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Trump touts ‘historic dawn of a new Middle East’ in Knesset speech

October 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

In a speech to Israel’s parliament on a day when the country’s living 20 hostages were released as part of a ceasefire agreement he helped broker, President Donald Trump told the Knesset, “This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.”

“This will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change, and change very much for the better,” Trump said.

In a sign of the warm welcome he was receiving, many in the audience were wearing MAGA-style hats that read “Trump The Peace President.”

“We gather on a day of profound joy, of soaring hope, of renewed faith — and above all, a day to give our deepest thanks to the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” he said.

“After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today, the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace,” Trump said. “A land and a region that will live. God willing, in peace for all eternity.”

There was a disruption during Trump’s speech when it appeared at least one person in the audience shouted out and was quickly removed from the room. “That was very efficient,” Trump said after the interruption.

Trump received several standing ovations at the Knesset, where he was introduced by the speaker of Israel’s parliament as the “best friend Israel has ever had” in the White House — a sentiment echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“No American president has ever done more for Israel, and as I said in Washington, it ain’t even close. It’s not really a match,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli prime minister said when Trump was elected, “overnight everything changed.”

“Mr. President, today, we welcome you here to thank you for your pivotal leadership and putting forward a proposal that got the backing of almost the entire world, a proposal that brings all our hostages home, a proposal that ends the war by achieving all our objectives, a proposal that opens the door to an historic expansion of peace in our region and beyond our region,” Netanyahu said. “Mr. President, you are committed to this peace. I am committed to this peace. And together, Mr. President, we will achieve this peace.”

With Trump looking on smiling, Netanyahu announced he submitted Trump’s nomination to be the first non-Israeli recipient of the Israel Prize, Israel’s highest award. Earlier, the speaker of Israel’s parliament said he will be nominating Trump for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

“As to that other prize, just a question time, you’ll get it,” Netanyahu said.

At the Knesset for Trump’s speech was his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the latter having been involved in negotiations, as well as White House special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

The White House posted a short video of Trump and Netanyahu meeting with the families of hostages before his address.

After the speech, Trump was headed to an international “peace summit” in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt where he was to sign an agreement with more than 20 others leaders from around the world.

Netanyahu will not attend the summit, despite being invited by Trump.

“The Prime Minister thanked President Trump for his invitation, but said that he would not be able to participate due to the proximity of the holiday,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. “The Prime Minister thanked President Trump for his efforts to expand the circle of peace — peace through strength.”

Trump arrived earlier Monday at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, where he was met by Netanyahu and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

The final 20 living hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, were returned to Israel on Monday, Israeli officials said, the first phase of an agreement that also called for Israel to release Palestinian prisoners.

5 hospitalized after helicopter crashes in Huntington Beach, California

October 12, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) – Five people were injured and rushed to hospitals after a helicopter crashed in Huntington Beach, California, on Saturday.

The helicopter came down around 2 p.m. local time in a beach parking lot between Twin Dolphins Drive and Beach Boulevard, according to city officials.

Videos taken by bystanders showed the wreckage lodged in palm trees near a hotel.

Two people were pulled from the helicopter wreckage and three others on the ground were hurt, a city of Huntington Beach spokesperson said in a statement.

The victims were all taken to area hospitals in unknown conditions, the spokesperson said.

The city said in a news release the helicopter was associated with a “Cars and Copters” event scheduled for Sunday.

There’s no word yet on a cause of the crash.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified, the city said.

Timothy Bartlett said he was filming a TikTok video of helicopters landing when he captured the moment of the crash.

“I was stunned,” Bartlett said. “As soon as I saw it spinning, I knew it was going to crash because it just didn’t look right, and I knew something was wrong.”

People ran to the site of the crash and police started moving everyone back, Bartlett told ABC News. From what he witnessed, he said it appeared a tail rotor broke off from the helicopter.

Bartlett said that while the helicopter did not burst into flames, he saw what appeared to be helicopter fuel leak out.

“I just was hoping, praying that everyone was OK,” Bartlett said.

