International

SpaceX postpones the seventh test of its powerful Starship rocket for Wednesday

SpaceX postponed to Wednesday the next test flight of its powerful Starship rocket, whose launch was initially scheduled for Monday afternoon from its base in southern Texas (USA).

According to Elon Musk’s signature on Saturday night, the Starship will take off at 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday, from Starbase, the firm’s space center located in the Texas town of Boca Chica.

For this test, the mission will transport ten replicas of the latest generation of Starlinks, which will be put on a suborbital trajectory, which is where the rocket will move.

This operation is crucial, because SpaceX plans to use the Starship in the future to put into orbit the next generation of its popular broadband internet satellites, which will be larger and heavier than the current ones.

On the seventh flight, the mission engineers will again try to catch the powerful first stage of the Starship, called Super Heavy, which in the previous test carried out last November could not be carried out.

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Once separated from the second stage, that is, the Starship as such, if the weather allows it is expected that the Super Heavy will arrive at a Starbase platform, where it will be captured by mechanical arms, as already happened successfully in the fifth test.

In addition, for this operation, improvements have been applied to the capture tower, which include protections to the sensors in the mechanical arms of the tower, which were damaged during the launch of the previous test and forced the diversion of the first stage to the high seas.

The Starship will fly on its own in a suborbital trajectory for about an hour, to end a mooring in the Indian Ocean, in the same way as it has done in the last tests.

Among these innovations is the reduction of the size of the upper wings of the rocket, which are also now closer to the tip of the Starship and this reduces its exposure to heat, in addition to having improved the thermal shield.

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International

Marco Rubio warns Venezuela against military action against Guyana

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Venezuela on Thursday that a military attack on Guyana would be “a big mistake” and “a very bad day for them,” expressing his support for Georgetown in its territorial dispute with Caracas.

“It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they attacked Guyana or ExxonMobil. It would be a very bad day, a very bad week for them, and it would not end well,” Rubio emphasized during a press conference in Georgetown alongside Guyanese President Irfaan Ali.

International

Ecuador oil spill worsens as containment dam collapses

The collapse of a containment dam holding back part of the 25,000+ barrels of oil spilled from a pipeline rupture nearly two weeks ago has worsened the environmental crisis in northwestern Ecuador, contaminating rivers and Pacific beaches.

The Ecuadorian government attributed the March 13 pipeline rupture—which led to the spill of 25,116 barrels of crude—to an act of sabotage. The spill affected three rivers and disrupted water supplies for several communities, according to authorities.

On Tuesday, due to heavy rains that have been falling since January, a containment dam on the Caple River collapsed. The Caple connects to other waterways in Esmeraldas Province, a coastal region bordering Colombia, state-owned Petroecuador said in a statement on Wednesday.

Seven containment barriers were installed in the Viche River, where crews worked to remove oil-contaminated debris. Additional absorbent materials were deployed in Caple, Viche, and Esmeraldas Rivers, which flow into the Pacific Ocean.

Authorities are also working to protect a wildlife refuge home to more than 250 species, including otters, howler monkeys, armadillos, frigatebirds, and pelicans.

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“This has been a total disaster,” said Ronald Ruiz, a leader in the Cube community, where the dam was located. He explained that the harsh winter rains caused river levels to rise, bringing debris that broke the containment barriersthat were holding the accumulated oil for extraction.

International

Federal court blocks Trump’s use of Enemy Alien Act for deportations

A federal appeals court upheld the block on former President Donald Trump’s use of the Enemy Alien Act on Wednesday, preventing him from using the law to expedite deportations of alleged members of the transnational criminal group Tren de Aragua.

With a 2-1 ruling, a panel from the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed previous decisions by two lower court judges, maintaining the legal standoff between the White House and the judiciary.

On March 14, Trump invoked the 1798 Enemy Alien Act, a law traditionally used during wartime, to deport hundreds of Venezuelans whom he accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization that originated in Venezuelan prisons.

The centuries-old law grants the president the power to detain, restrict, and expel foreign nationals from a country engaged in a “declared war” or an “invasion or predatory incursion” against the United States, following a public proclamation.