Yesterday’s Starship launch was great. All 33 Raptor engines pushing the largest rocket ever into orbit – what a sight! This was the second launch for the super-heavy booster – a big accomplishment in the program, proving reuse of the booster. And the much-anticipated second stage separation with Ship engine lightup went perfectly – the Ship looked great too on its way to orbit. But that was the end of the good news.

The Ship’s bay door wouldn’t open (blame HAL). The the first stage booster blew up just before splashdown. That wasn’t terrible, because they intentionally dropped the booster at a high rate of speed and an aggressive angle to test its strength. But then 150 miles overhead, Ship started spinning due to a propellant leak. SpaceX lost control of Ship and it disintegrated as it re-entered atmosphere over the Indian ocean.

So half a success. Flight 9 achieved some things, but both vehicles “demising” (in SpaceX’s weird vernacular) was discouraging. Block 2 of Starship has been problematic. I hope that with Musk’s re-dedication to his tech companies things will get better quickly. Though right now the planned launch for Mars in 2026 looks very, very unlikely.

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That was yesterday. The big event for today is Otega Oweh’s decision deadline – will he go pro or return to the Cats? I hope for the latter – Oweh has the X factor. He can take over a game, and he is now a Mark Pope veteran. He would push UK’s chances of a Final Four into the stratosphere. So fingers crossed all day – Oweh, nobody loves you more than Big Blue Nation. You’ve got a chance to make history this year, so come on home!

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Meanwhile, in the hellscape known as US politics, Mad King Donny is busy undermining the rule of law. He’s issued pardons to a random crowd of convicted felons:

• A corrupt VA sheriff, convicted of taking bribes
• Former IL governor Rod Blagovich, also convicted of accepting bribes while in office
• Former TN legislator Brian kelsey, imprisoned for campaign fund fraud
• Las Vegas councilmember Michele Fiore, convicted of financial fraud
• Weirdly, reality TV celebrities Todd and Julie Chrisley, for bank fraud and conspiracy
• Paul Walcak, who embezzled over $10M of taxpayer funds. His pardon happened after his wife donated $1M to Convict Donny, a blatant bribery itself.
• And those pardons are all on top of the worst, Trump’s pardon of hundreds of convicted Jan 6th rioters.

Convict Donny’s undermining of the rule of law is intentional. Attacks on judges, attacks on law firms, reversal of convictions, blaming judges for imaginary immigrant-fueled crime waves…it’s all part of a pattern to undermine the Judicial branch, making the Executive the only office with any federal power. The Judiciary better wake up and fight back, hard and fast, or they will find that they are irrelevant in the new US government.