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Just In | The Hill 

On the heels of a record-breaking year, SpaceX kicked off the new year with its first rocket launch and landing of 2023. If Elon Musk has his way, this would be the first of nearly 100 launches for the rocket company this year, setting the pace for an ambitious year for private space companies. 

A sooty Falcon 9 booster leapt off its launch pad at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 9:56 a.m. EST on Tuesday, followed up by the rocket’s first stage returning to Earth just eight minutes later. 

The flight, which was the 15th for this particular booster, ferried 114 small satellites into space as part of SpaceX’s 6th dedicated rideshare mission, called Transporter-6. Nearly an hour later, those passengers — a bevy of small satellites and small orbital transfer vehicles that carried satellites for a later deployment into different orbits — began to separate from the rocket’s upper stage. 

The whole process, a complex orbital ballet of satellites shooting into space in perfect sequence, took more than half an hour to complete. The mission is the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company’s sixth dedicated rideshare mission to date, and SpaceX announced during the live broadcast that it plans to launch at least three of these missions this year. The company also plans to offer rideshare opportunities on its Starlink launches, which it says averages one a week. 

Other companies are planning to join in the action. Rocket Lab, which is preparing to open a new U.S.-based launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, also caters to smaller satellites — for researchers or companies that might not be able to ride on a traditional flight — and is predicting at least 14 launches for 2023. 

Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, suffered an inflight anomaly in 2022 which grounded its New Shepard rocket temporarily. However, new Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) filings indicate the company could be on track to return to flight early this year. 

Still, those plans pale in comparison to the 100 launches that Musk boldly claimed SpaceX was aiming for in 2023.

While Musks’ predictions are often wildly optimistic, officials at the U.S. Space Force are preparing for as many as 87 launches from Cape Canaveral this year, according to Lt. Col. Colin Mims, who is the commander of the 1st Range Operations Squadron — the department that provides range safety support for all the launches out of the Florida site. 

According to Mims, 2022 was a banner year for the Space Force and the Eastern Range, which hosted 57-orbital class rockets. This included 48 SpaceX launches and six from United Launch Alliance (ULA), along with two from Astra (both of which failed to reach orbit) and of course, NASA’s massive moon rocket—the SLS. 

2023 aims to keep up and even surpass that pace with more routine flights from SpaceX, including another flight of its heavy-lift rocket, the Falcon Heavy, which is slated to loft a government payload later this month. 2023 will also see the addition of two new launch vehicles that are expected to fly for the first time: ULA’s heavy-lift rocket, Vulcan and Relativity’s Terran 1. 

Blue Origin has been using the suborbital rocket and crew capsule to prepare for its own heavy-lift rocket, the New Glenn. Expected to debut in 2024, New Glenn will be able to compete with both SpaceX and ULA, another American spacecraft launch service provider.  

Blue Origin’s engines, known as the BE-4, are the same engines used in ULA’s new Vulcan rocket. To date, Blue Origin has delivered a pair of flight-ready engines to ULA for the company to use on Vulcan’s inaugural flight later this year. 

On top of its ever-increasing rapid launch cadence, SpaceX also aims to launch its mega rocket, the Starship. The behemoth, which is being developed in Boca Chica, Texas, will be able to launch humans and cargo into deep space. 

The massive rocket already has one flight booked. Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa plans to fly with a crew of people around the moon sometime in 2023, although an actual launch date has not been set yet. Seeing as SpaceX has yet to fly an orbital version of its Starship, that date might be a bit bold. 

However, one thing is certain: SpaceX set an all-time record in 2022 for number of successful launches in a calendar year for a specific type of rocket with its Falcon 9, surpassing the Soviet Soyuz-U launcher, which successfully launched 45 out of 47 missions in 1979. 

2023 promises to be another wild year in space. 

​Technology, Policy, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, SpaceX Read More 

Just In | The Hill 

A New Year’s Eve strike on a Russian base in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk left dozens of troops dead and sparked fury in Moscow at the officers in charge of the military post.

Russia said the strike killed 63 soldiers, while Ukraine claims up to 400 were killed when rockets fired by U.S.-supplied HIMARS launchers struck an ammunition depot and a nearby barracks.

Still, Moscow’s admission of 63 deaths marks the highest toll from a single attack on Russian troops since the war began. And the carnage has stoked outrage among lawmakers and influential military bloggers as the latest battlefield embarrassment more than 10 months into Russia’s invasion. 

