Name: Trump falsely said NASA 'was closed and dead' before he was president and appeared to take credit for a private SpaceX launch
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Trump falsely said NASA 'was closed and dead' before he was president and appeared to take credit for a private SpaceX launch

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The words "Business Insider".Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.SpaceX on Tuesday night hundreds of feet into the air, hovered it across the beachside launch site, and then landed it on a concrete pad.The full-scale vehicle, called Starship SN5 (for serial number 5), looked more like a flying grain silo or beer can than an early version of a Mars-bound rocket. Still, the feat represents a key step toward SpaceX founder Elon Musk's dream of creating that can reach, return from, and help .In Wednesday rife with falsehoods, US President Donald Trump reshared of SN5's flight — and appeared to take credit for SpaceX's flight by insinuating it was part of a NASA program."NASA was Closed &amp; Dead until I got it going again. Now it is the most vibrant place of its kind on the Planet...And we have Space Force to go along with it. We have accomplished more than any Administration in first 3 1/2 years. Sorry, but it all doesn't happen with Sleepy Joe!" Trump claimed.After the tweet, and industry experts pointed out that Trump was far from the mark.Jeff Foust, a Space News senior writer and aerospace analyst who's followed the industry for decades, the following response to the president's claims:"Fact check:- NASA was neither closed nor dead at the start of the current administration.- Many recent NASA successes have their origins in prior administrations.- The Starship test the president is retweeting has nothing to do with NASA; it's a private effort by SpaceX."Per Foust's first point, NASA has been operating continuously since its creation on October 1, 1958.With his second bullet point, Foust was referring to spaceflight commercialization work by the Bush and Obama administrations that . In 2004, President George W. Bush started a at NASA. The goal was to bolster cargo transportation capabilities to the International Space Station ahead of the 2011 retirement of NASA's space shuttle program.That effort, which funded SpaceX to develop an uncrewed vehicle called Dragon, preceded and informed a follow-on NASA effort called Commercial Crew. President Barack Obama first funded the program in 2009 and authorized funding until he left office in 2016. That funding enabled SpaceX (and Boeing) to develop a crewed vehicle.That effort culminated in SpaceX's most recent achievement: resurrecting crewed spaceflight from American soil. Specifically, the company leaned on $2.7 billion, most of which was , to develop its Crew Dragon spaceship. The vehicle in May with and in August, successfully completing&nbsp;its ."This does a disservice to the nearly 17,000 dedicated women and men of @NASA," Phil Larson, a former SpaceX employee, in response to Trump's claims.SpaceX has some funding and assistance from NASA for Starship development, such as . The company also was to develop a Starship moon-landing system.However, to date SpaceX has predominantly and to fund Starship's development. Musk has also ordered many of the rocket company's thousands of employees to the vehicle's development effort at SpaceX's — a private, non-governmental facility.The Biden campaign declined to comment on the matter and instead provided from the Democratic candidate about the of Demo-2, congratulating those involved.Spokespeople for the White House and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. A NASA spokesperson said the agency is looking into the matter.&nbsp;NewsletterGet a daily round up of our most popular tech stories. Sign up for our Tech newsletter.Something is loading.It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

The words "Business Insider".Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.SpaceX on Tuesday night hundreds of feet into the air, hovered it across the beachside launch site, and then landed it on a concrete pad.The full-scale vehicle, called Starship SN5 (for serial number 5), looked more like a flying grain silo or beer can than an early version of a Mars-bound rocket. Still, the feat represents a key step toward SpaceX founder Elon Musk's dream of creating that can reach, return from, and help .In Wednesday rife with falsehoods,...

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Trump falsely said NASA 'was closed and dead' before he was president and appeared to take credit for a private SpaceX launch

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