<p>Record low temperatures<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-will-the-wind-chill-be-on-monday-2014-1"> are sweeping the U.S.</a> as the result of a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-a-polar-vortex-2014-1">"polar vortex,"</a> and the South is getting hit with unusually cold weather.</p>
<p>People from North Carolina to Florida have been tweeting pictures of fountains that froze over after the dramatic drop in temperature.</p>
<p>Temperatures plunged to 8 degrees in Atlanta on Tuesday morning, and most parts of the South are below freezing.</p>
<p>Check out some of the photos:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Proof it's cold in Atlanta: a frozen fountain [courtesy: Mario Page] <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GAwx&amp;src=hash">#GAwx</a> <a href="http://t.co/jlW4pBq4Rp">pic.twitter.com/jlW4pBq4Rp</a></p>
- Shawn Reynolds (@WCL_Shawn) <a href="https://twitter.com/WCL_Shawn/statuses/420589241740300288">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Frozen fountain at Center City Park in Greensboro <a href="http://t.co/UIvu3KoKuF">pic.twitter.com/UIvu3KoKuF</a></p>
- WXII 12 News (@WXII) <a href="https://twitter.com/WXII/statuses/420530894546284544">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>The fountain froze at FSU?? <a href="http://t.co/XGUEwbDihK">pic.twitter.com/XGUEwbDihK</a></p>
- Sara (@_sar_bear_17) <a href="https://twitter.com/_sar_bear_17/statuses/420584916406272000">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>It's so cold in <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Charleston&amp;src=hash">#Charleston</a>, South Carolina this fountain froze too via Kristen Ann <a href="http://t.co/M0M9SKDJiI">pic.twitter.com/M0M9SKDJiI</a></p>
- Marnie Levy (@MarnieLevy) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarnieLevy/statuses/420590018516619264">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/gerardway">@gerardway</a> my fountain froze look how pretty <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23texasfrost&amp;src=hash">#texasfrost</a> <a href="http://t.co/wS4CzLgLH6">pic.twitter.com/wS4CzLgLH6</a></p>
- chelso (@catcalzone) <a href="https://twitter.com/catcalzone/statuses/420590586232438784">January 7, 2014</a></blockquote>

It's So Cold In The South That Fountains Are Freezing

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes to finally <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/falcon-heavy-launch">launch Falcon Heavy</a> - the most powerful rocket the company has ever built - on Tuesday, February 6.</strong></li><li><strong>The rocket is vertical on the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where Business Insider is on the ground.</strong></li><li><strong>Musk has put his own Tesla Roadster on top as a test payload.</strong></li><li><strong>The Falcon Heavy launch aims to send the car on a path to an elliptical Mars orbit.</strong></li><li><strong>SpaceX will broadcast its monumental launch live online.</strong></li></ul><p><br>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - SpaceX is making its final preparations today to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-elon-musk-what-to-know-2018-2">launch Falcon Heavy</a>, the company's biggest rocket yet and the most powerful operational launch system in the world, for the first time.</br></p><p>On Monday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-rocket-vertical-on-launchpad-images-2018-2">personally visited</a> his "monster" rocket, which stands as tall as 23-story building.</p><p>If all goes according to plan, Falcon Heavy will ignite its three large boosters around 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday (you can watch live below), and send its bizarre payload - Musk's own midnight cherry red <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/photo-tesla-roadster-driver-starman-spacex-launch-falcon-heavy-rocket-2018-2">Tesla Roadster</a> - out to Mars orbit.</p><p>"The weather's looking good, the rocket's looking good. Normally I feel super stressed out the day before [launch]. This time I don't. That may be a bad sign, I'm not sure," Musk told reporters during a phone call on Monday. "I feel quite giddy and happy."</p><p>SpaceX has been preparing for this moment over much of the past five years. If Tuesday's attempt is a success, and all three of its reusable boosters land themselves - a huge cost-saving shift in an industry that's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reusable-rockets-musk-bezos-space-colonies-2017-3">used to discarding rockets</a> after one launch - Musk said it could be "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/falcon-heavy-elon-musk-what-spacex-launch-means-for-competitors-2018-2">game over</a>" for other heavy-lift systems.</p><h2>'I'll consider it a win if it doesn't blow the pad to smithereens'</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>While Musk said he was feeling optimistic, he warned not to expect perfection, since this is a test mission.</p><p>"We've done everything we could do to maximize the chances of success of this mission," he said. "I think once you've done everything you can think of, and if it still goes wrong, well, there's not much more, there's nothing you could have done. And I feel at peace with that."</p><p>The one moment Musk really hopes goes correctly is for Falcon Heavy to lift off the ground and move away from NASA's Launch Complex 39A - the same location Apollo astronauts <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/earth-is-heaven-james-lovell-lunar-astronaut-2017-3">launched from</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-moon-mission-falcon-heavy-rocket-experience-2018-1">may again soon</a> - and not <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/falcon-heavy-rocket-launch-date-time-february-2018-1">explode</a> into <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rockets-blowing-up-youtube-video-2017-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">countless pieces</a>.