The temporary base was set up at a vocational school building in Makiivka, an industrial city in Donetsk, one of four territories that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last year.

Russia’s defense ministry said six rockets were fired from the HIMARS launchers at the military base, only two of which were shot down by anti-air defenses.

Some Russian lawmakers are pushing for an internal investigation into the Makiivka strike and accountability for officers who garrisoned troops into what they said was an unprotected building.

Sergey Mironov, a member of the Russian parliament’s State Duma, said the attack “should be the last of its kind.”

In a Telegram post, he called for an investigation and “personal criminal liability” for any Russian officers or personnel responsible.

“These are not only those who allowed the congestion of military personnel in an unprotected building … but also all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security in the area,” he wrote. “Obviously, neither intelligence, nor counterintelligence, nor air defense did not work properly.”

Grigory Karasin, the chair of the Russian senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the attack “cannot be forgiven,” vowing vengeance against Kyiv.

“It is clear that a demanding internal analysis of what happened is also needed,” Karasin wrote on Telegram.

Law enforcement personnel with the separatist region of the Donetsk People’s Republic told Russian news agency TASS that the “active use of mobile phones” by Russian soldiers tipped off the location of the Makiivka base to Ukraine, but Ukrainian officials have not publicly discussed that claim.

Russian military bloggers also called the latest attack against Russia on Saturday a disaster, accusing Russian generals of incompetence and the Kremlin of undercounting its losses. 

Alexey Sukonkin, an influential blogger, said “the tragedy in Makiivka is a crime” and those responsible should be “punished.”

“And no, not Ukrainian,” Sukonkin wrote on Telegram. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine are acting as they should — they are trying to kill our soldiers. But their real killer is the scoundrel who positioned the fighters in such a way that it was easy for the enemy to shoot them.”

Eugene Finkel, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said it was possible that some lower-level commanders could be held accountable in the aftermath of the strike, but the criticism wouldn’t change the calculus from those leading the war effort. 

“It’s just another fail in a long line of failures,” Finkel said.

And while the death toll was particularly high, he doesn’t believe it would provoke more Russian aggression.

“Russia does not need any more reasons to cause damage or kill people,” Finkel said. “This entire talk about potential retaliation is misguided.”

Russia has been launching waves of missile attacks against Ukrainian infrastructure and energy grids since October, while Kyiv has sought to strike back against Russian supply and ammunition depots to curb the assault. 

Last month, alleged Ukrainian drone strikes killed three Russian troops hundreds of miles inside western Russia at an air base where strategic bombers used for missile strikes are reportedly housed.

Ukraine has generally avoided claiming responsibility for the deaths of Russian soldiers from rocket or drone strikes. But after the latest attack, the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security posted a cryptic Telegram message, writing “Santa packed about 400 corpses” into body bags and “300 more were wounded of varying degrees of severity.”

The General Armed Staff of Ukraine said in a Facebook post on Monday that it carried out 10 attacks on Russian military posts on Dec. 31, and five on anti-aircraft missile systems.

Putin has faced numerous setbacks in the war, including heavy battlefield losses from Ukrainian counteroffensives in Kharkiv and Kherson. And Russia has been unable to take the eastern city of Bakhmut despite months of bloody fighting. 

Last month, Putin acknowledged the war would be a lengthy process and that some troops have deserted. The Russian leader also issued a partial mobilization order over the fall to muster some 300,000 reservists, which led to protests at home.

Igor Girkin, a former Russian paramilitary commander and a prominent blogger, estimated in a Monday post the Makiivka strike killed or wounded hundreds of Russian troops.

Girkin said he was warned the deadly strike could happen again, saying there were other temporary bases that include an “extremely dense” number of personnel and equipment.

“This is not the first such case — last year there were also quite a few of them,” he said. “Our generals are untrainable in principle.”

​Policy, Defense Read More 

Just In | The Hill 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is entering 2023 as one of the hottest commodities in Republican politics amid speculation that he’s nearing a campaign for the White House.

DeSantis was sworn in for a second term in the governor’s mansion on Tuesday, seizing on the moment to tout the accomplishments of his first four years in office and lay out some of his priorities for the next four. 

But many Republicans remain skeptical that he’ll stay in Tallahassee for another four years, given his growing stature on the national stage and increasing likelihood that he’ll challenge former President Trump for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nod.

“It’s becoming a lot harder to see a scenario in which he doesn’t run,” one Republican strategist said. “He’s right where anyone that’s considering running for president would want to be. Everyone’s watching him, everyone wants to be around him. No one is running away.”

