Like Elon Musk, Steve Davis was serving as a special government employee, a designation that allowed him to keep his job as CEO of one of the billionaire entrepreneur's companies.

The upcoming SpaceX flight launch follows eight flight tests, which began in 2023. The two most recent missions ended with vehicles exploding in the sky, though the spacecraft's rocket boosters successfully returned as planned.

Musk will discuss progress and next steps toward building a human presence on the Red Planet ahead of Starship’s ninth test flight today.

"It is very hard to separate Elon Musk's brand from the brand of Tesla, and SpaceX," a Harvard Business fellow told Newsweek.

SpaceX is targeting 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT) for the 9th Starship test flight. Update May 27, 8:42 p.m. EDT (0042 GMT): SpaceX launched Flight Test 9 of its Super Heavy Starship rocket at 7:37 p.m. EDT (2337 GMT;

The SpaceX CEO bailed on a company discussion about colonizing Mars, an otherwise favorite topic for the billionaire.

The SpaceX Starship's ninth flight test on May 27, 2025, spiraled and broke apart before debris fell into the Indian Ocean. The launch was the latest step toward SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s goal of sending humans to Mars by 2026.

In the beginning, the future looked bright for Elon Musk. The world’s richest man barrelled into Washington fresh off a decisive win for Donald Trump,