Vance confirms to ABC that Hamas has 20 living hostages, expected release in next 24 hours

October 12, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance confirmed to ABC “This Week” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos that Hamas has said they are holding 20 living hostages, and that those hostages are expected to be released in the next 24 hours as President Donald Trump was headed to the region later Sunday to mark the occasion.

“Well, they’ve been confirmed, George. Of course you don’t know until you see these people alive. But thank God we expect to see them alive here in the next 24 hours, probably early tomorrow morning, U.S. time, which will be later in the day, of course, in Israel,” Vance said.

“We are on the cusp of true peace in the Middle East. Really, for the first time in my lifetime, certainly these 20 hostages are going to come home to their families, George. I think this is a great moment for our country. Our country should be proud of our diplomats who made this happen. It’s really a great moment for the world, too, which is why the president’s going to go over there and celebrate with these hostages. But it’s a great thing, and I’m very excited about it,” he said.

Trump is scheduled to leave for his visit to Israel and Egypt on Sunday afternoon and will meet with hostage families at the Israeli Knesset on Monday.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report Hamas’ confirmation of the 20 living hostages.

With the U.S. Central Command establishing a coordination center in Israel to support and monitor the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Vance said it was “misreported” that additional members of the U.S. military were being sent to the region — claiming that “We already have troops at Central Command.”

A U.S. official told ABC News that 200 troops are being sent to Israel, however, to specialize in transportation, planning, logistics, security and engineering. Vance also repeated claims from top officials that no U.S. troops are intended to go into Gaza.

“So, that story is actually misreported. We already have troops at Central Command. We’ve had them for decades in this country. They’re going to monitor the terms of the ceasefire. That’s everything from ensuring that the Israeli troops are at the agreed upon line, ensuring that Hamas is not attacking innocent Israelis, doing everything that they can to ensure the peace that we’ve created, actually sustains and endures,” Vance said.

“But the idea that we’re going to have troops on the ground in Gaza, in Israel, that that is not our intention, that is not our plan. There was a bit of a misreporting there, but we are going to monitor this peace to ensure that it endures,” he added.

Search for suspects in shooting that left 6 dead, 10 wounded amid rash of gunfire across Mississippi

October 12, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LELAND, Miss.) — Two more people have died from injuries they suffered in a shooting that erupted Friday night in Leland, Mississippi, bringing the death toll to six, authorities said on Sunday morning.

At least 10 other people were injured in the mass shooting in the small town’s downtown area, officials said.

Leland Mayor John Lee, speaking at a Saturday evening news conference, said the city was experiencing a “great loss” and asked for prayers.

On Friday, state Sen. Derrick Simmons told Jackson ABC affiliate WAPT the people were at a gathering following the Leland High School homecoming football game when the shooting happened.

Aside from providing the number of dead and wounded, the mayor did not provide many other details about the shooting.

“Everything else is under investigation,” he said during Saturday’s news conference. “We don’t have any information as far as who did the shooting or any of that. But we are here to get to the bottom of this.”

The Washington County Coroner’s Office said it received notifications on Saturday that two additional victims had died from their injuries. The coroner’s office identified those deceased victims as 18-year-old Amos Brantley Jr. and 34-year-old JaMichael Jones.

The other victims who were pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting were identified by the coroner’s office as 18-year-old Kaslyn Johnson, 19-year-old Calvin Plant, 41-year-old Oreshama Johnson and 25-year-old Shelbyona Powell.

Robert Eickhoff, special agent in charge of the Jackson, Mississippi, FBI Field Office, did not provide specifics but said multiple times that authorities were searching for “subjects” in connection with the shooting.

“People who were enjoying themselves last found themselves faced with violence that no community should be faced with,” Eickhoff said, urging members of the public to come forward with any information they may have.

“You may have seen something,” he said. “You may have heard something or know someone who did.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also assisting in the investigation, providing DNA analysis and also working to potentially match shell casings to other firearms using a national automated system.

“This could have easily been in another city just like it was here in Leland, Mississippi,” Lee, the mayor, said.