</p><p>"I'll consider it a win if it clears the pad and doesn't blow the pad to smithereens," Musk told Business Insider. "I mean, that's 4 million pounds of TNT equivalent."</p><p>The rocket is laden with hundreds of thousands of gallons of kerosene and oxygen; if all that fuel exploded at once, such a blast would be roughly one-tenth as strong as one of the nuclear bombs the US dropped on Japan in 1945.</p><p>"There's really not going to be much left if that thing lets loose on the pad," Musk said.</p><p>He added that if something does go wrong, he hopes it happens far into the mission - that way, Musk said, "we'd at least learn as much as possible along the way."</p><h2>The maiden voyage of Falcon Heavy</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>SpaceX has wheeled out, raised, tested, and re-tested all of Falcon Heavy's systems at Cape Canaveral over the past two months.</p><p>Those tests included repeatedly filling up the rocket with cryogenically cooled RP-1, a type of kerosene used in jets, and liquid oxygen to combust the fuel. Workers also successfully test-fired all 27 of the rocket's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-merlin-block-5-engine-test-failure-2017-11">Merlin engines</a> in January, which are attached to the boosters in clusters of nine.</p><p>In preparation for launch, the company wheeled its behemoth rocket out of a nearby hangar and inched it upward onto the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center.</p><p>SpaceX <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/falcon-heavy-launch-spacex-elon-musk-tesla-roadster-car-2018-2">received a Federal Aviation Administration permit</a> to launch Musk's electric car on Friday.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The FAA permit mentions a "hyperbolic orbit," the eccentric path Musk hopes his car takes through space. Also known as a Hohmann transfer orbit, it would send the car <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-iac-2017-transcript-slides-2017-10">out to Mars orbit</a> and back toward the sun on a nearly infinite loop.</p><p>Falcon Heavy's uppermost stage, which carries the car, will coast for about six hours through intense radiation fields around Earth's magnetic Van Allen Belt. This path is partially to prove SpaceX's rocket can survive the punishment, Musk said Monday - and hopefully win over new launch customers. (A single Falcon Heavy launch is slated to cost $90 million, which is about one-third the cost of other providers.)</p><p>"It's going to get whacked pretty hard" by high-energy particles, Musk said.</p><p>If the upper stage makes it through that radiation, SpaceX should get a live feed from the Roadster and its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/photo-tesla-roadster-driver-starman-spacex-launch-falcon-heavy-rocket-2018-2">spacesuit-clad dummy, called "Starman."</a></p><p>"There are three cameras on the Roadster," Musk said. "They should really provide some epic views if they work and everything goes well."</p><p>If the mission succeeds, more groups would be likely to line up to place payloads atop a Falcon Heavy rocket. With enough fuel and the right trajectory, the system has enough thrust to launch a payload heavier than a car to Pluto. The system may even support two additional boosters to become a super-heavy-lift rocket that'd closely match <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-vs-apollo-saturn-v-rocket-2016-7">the historic Saturn V rocket</a>.</p><p>That would appeal to NASA, which is gearing up to launch several planet- and moon-bound spacecraft in the coming years. The space agency is also in an ever-present budget pinch - and behind schedule in building its own super-heavy-lift rocket, called Space Launch System.</p><h2>Watch the launch of Falcon Heavy live</h2><p>The rocket should lift off shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday.</p><p>But if thick clouds move in, strong winds develop, technical glitches appear, or other issues plague the launch, SpaceX can launch as late as 4:30 p.m. ET, or delay its attempt to Wednesday or later.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-how-to-watch-live-2018-2"></a></p><p>If SpaceX follows through with its launch attempt today, the company should stream its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-how-to-watch-live-2018-2">YouTube Live webcast</a>, below, starting around 1:10 p.m. ET.</p><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-monster-mars-rocket-stacks-up-saturn-falcon-nasa-blue-origin-2017-12">SpaceX is about to launch its monster Mars rocket for the first time - here's how it stacks up against other rockets</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div></hr>

Elon Musk says SpaceX has 'done everything you can think of' to prepare Falcon Heavy for launch today

