THE NEW SPACE RACE: Starship Super Heavy Booster stuck the “chopstick” landing.

Starship’s Raptor engines ignite during hot-staging separation. Super Heavy is boosting back towards the launch site pic.twitter.com/9oK3m4xJaq

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 6, 2025

Watch Starship's eighth flight test → https://t.co/alyJTRtgTh https://t.co/7xtpEucyQB

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 6, 2025

Breathtaking.

UPDATE: But they lost the Ship second stage, damn.

ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Story here. Remember, we’re learning from iterative failure.

FIRST, IT WAS AN ARMY OF DAVIDS. NOW IT’S An Army of DIY Drones.

MISSILE DEFENSE: Space Force general: ‘Golden Dome’ missile shield requires Manhattan Project-scale effort. “Golden Dome would be a comprehensive shield to protect the U.S. from an array of threats, including ballistic, hypersonic, and advanced cruise missiles. The system’s core components would include space-based sensors and missile interceptors, leveraging orbital vantage points for early detection and rapid response. Additionally, terrestrial and maritime platforms would provide layered defense, complemented by advanced communication networks to ensure seamless data-sharing and swift decision-making.”

MAROONED: More Evidence — From Space! — That Joe Biden Was a Tiny, Petty, Vindictive Prez.

SKYNET SMILES: Judge denies Musk’s initial bid to halt OpenAI’s for-profit shift but sets trial for fall.

IT WILL STILL TAKE A LAW TO UNDO THE SPENDING DAMAGE: Trump Will Sign Order Abolishing the Education Department.

SKYNET SMILES WITH THE PEDAL TO THE METAL: Driverless Maserati racing car sets world record for autonomous speed. “Italian automobile brand Maserati has set a new land speed record with its driverless MC20 Coupe, which reached 197.7 miles per hour without a driver at the helm during a racing event at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.”

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: A Biological Male for ‘Miss Georgia’?

ON BRAND FOR GOVERNOR HAIR-GEL:

Ah, the title that was settled upon is "This is Gavin Newsom."
Not "Serving California" or "The California Governor Chat" or "California's Bits and Pieces."
No, the show is titled instead like a network daytime talk show, focused squarely on @GavinNewsom, and not at all on his… https://t.co/loJBE3BpUS

— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) March 6, 2025

Newsom is trying to become a podcast media star so he can run for president as one of those instead of as the former governor of a failing state.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Dem Congresswomen Just Released the Most Cringe Video Ever.

JOANNE JACOBS: Dear Colleague: Do what the Ed Department wants — or else. “Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn boys won’t be able to cut much from the U.S. Education Department, because the multi-billion-dollar items go to programs Congress has legislated, he writes. ‘Title I’s $18 billion for poor kids? Mandated. IDEA’s $15 billion for special education? Same deal. Pell Grants topping $30 billion? That’s the Higher Education Act, not some rogue educrat’s hobbyhorse.'”

BREAKING:

BREAKING 🔴

Florida: Active Shooter Situation Reported at Naval Air Station Pensacola Corry Station.

“Our security team is responding swiftly and expertly with our local law enforcement partners,” said Capt. Chandra Newman. “Our top priority is the safety and welfare of our… pic.twitter.com/xfa2mYlWxb

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 6, 2025

GOOD NEWS FROM THE NINTH CIRCUIT: Court Just Spanked Gavin Newsom Over the First Amendment.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF MACRON’S SPEECH: 🧵

Macron delivered a very important 15 minute speech to the nation tonight in which he announced he will offer France’s nuclear weapons umbrella “to all allies on the European continent”

Tomorrow, the EU leaders will meet to decides on… pic.twitter.com/Ev5NWDFeGQ

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 5, 2025

I’ve been wanting Europe to spend more on its defense since high school, 40 years ago. But France expanding its nuclear umbrella to perhaps cover Ukraine…?

A MATTER OF TRUST: Trump Names COVID Contrarian to Head NIH, Restore Faith in Science.

DEEP SPACE: NASA squeezes more life from 47-year-old Voyager probes.

Voyager 1 and 2 continue to make history every day, as they transmit data back to Earth while traveling further into deep space. But there will come a time when amassing distance is all they are capable of accomplishing. At some point, the batteries aboard each 47-year-old spacecraft will finally die, rendering the scientific probes into interstellar monuments to themselves.

However, NASA isn’t ready to say goodbye just yet, and is taking measures to get as much life out of the pair as possible. On March 5, Voyager mission engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California confirmed they have already turned off Voyager 1’s cosmic ray subsystem experiment. NASA plans to do the same for Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24. Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd explained cutting each program is a matter of life-or-death for both machines.

“Electrical power is running low,” Dodd said in a statement. “If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare ‘end of mission.’”

Incredible.

CUE THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: MSNBC Ghouls Are Killing Their Network.

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

If only George Stephanopoulos hadn’t felt the need to defame the president, some of these jobs might have been saved. https://t.co/9BXekthzx2

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) March 5, 2025

Exit question: Did Stephanopoulos offer to take a cut to his estimated $15 million annual salary to spare any of his show’s production crew?

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: If There Are Any Decent Democrats Left, They’re Awfully Quiet. “The dregs of humanity populate the upper tiers of the Democratic Party and its propaganda wing in the mainstream media. Mother Teresa would have struggled to like the bitter, confrontational idiots in the Dem upper echelon.”

MIDDLE EAST: U.S. and Israel reject plan agreed by Arab states proposing alternative to Trump’s Gaza ‘Riviera.’

Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to “take over” the Gaza Strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” sparked outrage across the region and around the world last month, with some analysts warning that his plan to see Palestinians at least temporarily and possibly permanently displaced was tantamount to ethnic cleansing.

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry echoed Trump’s proposal Tuesday, saying it provided an “opportunity for the Gazans to have free choice based on their free will.”

“This should be encouraged,” it added.

While Israeli officials have repeatedly suggested Trump’s plan would give Palestinians in Gaza the ability to leave the enclave freely — something they have not been able to do under Israel and Egypt’s nearly two-decade-long blockade on the territory — it has not expanded on whether they would just as easily be able to regain access to the territory.

That ought to be a big “No.”

Background: Egypt Wants to Curb-Stomp Trump’s Gaza Plan, but Who Pays for Theirs?

ROBERT SPENCER: Father of Marine Killed at Abbey Gate Shocked at Dems’ Reaction to News of ISIS Top Dog’s Arrest.

TWO CHINAS: China will work to firmly advance ‘reunification’ with Taiwan, premier says.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday China would “firmly advance” the push for “reunification” with Taiwan while opposing external interference, and strive to work with regular Taiwanese to realize the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite the objection of the government in Taipei, and has ramped up its military pressure against the island in recent years, including holding several rounds of major war games.

“We will firmly advance the cause of China’s reunification and work with our fellow Chinese in Taiwan to realise the glorious cause of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Li wrote in his annual work report to China’s parliament.

In his work report last year, Li reiterated a call for “reunification” with Taiwan, but added emphasis that it wants to “be firm” in doing so and dropped the descriptor “peaceful”, which had been used in previous reports.

Buy drones and antiship missiles, Taipai — more than you think you need. Far more.

WATCH: DJ Daniel Meets the President.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Battles Trumpian Old Foe. “It’s a miracle that none of it feels like partisan storytelling, and the series shows Wilson Fisk as a complex figure worthy of respect. A typical anti-Trump yarn would treat him in only one dimension.”

HMM: U.S. Pauses Intelligence Sharing After Pausing Arms Shipments to Ukraine.