The city of about 3,600 people is located about 115 miles north of Jackson.

String of other shootings in Mississippi
The update on Friday night’s shooting came amid a string of shootings throughout the state this weekend.

On Saturday, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said it was investigating a shooting at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi, that left one person dead and two others wounded.

The shooting led to a shelter-in place order being issued for the campus.

Authorities said the shooting occurred at about 6:30 p.m. local time near the campus’ Industrial Technology Building. No arrest had been made.

About a half hour later, authorities in Jackson said a child was shot in the abdomen near a tailgate section at Jackson State University stadium. The child was taken to the hospital. There is no update on their condition.

On Friday evening, two people were killed in a shooting in Heidelberg, Mississippi, on the grounds of a high school, according to ABC affiliate WDAM.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office later said it had taken an 18-year-old man into custody for questioning in connection with the shooting.

At least 4 killed, 20 hurt in bar shooting in St. Helena Island, South Carolina: Sheriff

October 12, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — At least four people were killed and 20 injured early Sunday in a shooting at a bar in St. Helena Island, South Carolina, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

The shooting unfolded around 1 a.m. at Willie’s Bar and Grill, 7 Dr. Martin Luther Drive on St. Helena Island, located about an hour north of Savannah, Ga., according to the sheriff’s office.

When deputies arrived at the scene, there was a large crowd at the bar with several people suffering from gunshot wounds, according to the sheriff’s office.

Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.

“It was learned that hundreds of people were at the location when the shooting occurred. Multiple victims and witnesses ran to the nearby businesses and properties seeking shelter from the gun shots,” according to the statement from the sheriff’s office.

Of the 20 victims being treated at hospitals, four were in critical condition, the sheriff’s office said.

Several victims were taken to hospitals by ambulance, but other people injured in the shooting showed up at emergency rooms on their own, the sheriff’s office said.

No arrests have been announced in the incident, though the sheriff’s office said it was investigating a “person of interest.”

The names of the victims killed in the shooting are being withheld pending notification of their relatives, officials said.

“This is a tragic and difficult incident for everyone,” the sheriff’s office said in its statement. “We ask for your patience as we continue to investigate this incident.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who represents Beaufort County, said in a social media post that she is “COMPLETELY HEARTBROKEN to learn about the devastating shooting in Beaufort County.

“Our prayers are with the victims, their families, and everyone impacted by this horrific act of violence,” Mace said.

Mace asked that anyone with information about the mass shooting contact the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office “as soon as humanly possible.

Joe Biden undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer treatment

October 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Former President Joe Biden is now receiving radiation therapy for his prostate cancer, a spokesperson for the former president confirmed to ABC News.

“As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The former president’s office announced his prostate cancer diagnosis in May, noting that while it was an aggressive form, “the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”

“It’s all a matter of taking a pill, one particular pill, for the next six weeks and then another one,” the 82-year-old said in May.

“Well, the prognosis is good. You know, we’re working on everything. It’s moving along. So I feel good,” he added.

Back in May, the former president’s office said his diagnosis was “characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.”

A Gleason score of 9 indicates a high-grade, aggressive form of prostate cancer. It further indicates that the cancer cells look very different from normal prostate cells and are likely to grow and spread rapidly.

This places the cancer in the Grade Group 5, the highest-risk category, which is associated with a greater likelihood of metastasis and a more challenging prognosis. Yet despite the cancer’s aggressiveness, its hormone-sensitive nature offers a viable treatment pathway, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer death among men in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health.

An estimated 313,780 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed this year, representing 15.4% of all new cancer cases, according to the NIH. The five-year survival rate from prostate cancer is roughly 98%, the NIH says.

Prostate cancer usually grows very slowly. While finding and treating it before symptoms occur may not improve men’s health or help them live longer, it is generally a more treatable type of cancer, even when it has spread.

The news of Biden’s radiation therapy comes after he had Mohs surgery — a common procedure to treat skin cancer — in September, a Biden spokesperson said.