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>GM</span></p><p class="caption">General Motors President Dan Ammann (right) with Cruise Automation co-founders Kyle Vogt (center) and Daniel Kan (left).</p></div><p></p></div></div>General Motors announced on Friday that it will acquire <a href="http://www.getcruise.com/">Cruise Automation</a>, a San Francisco based self-driving car startup that was founded in 2013.</p><p>Neither GM nor Cruise disclosed the deal price.</p><p>The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter, pending regulatory approval.</p><p>"GM shares a common vision for the deployment of autonomous vehicles at a mass scale - a clear and vivid vision," said Kyle Vogt, Cruise's founder and CEO.</p><p>He added that Cruise's 40 employees would remain in San Francisco, but that the size of the team would be aggressively expanded. He declined to comment of how many new employees would join the company, which will be incorporated into GM's newly formed autonomous-driving group.</p><p>Vogt was previously involved with SocialCam and Twitch, the online video-game site that sold to Amazon in 2014 for $970 million.</p><p>In the past year, GM has been accelerating the pace of development for its electric and autonomous-driving vehicle technologies. The largest automaker in the US has also been embracing ride-sharing, making a $500-million investment in Uber rival Lyft earlier this year.</p><p>The car maker rolled out its Bolt electric car at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, with plans to have it on the road by the end of 2016. GM also created a stand-alone ride sharing brand this year, called "Maven," and has placed autonomous-vehicle development in a single business unit.</p><p>"We're here to win," said GM President Dan Ammann, who joined Vogt to make the announcement. "We're super excited, and we have a very clear vision. We are very serious about leading, and we're committed to investment."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Screenshot via YouTube</span></p><p class="caption">The founder and CEO.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Both Ammann, who now sits on the Lyft board, and GM CEO Mary Barra have indicated the golden opportunity for the automaker is autonomous, electric-powered ride-sharing. The disadvantages of trying to integrate those technologies and services in conventional cars and trucks are overcome, in the thinking of GM's leadership, if fleets of driverless EVs can be used in cities to provide mobility to customers who don't want to own a vehicle.</p><p>Ride sharing is a very obvious place for GM to use Cruise's technology, Ammann said, as the automaker seeks to "fundamentally change the future of mobility."</p><p>Fully autonomous vehicles haven't yet hit the street, but GM and others, including Tesla, are now bringing partial self-driving technologies online in their cars. Ammann stressed that he expects GM's acquisition of Cruise to enable GM to bring full autonomy to market.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Screenshot via YouTube</span></p><p class="caption">A self-driving car at the touch of a button.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Cruise had raised $20 million from various investors, Vogt said. The startup was a product of the <span>Y Combinator accelerator program.</span></p><p>The company garnered some media attention for its technology, which was undergoing testing on Audis in California. Inc. portrayed the company and its MIT-dropout founder as <a href="http://www.inc.com/magazine/201502/john-brandon/the-new-cruise-control-kyle-vogt-cruise-automation.html">trying to beat the big names in self-driving</a>, chiefly Google, to the finish line. </p><p>Business Insider's Alyson Shontell <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-autopilot-startup-2014-6">caught up with the company and its tech</a> in mid-2104:</p><p><span>After the GM deal was announced, Vogt didn't characterize Cruise's technology as an aftermarket bolt-on, but rather as an integrated hardware and software system, and he added that Cruise was among the few companies granted a permit by the California DMV to test self-driving technology</span><span>.</span></p><p><span>Vogt told BI that safety was the primary reason why he dived into the self-driving world. "<span>There are 30,000 people who die in car accidents per year in the US, he said. </span></span></p><p><span><span>"[M]ost of those accidents are caused by drivers, not machines. In a situation where the tech exists to solve this problem, we have a responsibility to solve that issue."</span></span></p><p><span>Cruise created a video in 2014 that showcased its technology. Watch it below:</span> </p><p></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drive-chevy-tesla-killer-bolt-ces-2016-1">This is what it's like to drive Chevy's Tesla-killer</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="w2azY2MDE6jevu96_5PjRoz4j9PcxEbo" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

GM is buying Cruise Automation and taking the lead on driverless cars

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2019%3Anewsml_RC17E5EF1930&amp;share=true">Trevor Mahlmann/Reuters</a></span></p><p class="caption">Starhopper - SpaceX's first Mars Starship prototype - hovers over its launchpad during a test flight in Boca Chica, Texas, on August 27, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/spacex">SpaceX</a> is building and launching prototypes of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/starship">Starship</a> - a reusable launch system designed to send people to the moon and Mars - from Boca Chica, a site at the southern tip of Texas.</li><li>But that's not what SpaceX was supposed to do with the site. When it got approval in July 2014, the rocket company said it'd build a commercial spaceport to launch Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/rockets">rockets</a>.</li><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/federal-aviation-administration">FAA</a> has reviewed SpaceX's new plans for the site, and the government regulator is preparing to publish two "written reevaluation" documents, which Business Insider obtained on Thursday.</li><li>Although SpaceX has turned <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/boca-chica">Boca Chica</a> into a Starship skunkworks, the FAA believes the company is operating within-bounds of its original assessment in terms of safety and environmental impact.