NPR.

This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Waylon Wong.

Elon Musk's aerospace company, SpaceX, is capping off a busy 2024.

It's launched more than 115 rockets into orbit so far, with

plans for even more next year. The company's latest flight test of its starship last month was

attended by President-elect Donald Trump. At the launch, the rocket booster was supposed to come back

to the launch pad so it could be reused quickly, but there was damage to the launch tower, and it landed in the Gulf of Mexico instead.

Jeff Brumfield covers SpaceX for NPR's Science Desk.

It's a really strange way to do it because, you know, other rockets just drop their boosters

or in the case of the space shuttle sometimes they would go out into the ocean and retrieve the boosters.

The idea here is very, very rapid reusability.

You catch the booster, you just lower it back on the launch pad, fill it back up with gas, and then you can go.

And, you know, Elon Musk says he wants this sing launching as often as three times a day.

Jeff spoke to Regina Barber, the co-host of NPR Science Podcast Shortwave.

It was a really interesting conversation about the environmental impact of the Starship program,

which is currently taking place in a vulnerable Texas ecosystem.

They also talked about what a second Trump administration could mean

for the company.

That's after the break.

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