Biden’s health had been under scrutiny since before he dropped out of the presidential race in 2024, giving way to then-Vice President Kamala Harris to top the Democratic presidential ticket.

Prior to the announcement of his prostate cancer diagnosis, Biden and former first lady Dr. Jill Biden appeared on ABC’s “The View,” where they both pushed back against the slate of new books from reporters claiming that Biden was dealing with cognitive decline at the end of his presidency.

Luigi Mangione’s attorneys say death-eligible charge must be dismissed

October 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The federal charge that makes accused killer Luigi Mangione eligible for the death penalty must be dismissed because it does not meet the legal threshold, his defense attorneys argued in a new court filing.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that accuse him of shooting and killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December of 2024.

Federal prosecutors allege Mangione stalked Thompson in Manhattan, where the executive was due to attend an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown. Mangione allegedly waited for Thompson to pass by and then shot him at close range.

“It is clear that, in its generic form, this crime can be committed without the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another,” the defense said in the filing.

The defense also argued that evidence recovered from the backpack Mangione was carrying when he was arrested at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s should be suppressed.

“Altoona law enforcement failed to follow fundamental Fourth Amendment case law (and basic police procedure) by failing to obtain a search warrant before searching through Mr. Mangione’s backpack and the closed containers within the backpack,” the defense said.

Prosecutors have previously defended the police handling of the arrest and search, which resulted in the recovery of the alleged murder weapon and writings that investigators said helped explain a motive.

Mangione is accused of shooting and killing Thompson with a 9mm handgun equipped with a silencer on a Midtown Manhattan street on Dec. 4, 2024.

After a several-day manhunt, Mangione was captured in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police found a backpack that investigators said contained the alleged murder weapon, a fake ID and a red notebook he used as a diary.

“I finally feel confident about what I will do,” one entry said, according to authorities. “The target is insurance. It checks every box.”

A federal grand jury charged Mangione in April with two counts of stalking, firearms offense and murder through the use of a firearm, a charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty, if convicted.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York and Pennsylvania as well as the federal charges. The simultaneous prosecutions put him in what his attorneys have called an “untenable situation” and they’ve asked Judge Gregory Carro to dismiss the state case, or at least put it on hold.

Mangione is also being ordered to appear in a Pennsylvania courtroom regarding those state charges. While he is currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the Blair County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania wants the accused killer to appear in court for a pretrial motion hearing scheduled for Nov. 7.

In Pennsylvania, Mangione has pleaded not guilty to charges of forgery, possession of an instrument of a crime and giving a false ID to an officer.

In September, a New York judge dismissed two murder charges related to acts of terrorism, including the most severe charge, first-degree murder. The judge said the evidence presented to the grand jury was insufficient to support the terrorism charge.

Mangione is due back in federal court in December.

Researchers find methane leaking out of cracks in Antarctic seabed

October 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — One of the most potent greenhouse gas emissions has been discovered seeping out of cracks of the Antarctic seafloor, researchers announced.

Methane has been measured escaping from crevices in the seabed at a high rate as the region warms at unprecedented rates, according to a paper published in Nature Communications.

A large reservoir of methane lies beneath sea floors around the world, which can escape through fissures in the sea floor, according to the paper.

The invisible gas can be seen in streams of bubbles originating on the seafloor of Antarctica’s Ross Sea — located on the northern coast of the continent — said the researchers, describing the mechanism as “seemingly widespread” throughout the region, rather than a “rare phenomenon.”

Numerous seafloor seeps of fluid and gas were identified in the shallow coastal environment of the Northern Victoria Land and McMurdo Sound — both located in the Ross Sea — with shipboard water column acoustic surveys and Remotely Operated Vehicle surveys.

One of the most concerning greenhouse gases, methane, has been described as a “super pollutant” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It is responsible for about a third of current anthropogenic global warming and is 25 times more potent for global warming than carbon dioxide, according to the agency.

Oceans and coastlines contain the highest uncertainties of methane release, according to researchers.

“There is a continued gap between the measured increase in atmospheric methane and the total emissions predicted from currently known methane sources,” the authors wrote.