DeSantis hasn’t yet made a final decision about a presidential bid, according to multiple Republican sources. Even if he eventually launches a campaign, it likely won’t be until after the Florida legislature wraps up its 2023 session in May. 

Nevertheless, DeSantis’s growing clout within the national GOP has become undeniable, even with Trump back on the campaign trail.  

Early polling of the 2024 GOP primary shows him as the only serious threat to Trump’s White House ambitions. He’s emerged as one of the most prolific Republican fundraisers in the country. And he won reelection in November by the widest margin in four decades, dealing a crushing blow to Florida’s status as a swing state.

“He took a state that was considered to be the premier battleground for 20 or 30 years and has, at least temporarily, turned it into a red state,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida.

All that has turned DeSantis into something of a unifying figure for many Republicans at a time of internal conflict and uncertainty for a party still grappling with the fallout of a largely lackluster midterm election year.

“To me, he’s definitely the person that seems to be shaping the Republican Party as it moves away from Trump, and now the only question is when that will happen,” Jewett said.

There are signs that DeSantis has already started to supplant Trump atop the rungs of GOP politics. A USA Today-Suffolk University poll released last month found that by a 2-to-1 margin, Republican voters want a new standard-bearer to pursue Trump’s policies. That same poll found that roughly two-thirds of Republican and Republican-leaning voters want DeSantis to run for president in 2024.

Jewett said that part of DeSantis’s strength among Republicans stems from his ability to frame controversial political positions as a matter of common sense rather than ideology.

“He has a great ability to frame an issue to make it seem like it’s the most reasonable thing in the world. All of the ‘anti-woke’ stuff, he can sell it as a matter of parental rights in education or law and order or protecting free speech. He’s been very effective at putting his own spin on these culture war issues that he’s leaned into.”

Indeed, that strategy was on full display on Tuesday as DeSantis addressed a crowd in Tallahassee after taking his oath of office for the second time. 

He repeatedly cast his opposition to COVID-19-related restrictions as a cut-and-dry effort to preserve basic freedoms, railed against an “unaccountable” federal bureaucracy and insisted that he “will not allow reality, facts and truth to become optional.”

“We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,” he said, using a phrase that has become a linchpin of his stump speeches.

Yet DeSantis’s inauguration speech was distinct in tone, coming off as more of a national address than a routine outline of his second-term plans. 

He boasted about the rapid growth of the state’s population in the years since the pandemic began and painted himself as a leader unconcerned with ideology, sprinkling in references to former Presidents Lincoln and Reagan along the way.

“We have articulated a vision for a free and prosperous state. We have through persistence and hard work executed on that vision. We have produced favorable results,” DeSantis said. “And now we are here today because the people of Florida have validated our efforts in record fashion.”

DeSantis remains a deeply divisive figure. His willingness to wade into the culture wars has made him a chief villain among Democrats, who see him as a more well-spoken — and potentially more dangerous — iteration of Trump.

And while DeSantis may be starting the New Year in a particularly strong position, politics — especially at the presidential level — can be notoriously fickle. Early on in Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, for instance, few Republicans expected the reality TV star and real estate mogul to eventually win the GOP nomination, let alone the White House.

Another complicating factor for DeSantis is that he’s only just beginning his second term as governor. Some Florida Republicans who support DeSantis say they’re not ready to see him leave the governor’s mansion for a stint in Washington.

Thomas Kennedy, a Democratic National Committee member from Florida, cautioned against betting too heavily on DeSantis’s political future. Kennedy said that, while DeSantis has clear political momentum in his home state and among the GOP’s conservative base, he also carries a significant amount of baggage that could prove damaging on the national stage.

“Our state is uniquely insane, but at the national level, I’m not sure that it plays,” Kennedy said. “You have to pivot or moderate, and I don’t see how DeSantis does that.

“At some point, he’s going to have to try something else. I just don’t think he wins the presidency maligning trans individuals and talking about anti-vax stuff. It’s not a winning strategy.”

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Just In | The Hill 

The nasty battle over electing Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the next Speaker is sparking alarm among Senate Republicans who fear the California Republican’s failure to win enough support after multiple votes portends serious problems ahead in the new 118th Congress. 

Senate Republicans voiced their confidence in McCarthy when he met with them in the Capitol shortly before Christmas but his failure to budge a group of hard-line conservatives after making major concessions over the weekend on a rules package has them wondering how he can lead. 

