John Batchelor Hotel Mars, Wednesday, 6-11-25

John and I welcomed back to Hotel Mars Eric Berger of Ars Technica for a one segment update and discussion regarding SpaceX, Musk & Starship. Eric was asked what the SpaceX testing success of Starship would look like. Our guest said he did not know. We talked about the upcoming Demo Test #10, possible hardware issues and even the possibility of assembly issues. Our guest expanded on this part of our conversation. Starship and the planned Moon launch were mentioned, we talked about testing ins LEO and the need to develop and test fueling in LEO. Eric also mentioned the fuels that Starship would use and need testing concerning possible boil off and more. Before ending the segment, he was asked about the feud between Musk and President Trump. Eric said it was hard to predict but probably Musk would walk back some of what he said regarding President Trump. He pointed out how important SpaceX was to the government on both space and national security. While the FAA could slow walk permits in retaliation for some of what Musk said, he did not see that happening at this time.