The methane leaks appear to occur in areas of the ocean that experience seepage of fluids rich in hydrocarbons, according to the paper.

Past research in the Arctic has identified tens of thousands of methane seeps — many of them linked to climate change impacts and the degradation of cryospheric caps, such as glacial ice, permafrost and gas hydrates, the authors said.

Reducing the weight of ice sheets and glaciers in the Arctic has been found to decrease hydrostatic pressure on subglacial hydrate reservoirs, which can then enhance subglacial flux and methane discharge on the coast, according to the paper.

Greenhouse gases stored in subsea permafrost reservoirs in ice-free regions of the Antarctic are similarly vulnerable to climate change.

However, the role of methane emissions in Antarctica has not yet been fully determined, requiring more study in the future, the researchers said.

“The increasing climate impacts in the Antarctic, including the widespread reduction in ice mass highlights the importance of understanding the current and future dynamics of fluid and gas release from the significant reservoirs predicted in the region,” the scientists wrote.

How Affordable Care Act subsidies became a sticking point in the government shutdown

October 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As the federal government shutdown enters its tenth day, one major health care issue has continued to be a sticking point: insurance subsidies.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, or premium tax credits, help lower or eliminate the out-of-pocket cost of monthly premiums for those who purchase insurance through the health insurance marketplace.

Eligibility for the subsidies can include factors such as household income and geographic location.

The subsidies were part of the original Affordable Care Act passed during the Obama administration and were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic to increase the amount of financial assistance to those who were already eligible and to expand eligibility to more people. They are set to expire at the end of the year.

Republicans have said the expansions from the pandemic era went too far and have tried to persuade Democrats to fund a temporary spending bill that doesn’t address the expiring ACA subsidies, with promises of discussing ways to continue the subsidies later.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., referred to the Dec. 31 deadline to extend subsidies as being far away.

“That’s a Dec. 31 issue,” he said during a news conference earlier this week. “There are lots of conversations and deliberations and discussions right now, even bipartisan amongst members about necessary changes that would have to be made, pretty dramatic changes to even have that considered on the floor. But look, I’m not going to forecast the outcome of that.”

However, Democrats say that with open enrollment for ACA plans beginning Nov. 1, the subsidies not being approved could be detrimental for millions of American families.

“The Democrats have said that their position on getting out of the shutdown period is that they would want to both extend and make permanent these enhanced marketplace premium tax credits,” Melinda Buntin, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, told ABC News.

“The thing at the very top of the list is these subsidies because they are so salient and they will directly affect the pocketbooks of so many millions of Americans,” Buntin said.

Buntin said that if open enrollment begins and these subsidies are not approved and loaded into the enrollment systems, people are likely to see their premiums go up.

Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office suggest that, without an extension, gross benchmark premiums could increase by 4.3% in 2026 and by 7.7% in 2027 for those on marketplace plans.

A KFF analysis last month found that people who buy insurance from the marketplace, and receive financial assistance, would see their premiums rise by about 114% on average, from $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026.

There is broad support for the tax credits. A recent KFF poll, which was fielded just before the government shut down on Oct. 1, found that 78% of Americans support extending the enhanced tax credits, including more than half of Republicans and of “Make America Great Again” supporters.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed on Thursday the need to extend tax credits, stating, “[U]nless we extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles by thousands of dollars per year.”

Buntin says this could affect many Americans, but particularly those who live in states where Medicaid was not expanded and buying insurance on the marketplace is their only option.

Naomi Zewde, a fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and assistant professor of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, told ABC News that working low-income families and adults will be affected if the ACA subsidies are not approved.

“Mainly those who don’t get insurance through their job, who make too much for Medicaid but not enough to pay [about] $600-plus per month for a plan with a two-to-three-thousand-dollar deductible,” she said.

However, James Blumstein, university distinguished professor of constitutional law and health law and policy at Vanderbilt University School of Law, told ABC News that even if the subsidies lapse and the Nov. 1 deadline arrives, a deal could be worked out to retroactively fix the issue.