</li><li>In addition, the documents describe a three-phase development plan for Starship over the next two or three years. The pages also contain graphic layouts of planned launch-site construction.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>New FAA documents the US government regulator sent to Business Insider provide a glimpse into SpaceX's plan to develop a disruptive new rocket system over the next two to three years.</p><p>Every day at <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk-texas-starship-mars-launch-site-pictures-2019-5">Boca Chica</a> - a hot, humid, narrow, and sandy strip of clay at the southernmost tip of Texas - SpaceX workers toil over the rocket company's big project, called Starship.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1122824422031646720">Elon Musk/SpaceX via Twitter</a></span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of SpaceX's Starship vehicle on the surface of the moon, with Earth in the distance.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The completed vehicle is envisioned as a shiny steel two-stage launch system that may stand <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-nasa-saturn-v-sls-moon-rockets-comparison-2019-7">nearly 400 feet tall</a>, be capable of sending massive payloads into orbit, humans to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk-moon-landing-nasa-cfo-jeff-dewit-2019-7">moon</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-colonization-human-survival-radiation-food-biosphere-2018-4">Mars</a>, and scores of passengers around the world <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-bfr-cities-rapid-transportation-2017-10">in half an hour</a>.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-mars-landing-sites-map-hirise-2019-9">SpaceX is eyeing these 9 places on Mars for its first Starship rocket missions</a></em></p><p>Elon Musk, the company's founder and CEO, also believes he could reduce the cost of access to space by 100- to 1,000-fold by having fully reusable hardware.</p><p>The FAA's review, which has not yet been published to <a href="https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/environmental/nepa_docs/review/launch/spacex_texas_launch_site_environmental_impact_statement/">its website</a>, came about after the company substantially changed its vision for Boca Chica. Business Insider was sent PDFs of the files (below) via email.</p><p>The FAA's main document is a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6382910-FAA-final-Written-Reevaluation-SpaceX-Texas.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">23-page "written reevaluation,"</a> which addresses the potential impacts of SpaceX's new plans. It's accompanied by a separate <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6382912-Addendum-August-22-2019-to-FAA-final-Written.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">five-page addendum</a> that addresses a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-rocket-launch-wildfires-texas-2019-7">roughly 100-acre brush fire</a> the company accidentally started during an experimental launch in July.</p><p>The two documents follow up on more than 1,600 pages of environmental assessment that the FAA, SpaceX, Texas state, and local authorities hammered out and signed off on in July 2014. That original corpus is an exhaustive (though now dated) official review of SpaceX's site that the FAA uses in part to approve or deny SpaceX's launch licenses.</p><p>The new assessment covers SpaceX's shift away from developing a commercial spaceport and confronts its new reality as a skunkworks for Starship.</p><h2>The FAA reevaluated SpaceX's site after a big change in the company's plans</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/environmental/nepa_docs/review/launch/spacex_texas_launch_site_environmental_impact_statement/">SpaceX via FAA</a></span></p><p class="caption">A May 2014 rendering of a Falcon Heavy rocket at SpaceX's south Texas launch site near Boca Chica Beach. The company ultimately changed its plans and design for the facility.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>SpaceX's site is located about 20 miles east of Brownsville, a few miles north of the US-Mexico border, and about half a mile from Boca Chica Beach.</p><p>The company originally agreed to build a commercial spaceport by spending about $100 million on the effort, including some $15 million worth of incentives from county and state governments. Space missions were supposed to start launching by the end of 2017, with up to a dozen trips each year.</p><p>Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets were to take off from a large launchpad equipped with a flame trench (to redirect hot rocket exhaust), a 250,000-gallon deluge system to flood the pad with water (to suppress sound and cut fire risk), lightning protection towers, and other safety features.</p><p>Yet before SpaceX could get government licenses to launch anything, it had to go through a gauntlet of filing an <a href="https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/environmental/nepa_docs/review/launch/spacex_texas_launch_site_environmental_impact_statement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">environmental impact statement</a>, or EIS, with the FAA. The company spent years studying the site and meeting with local, state, and federal officials.</p><p>The resulting EIS formally addressed the potential environmental impacts to the area, and it was approved in July 2014. For a variety of reasons, though, progress slowed to a crawl shortly after construction began.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-texas-starship-launch-site-development-challenges-2019-6">Elon Musk is building SpaceX's Mars rockets in a tiny Texas hamlet. But getting them off the ground there may be harder than he imagined.