McCarthy’s inability to unify his conference on the first organizing votes of the new Congress is raising doubts about his — or any Republican Speaker’s — ability to pass debt-limit legislation and appropriations bills this year. 

“Don’t they realize how embarrassing this is? Is that possible, that people think about that?” asked Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) incredulously when informed that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) had nominated Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for Speaker moments after Jordan himself delivered an impassioned speech to nominate McCarthy for the job. 

“If it’s this hard to elect a Speaker, imagine how hard it’s going to be to pass any legislation,” Cornyn added. 

He noted the one silver lining for Republicans is that Democrats will no longer be able to pass massive spending bills, such as the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, with party-line votes under the budget reconciliation process, as they did when they controlled the House. 

Republican senators were left scratching their head Tuesday afternoon how the group of 19 House GOP conservatives would find a way out of the stalemate after blocking McCarthy. 

“The question is, ‘How do they land the plane?’ and I’m not sure there’s any obvious answer,” Cornyn said. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said House Republicans will “eventually” elect a Speaker but acknowledged “it’s not a good start” to the new Congress. 

“At the end of the day, you’re not going to pass a bill out of the House that Biden will sign, I doubt,” Graham predicted. 

“The bottom line is, what’s the end game here?” he asked. 

Graham said he thought McCarthy went too far in trying to appease conservative critics by offering a rules package with several major concessions, including dropping the number of disgruntled Republicans needed to offer a motion to oust the Speaker to five members. 

“I think Kevin’s already given away too much,” Graham said. 

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), who served in the House from 1997 to 2003, said he still though there was a path to the Speakership for McCarty, though “it’s definitely a speed bump.” 

“This is the first important step in getting organized so I hope they can get this behind them and we can get a functioning, effective majority in the House because it’s going to be essential and necessary for us to get things done around here. 

“They’re off to a slow start over there but hopefully they’ll figure out a way to come up with a path forward,” he added. 

The disarray in the House GOP conference served as a stark contrast to the Senate, where Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday surpassed late Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) as the longest serving Senate leader in history. 

McConnell made no mention of the GOP infighting when he spoke on the floor Tuesday, and instead used his time to pay tribute to Mansfield, whose low-key leadership style of resolving conflicts behind closed doors is one the Kentucky senator has often emulated. 

McCarthy asked Republican senators to trust his ability to manage the House when he met with them on Dec. 21. He did so after Senate Republicans cited concern about McCarthy’s ability to govern a narrow majority in 2023 as a major reason to vote for a year-end $1.7 trillion omnibus package. 

Now those concerns are looking more well-founded, GOP senators and aides said. 

One Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on McCarthy’s battle with House conservatives said it doesn’t bode well for getting bills passed in 2023 and 2024. 

“This is just further evidence of how difficult in this divided Congress it’s going to be to pass legislation,” said the lawmaker, who added that McCarthy’s challenges exceed those faced by former GOP Speakers John Boehner (Ohio) and Paul Ryan (Wis.). 

“For the House to function, the Speaker has to have authority and this demonstrates the next Speaker, whoever it is, doesn’t have the authority to manage the House,” the source said. 

The biggest challenge looming this year is a vote to raise the nation’s debt limit to avoid a default. That vote is expected to take place in the summer or fall. 

The last time Republicans captured the House majority in the 2010 midterm election, the ensuing stalemate between the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Obama administration brought the nation within days of a potential default. 

Congress came so close to potential fiscal disaster that Standard and Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating in August of 2011. 

Passing the annual appropriations bills will present another major challenge. 

If elected Speaker, McCarthy will likely have to rely on Democratic votes to pass debt-limit or spending legislation as a number of House Republican conservatives routinely vote against these bills. 

But bringing bills that add to the nation’s debt to the House floor and passing them with Democratic votes is likely to spark new battles with the conservative House Freedom Caucus. 

Graham warned that if the Republican-controlled House can’t pass individual spending bills it will be a “failure.” 

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said his anxiety about potential fiscal disaster in 2023 will depend on whether House conservatives realize they’ll need to give some ground on issues. 

“It depends on whether or not they realize we’re in divided government and that’s going to necessarily move us away from preferred positions to the best we can negotiate,” he said. “Things like funding the government, addressing the debt ceiling are not things you can defer. 

“You either do it or you don’t and we got to do it over the next six to nine months,” he said, referring to the looming must-pass bills.  

​Senate, House, News, Debt limit, House Speakership vote, John Cornyn, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell Read More