Rocket built by startup Firefly explodes off California coast
CNN
A 100-foot-tall rocket burst into flames mid-air after launching from California Thursday evening, dashing the hopes of a Texas-based startup to put a rocket into Earth's orbit on its first-ever launch attempt.
The rocket, which launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base north of Los Angeles on Thursday, appeared to have a smooth liftoff as it soared out over the Pacific Ocean and approached supersonic speeds. But then, the rocket began to cartwheel, turning over itself, before US Space Force officials on the ground directed the company to destroy the rocket mid-air — called an "emergency abort" — so that it would not tumble uncontrolled back toward people or property. No one was harmed. Firefly is not the only space company to lose a rocket in 2021. Astra (ASTR), a California-based startup with a similar business plan to Firefly's, attempted last week to put its 43-foot-tall rocket into orbit, but the vehicle veered sideways off its launch pad and attempted to right itself before exploding over the coast of Alaska. And then there's SpaceX, which has endured many explosions during the early development phases of its rocket technology. Early prototypes of a rocket the company hopes will one day put humans on Mars, for example, have taken several explosive dives back to Earth this year.
The federal judges in Washington, DC, who handled hundreds of cases from January 6, 2021, are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s mass clemency for convicted rioters, rebuking the newly pardoned as “poor losers” and memorializing the “blood, feces, and terror” from the US Capitol attack.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump released meme coins just days before he took the oath of office. A splashy pre-inaugural party was held at a property his company owns. And a Saudi-backed golf tournament is headed to a Trump club this spring.
GOP leaders are being pulled in opposite directions: Moderate members want the party to look ahead and focus on its agenda. But conservatives – and Donald Trump – aren’t done with litigating January 6 and investigating Joe Biden.
The Ivy League university, an epicenter for protests last year, says it is “expediting” its investigation into a group who disrupted a class on Israeli history Tuesday.
In the few days since he returned to the White House, President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive orders and mass pardons have shattered political and legal norms. But one order is in a category of its own.
Four San Antonio police officers were shot Wednesday night while responding to a “suicide in progress” call and a heavy presence of police were near an apartment complex trying to detain the suspect, authorities said.
A female student has died and another student was wounded in a shooting Wednesday morning at Antioch High School in Nashville, a police spokesman said. The male shooter killed himself.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – the vaccine skeptic President Donald Trump has nominated to serve as Health and Human Services secretary – plans to retain his financial interest in some litigation brought by Wisner Baum, a law firm whose specialties include pursuing pharmaceutical drug injury cases.
Los Angeles County officials are calling for an independent investigation to review the emergency alert system used during the recent Eaton and Palisades Fires to warn residents to evacuate.
President Donald Trump has issued a “full and unconditional pardon” to Washington, DC, police lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky and officer Terence Sutton for their roles in the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown, a case that drew protests on the heels of the murder of George Floyd.
Pete Hegseth’s ex-wife recently gave a new statement to the FBI about the defense nominee’s alcohol use, according to two sources familiar with the matter, an issue that has become a source of controversy during his confirmation process.
The Trump administration is putting a halt to agreements that require reforms of police departments where the Justice Department found a pattern of misconduct, according to a memo issued Wednesday.
President Donald Trump is targeting federal employees who focus on diversity, equity and inclusion and career policy staffers as he follows through on campaign promises to exert more control over the federal bureaucracy.
The House voted on Wednesday to pass a GOP-led bill to require detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes, handing an early legislative win to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, who chose to bring up the measure as their first bill of the new Congress.
In the same week President Trump took office, drone footage captured the construction of new barriers along the US-Mexico border.
More than 32,000 people have fled to towns in northeast Colombia as they attempt to escape a sharp rise in fighting between militant factions, according to the country’s Ombudsman Iris Marín.
The Trump administration has moved with lightning speed to roll out the president’s immigration agenda, effectively closing off the US southern border to asylum seekers, severely limiting who’s eligible to enter the United States and laying the groundwork to swiftly deport migrants already in the country.
Diversity, equity and inclusion programs have come under attack in American boardrooms, state legislatures and college campuses – and now broadly across the federal government.