</a></em></p><p>By May 2018, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/11/full-elon-musk-transcript-about-spacex-falcon-9-block-5.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Musk said</a> that SpaceX was dropping its commercial spaceport and instead dedicating the site to building and flying Mars rocket-ship prototypes.</p><p>The company is now using different launch vehicles (Starship prototypes), different fuel (methane instead of RP-1, a rocket-grade kerosene), and a new rate of launches, as well as switching up construction projects and other details. This shift in plans prompted the FAA to step in, reevaluate, and square these new details with the original EIS to see if there'd be any unaddressed public-safety threats or environmental damage.</p><p>The document neatly lays out the crux of SpaceX's experimental test program:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;">"SpaceX remains committed in its mission to colonize Mars. To achieve this mission, SpaceX is developing a new rocket called the Starship and Super Heavy. A key part of the mission is developing the Starship spacecraft. In order to fully develop the vehicle, an experimental test program is needed. The proposed experimental test program involves testing a spacecraft - the Starship - which would serve as the second stage of the rocket. The objective of the experimental test program is to perform a suborbital space flight from the Texas Launch Site."</p><p>Despite SpaceX's substantial evolution of its Boca Chica site, the FAA found few major deviations, at least from an impact standpoint - so it determined a new (and very arduous) supplemental EIS process was not required. If anything, the documents suggest SpaceX's new Starship development would decrease the company's disruption in the area, including noise levels, wildlife effects, wetland impacts, and more.</p><p>"The modifications remain entirely within the property boundary and project area described and analyzed in the 2014 EIS," the FAA said.</p><h2>The documents also outline a three-phase Starship development program</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>FAA/SpaceX</span></p><p class="caption">A "Phase 1" construction layout for Starship. (The underground water tank was swapped for three above-ground tanks.)</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The main FAA document, which was finalized on May 21, contains various figures on the amounts of methane, oxygen, water, helium and other "commodities" SpaceX thinks it needs for Starship testing in Texas. (The company has since built a second Starship development site in Cocoa, Florida.)</p><p>The document also lays out a three-phase test program, which it says "would last around 2 to 3 years":</p><ul><li><strong>Phase 1</strong>: Tests of ground systems and fueling, a handful of rocket engine test-firings, and several "small hops" of a few centimeters off the ground. The document also includes graphic layouts, like the one above, showing the placement of water tanks, liquid methane and oxygen storage tanks (Starship's two fuels), and other launch pad infrastructure.</li><li><strong>Phase 2</strong>: Several more "small hops" of Starship, though up to 492 feet (150 meters) in altitude, and later "medium hops" to about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers). Construction of a "Phase 2 Pad" for Starship, shown below, is also described.</li><li><strong>Phase 3</strong>: A few "large hops" that take Starship up to 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth - the unofficial edge of space - with high-altitude "flips," reentries, and landings.</li></ul><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>FAA/SpaceX</span></p><p class="caption">A "Phase 2" layout for Starship's launch site from the FAA's written reevaluation.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>A spokesperson at SpaceX told Business Insider that the company has officially ended Phase 1 and is in the midst of Phase 2.</p><p>Phase 1 centered around SpaceX's first Starship prototype, called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-launch-landing-rocket-ship-success-video-pictures-2019-7">Starhopper</a>. Sections of the shiny steel vehicle were first spotted in social media photos posted from Boca Chica in late 2018.</p><p>The vehicle was mostly completed in February, though <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk-starship-test-hopper-rocket-ship-damaged-2019-1">its nosecone was blown off</a> by powerful Texas winds. SpaceX decided the nosecone wasn't needed and launched Starhopper as a stubby version of its former rocket-shaped self. The vehicle flew on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-test-hopper-starhopper-first-raptor-engine-static-fire-2019-4">short tethered flights in April</a>, a roughly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-launch-video-youtube-live-video-feed-2019-8">6o-foot (20-meter) "hop" in July</a>, and a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-launch-video-youtube-live-video-feed-2019-8">flight in August</a> that soared the vehicle to about 490 feet (150 meters) - a key step described in Phase 2.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-rocket-launch-liability-insurance-faa-mandate-2019-8">The FAA made SpaceX boost its accident insurance 33-fold, to $100 million, before Starhopper's last launch. Here's why.</a></em></p><p>During that latest and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-rocket-ship-final-launch-starship-plans-2019-8">final flight</a> in August, Starhopper also translated across its launch site and landed on a new concrete slab that matches the layout of the Phase 2 Pad.