conservative politicians are adapting strategies to secure long-term electoral dominance, evidenced by 23 of the 100 largest cities polling a pro-Bolsonaro candidate and Governor Jeffrey of Sao Paulo aligning his image with Bolsonaristas.
- Demographic trends indicate that right-wing demographic groups are increasingly capturing the traditional base of the Workers' Party, reinforcing the right's trajectory for decades.
- Self-help literature in the US and UK is heavily focused on specific life challenges, with 77 titles on adolescence, 13 on alcoholism, 63 on love, and 6 on loneliness; post-Great Depression eras historically saw a surge in money-making books.
- SpaceX is transitioning from Falcon 9 to Starship, with the initial operational variant targeting 100–150 tons to low Earth Orbit, while future models aim for 200–250 tons to support large-scale infrastructure like prefabricated space stations.
- Starship operational plans include in-orbit fuel depots for deep space missions, booster recovery maneuvers covering 75 kilometers, and future test flights to fully catch the spacecraft at the launch tower.
- NASA intends to use a Starship variant for human moon landings, with a claimed target date of 2026, though independent assessments suggest this timeline is unlikely to be met.
- Elon Musk aims to deploy uncrewed Starships to Mars by 2026, with crewed missions targeted for the 2030s, capitalizing on Mars transfer windows that occur approximately every two years.