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://davemosher.com">Dave Mosher/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Construction of the Starship Mk1 prototype in Boca Chica in April 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The FAA document says Phase 3 - SpaceX's most ambitious near-term goal in Texas - had not yet begun, adding that its exact details will depend on how the company's first two phases go.</p><p>"SpaceX would be required to submit data and information to the FAA so the FAA can conduct another environmental review before issuing any new or modified licenses or permits to conduct these operations," the FAA wrote of Phase 3.</p><p>It's unclear if the rough Phase 3 plan in the FAA document is still valid. SpaceX is known for rapid shifts in development, and when asked about the phase, the company only said it is "working directly with FAA to maintain environmental compliance as our testing plans develop."</p><p>However, Phase 3 is likely now more ambitious. Based on tweets from Musk, it may entail launching a new, roughly 180 foot (55 meter) prototype known as Starship Mark 1 (Mk1) a dozen miles high and beyond this fall.</p><p>"Aiming for 20km flight in Oct &amp; orbit attempt shortly thereafter," Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1166860032052539392">tweeted</a> on August 28.</p><p>Musk added that he will provide an update on the overall Starship development program on September 28. Previously, he said he would deliver that presentation from Boca Chica, Texas - possibly to do so with a fitting backdrop.</p><p>"Starship Mk 1 will be fully assembled by that time," he said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-starship-spacex-starhopper-rocket-moon-2019-6">Elon Musk's multibillion-dollar Starship rocket could one day take people to the moon and Mars</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

New documents reveal SpaceX's plans for launching Mars-rocket prototypes from South Texas

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/42025498442">SpaceX via Flickr (public domain)</a></span></p><p class="caption">One of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets launches toward space.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/boeing">Boeing</a> and SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, are competing for lucrative <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-suni-williams-on-spacex-boeing-spaceships-2018-6">NASA contracts to launch astronauts into space</a>.</li><li>An opinion piece criticizing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/spacex">SpaceX</a> and its rocket-fueling procedures has appeared in multiple news outlets since July.</li><li>A <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/10/a-shadowy-op-ed-campaign-is-now-smearing-spacex-in-space-cities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">story</a> by Ars Technica suggested Boeing might be helping to place the opinion pieces via a Washington lobbying firm called Law Media Group.</li><li>The piece's author, Richard Hagar, formerly worked for a company bought by Boeing and told Business Insider that he sent the opinion piece to a Boeing employee - and no one else.</li></ul><p>Boeing, a 102-year-old titan of the aerospace industry, is in a heated competition with SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, for billions of dollars in NASA contracts.</p><p>At a time when Boeing is seeking to secure that taxpayer funding - and the prestige of launching astronauts into space - the company might be secretly placing an op-ed that criticizes SpaceX in newspapers around the US.</p><p>Both companies are currently trying to show NASA they can safely launch the agency's astronauts to and from the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-station-pressure-leak-nasa-rocosmos-investigation-2018-9">International Space Station</a> (ISS) as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, a roughly $8-billion competition the agency launched to spur private companies to build safe, cost-effective, American-made spaceships.</p><p>Through that program, SpaceX <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/september/nasa-chooses-american-companies-to-transport-us-astronauts-to-international">won</a> a $2.6 billion contract to develop its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-crew-dragon-capsule-what-its-like-inside-2018-8">Crew Dragon</a> space capsule, and Boeing got $4.8 billion for its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-starliner-fuel-leak-risks-nasa-access-iss-2018-8">CST-100 Starliner</a> space capsule. SpaceX hopes to launch its first Crew Dragon capsule with astronauts in early 2019, and Boeing expects to test-launch its first astronauts after mid-2019.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/24159153709/">SpaceX/Flickr (public domain)</a></span></p><p class="caption">A test of SpaceX's Dragon v2 capsule thrusters.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>If these initial missions are successful, NASA is prepared to award potentially billions of dollars more in space-taxi contracts through the mid-2020s (each crewed flight is likely worth several hundred million dollars).</p><p>To that end, as Ars Technica's Eric Berger <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/10/a-shadowy-op-ed-campaign-is-now-smearing-spacex-in-space-cities/">reported on Thursday</a>, some evidence suggests a Washington PR firm that counts Boeing as a client may be attempting to negatively sway public opinion about SpaceX via a critical op-ed that began to appear in newspapers around the country in July. </p><p>Business Insider has found a link between Boeing and the article's author.</p><h2>The negative SpaceX op-ed</h2><p>The reason that so much NASA funding is at stake for Boeing and SpaceX is that the space agency hasn't been able to transport its own astronauts to the ISS since July 2011, when its space shuttle fleet retired. According to some estimates, each shuttle launch cost the space agency <a href="https://www.space.com/11358-nasa-space-shuttle-program-cost-30-years.html">roughly $1.5 billion</a>, accounting for development costs.</p><p>For now, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-buying-russian-soyuz-seats-2019-2017-1">increasingly expensive</a> Russian rocket ships are the only way to get astronauts into space. That's why the Commercial Crew program was created: to spur the creation of American-made spaceships, create competition in the industry, and ideally drive down launch costs. </p><p>NASA astronauts have been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-suni-williams-on-spacex-boeing-spaceships-2018-6">working closely with both Boeing and SpaceX</a> as they develop new methods of space travel. The first NASA astronauts who will fly the companies' spaceships were <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-announcement-astronaut-crew-spacex-boeing-selection-2018-8">named on August 3</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Commercial-Space-Astronauts/65997995e42740bb9ce186ad3c2fdcab/19/0">NASA via AP</a></span></p><p class="caption">Nine astronauts will fly the first four crewed missions inside SpaceX and Boeing's new spaceships for NASA,  called Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner, respectively.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>But just before the announcement, on July 22, an opinion article by an aerospace-industry veteran named Richard Hagar <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/22/preserving-astronaut-safety/">ran in The Washington Times</a>, a right-leaning publisher. The op-ed paints Musk as inexperienced and castigates "special interests in Washington" for eschewing the development of commercial safety standards. It also argues that SpaceX's plans to fuel its Falcon 9 rockets while astronauts are already loaded into the ship on top - a practice called "load-and-go" - is unsafe.</p><p>A short bio of Hagar that accompanies the op-ed describes him as someone who "worked on every Apollo mission for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center as a spacecraft operator on the launch team."</p><p>That much is true. But an important aspect of Hagar's professional identity is also this: He formerly worked for an aerospace company called North American Aviation. That company later became Rockwell International, which was bought by Boeing in the 1990s. So Hagar said Boeing now pays his pension.</p><p>"I'm a Boeing retiree, technically," Hagar told Business Insider, though we were unable to independently verify that his pension checks come from Boeing. "I worked at the Cape [Canaveral], and I keep in contact with Boeing people down there."</p><p>In fact, Hagar said he never submitted the article to The Washington Times. He only shared his written opinion with one person: a Boeing employee, whom he repeatedly declined to identify.</p><p>"I don't want to start anything," Hagar said. "I'm not interested in that."</p><p>Shortly after Hagar gave his op-ed to Boeing, he said, it appeared in The Washington Times.</p><p>"I gave [Boeing] permission to publish it wherever," Hagar said. "I knew it would be in different publications, but not how many."</p><p>The piece has since appeared in at least eight more publications. The op-ed ran in the <a href="https://www.abqjournal.com/1215357/astronaut-safety-should-be-priority.html">Albuquerque Journal</a> on August 31, the <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/SpaceX-risks-repeating-history-s-mistakes-on-13232726.php">Houston Chronicle</a> on September 17 (and its partner the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/SpaceX-risks-repeating-history-s-mistakes-on-13232726.php">San Francisco Chronicle</a> through an automated system), and the <a href="https://www.statesman.com/opinion/20180926/commentary-dont-repeat-mistakes-on-astronaut-safety">American Statesman</a> on September 26. Members of the USA Today network also ran <a href="https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/07/26/opinion-next-space-explorers-must-go-boldly-and-safely/833858002/">the</a> <a href="https://www.floridatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/08/06/lets-not-repeat-errors-astronaut-safety/914060002/">opinion piece</a>.</p><p>"It's surprising, it's been going around the country," Hagar said. "I'm not out to try to get published everywhere. I have an opinion on it, and I was asked about it."</p><p>Business Insider asked Boeing about Hagar's op-ed, but the company did not provide a comment in time for publication. (We'll update this story if we receive a statement.)</p><p>NASA also did not respond to queries in time for publication.</p><h2>What is the deal with 'load-and-go'?</h2><p>SpaceX fuels its Falcon 9 rockets with cryogenic or super-cold propellants just before launch. That approach comes with a number of cost-saving, mission-enabling advantages.</p><p>Waiting to fuel up keeps the rockets' high-grade kerosene fuel, called RP-1 very cold and very dense, allowing SpaceX to put more of it into a rocket, achieve greater performance, and launch bigger payloads deeper into space. The technique also helps SpaceX reserve fuel to reignite the rocket's boosters, land them back on Earth, and make them available <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reusable-rockets-musk-bezos-space-colonies-2017-3">to be reused</a>.</p><p>In his opinion article, Hagar argues that the "load-and-go" approach can't be trusted. The longer astronauts are waiting with fuel around, the thinking goes, the greater the likelihood of a deadly accident. As evidence, he fingers SpaceX's Sept. 2016 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-financials-rocket-accident-costs-revenue-2017-1">launch pad explosion</a> of a Falcon 9 rocket.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Launch Report/Handout via REUTERS</span></p><p class="caption">An explosion on the launch site of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida is shown in this still image from a video taken September 1, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"Congress and the administration should overturn these shortsighted restrictions on commercial spaceflight safety standards," Hagar's op-ed says, later adding: "NASA must ensure that before they put an astronaut on a commercial spacecraft that it lives up to the strict standards we have learned over the last 60 years of spaceflight."</p><p>However, after nearly two years of work by SpaceX and an exhaustive review by NASA, the space agency announced <a href="https://spacenews.com/nasa-approves-load-and-go-fueling-for-spacex-commercial-crew-launches/">on August 17</a> that SpaceX's load-and-go fueling method "presents the least risk" to astronauts. NASA approved the practice, pending some final tests.</p><p>Yet even after that approval came through, Hagar's op-ed kept appearing in newspapers.</p><p>He never personally pitched the piece to any outlet, according to his account. Several outlets that ran the op-ed did not respond to our questions about who pitched the pieces, but The Washington Times told Business Insider that the piece "was pitched by Kelly Ramesar [...] on behalf of Richard Hagar."</p><p>Kelly Ramesar is the name of a communications associate at a DC-based public relations firm called Law Media Group, or LMG, <a href="http://lawmedia.net/about">according to the firm's website</a>. LMG names Boeing as a client on its site. Ars Technica reported that two other people whose names are listed as communications associates at LMG - Casey Murray and Joshua Bak-Brevik - also successfully pitched Hagar's piece to at least four news outlets. </p><p>Given Hagar's insistence that he only gave his writing to a single Boeing employee, it seems someone from that company may have passed it to LMG, though this remains unknown.</p><p>Julian Epstein, the CEO of LMG, did not immediately return Business Insider's calls or email. </p><h2>Why Hagar says he wrote the piece</h2><p>Neither Boeing nor any other entity paid Hagar for his writing, he said, though he's fine with that.</p><p>"I'm 82 years old. Why would I do anything different than that?" he said. "I have no money in this. It's an opinion I have on that process."</p><p>Hagar said he had been thinking about the risks of load-and-go for years, and had discussed his concerns with a small group of retirees who used to work on the space program.</p><p>"I'm a Boeing supporter. But that doesn't have any effect on my opinion of the load-and-go process," he said.</p><p>But changing the perception of SpaceX could influence NASA and lawmakers who control the agency's purse strings. And Hagar did acknowledge that he wrote his article after a conversation with a current Boeing employee (not a retiree in his group).</p><p>"I was talking to one of the Boeing people one time, and he asked me what I thought of the load-and-go process," Hagar said. "I said, 'Let me sit down and look at it in more detail.' And that's how [the op-ed] came about."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/32312416415/">SpaceX/Flickr (public domain)</a></span></p><p class="caption">A Falcon 9 rocket launches toward space using cryogenically cooled fuel.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>SpaceX, for its part, has designed safety mechanisms to protect astronauts if something were to go wrong with the load-and-go procedure. An automated escape system in its Crew Dragon capsule would, in theory, blast astronauts away from an exploding rocket if there was a fueling mishap.</p><p>"I think that issue has been somewhat overblown," Musk said during a call with reporters on May 11, prior to NASA's approval.</p><p>He added: "We certainly could load the propellants and then have the astronauts board Dragon … But I don't think it's going to be necessary, any more than passengers on an aircraft need to wait until the aircraft is full of fuel before boarding."</p><p>Despite Hagar's criticism of load-and-go fueling, he said the strategy is not a deal-breaker - just not the approach he believes SpaceX should begin with to launch its first astronauts. He said load-and-go can create pressure to avoid calling off a launch, since doing so may incur extra expenses.</p><p>"If that process evolves to load-and-go, that's great. But to start out with that? It's a process that can be awful critical. It has to go perfectly," Hagar said. "We lost Apollo 1, and we lost Challenger, and we lost Columbia, and a lot of that's all based on cost. With commercial companies, I hope they have deep pockets."</p><p> </p><p><em>Are you a current or former aerospace industry employee with a story to share? Send Dave Mosher <a href="mailto:dmosher+tips@businessinsider.com">an email</a> or get in touch via one of the secure options <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dave-mosher">listed here</a>.</em></p> <p class="tagline">Get the latest Boeing stock price <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/BA-Quote">here.</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-blue-origin-virgin-galactic-space-tourism-2018-9">How SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic plan on taking you to space</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Boeing may have used a lobbying firm to plant a scathing opinion piece about SpaceX in US news outlets. At stake is billions of dollars in NASA contracts.

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