He added that he believes congressional Democrats and Republicans could also come up with a deal that saves the ACA subsidies but doesn’t keep the full expansions that were offered during the pandemic.

“I think the leverage for the Democrats will diminish,” he said. “Republicans have passed a continuing resolution so that this issue is going to come back up five or six weeks again.”

Blumstein continued, “Democrats will have leverage again in five or six weeks and I think that whether this goes into the period of new enrollment or not, that can all be fixed in the deal. In other words, if the time lapses that can be overcome by the subsidies coming a little bit later.”

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump indicated that he was negotiating with Democrats on health care policy and that he was open to making a deal on health care subsidies in an attempt to reopen the government.

“We have a negotiation going on with the Democrats that could lead to good things, and I’m talking about good things with regard to health care,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“If we made the right deal, I’d make a deal. Sure,” Trump said in reference to making a deal to approve ACA subsidies.

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denied that the White House was negotiating with Democrats.

Trump later walked back his willingness to make a deal, writing on social media that he would work with Democrats as long as the government is reopened first.

Democratic leaders have said they are not willing to vote to reopen the government unless Republicans negotiate on health care demands, while Republicans have signaled unwillingness to negotiate on health care policy unless the government is reopened — an effective stalemate.

“Republicans are saying that we should have what is referred to as a clean bill, just continue the government operations as they were, without extending these subsidies, and then once we’ve got that, then we can come back and we can talk about things like extending the subsidies,” Buntin said. “Democrats are seen so far unwilling to agree to that, which I think represents a sort of breakdown in normal process.”

She continued, “Democrats are seeing a political opening, because there are so many millions of people who depend on these subsidies to be able to afford health insurance, and there’s nothing like a deadline to use to get something you want.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News in a statement earlier this week that Democrats are to blame for the shutdown.

“Senate Democrats are choosing to keep the government shut down, putting major health programs at risk. They should do the right thing and vote to reopen the government,” the statement read.

SpaceX tries for 2 successful Starship missions in a row with Monday’s launch

October 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has called “rapidly reusable, reliable rockets” the key to humans becoming a multiplanetary society. And when it comes to his company’s Falcon 9, SpaceX has shown that a rocket can do all those things.

The Falcon 9 has now completed 542 missions, 497 landings and 464 reflights, according to the SpaceX website.

But to reach the Moon and Mars and establish settlements on both, SpaceX will need its larger, more complex and significantly more powerful Starship and its Super Heavy booster to reach Falcon 9’s level of reliability and reusability.

Soon, SpaceX will have the chance to show that Starship’s successful August flight, the first to complete all its primary mission goals, was no fluke.

Barring a delay due to bad weather or mechanical issues, the stainless steel Starship and Super Heavy booster will conduct its 11th flight test on Monday, Oct. 13, at 7:15 p.m. ET, from the company’s Starbase in South Texas. A mission the company hopes will build on the much-needed success of its previous test. SpaceX will be operating Starship autonomously and there will be no astronauts aboard during the flight.

In late August, Starship and its Super Heavy booster successfully reached space on a suborbital trajectory at a near-orbital velocity, deploying a series of Starlink simulators before returning to Earth with such navigational precision that the reentry was captured on a camera attached to a remote buoy in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

“I would give [flight test 10] an A-plus. That was an A-plus performance. The only thing that was a little bit off was that there was some damage in the aft skirt compartment of Starship during the flight, but most of the mission objectives were achieved,” said Olivier de Weck, the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems at MIT and editor-in-chief of the “Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.” “I don’t think this could have gone much better,” he added.

But now, de Weck says SpaceX needs to demonstrate that it can build on its August success and move the program forward with new mission objectives.

“I think the next step is to actually land the Starship, still not go into orbit and stay over multiple orbits, but actually land and recover the actual Starship,” said de Weck. “Recovery of the Starship, an upright landing, with retro propulsion on a fixed platform, that’s the next step.”

SpaceX is not planning an upright, fixed platform landing for the upcoming 11th flight test. Like the previous mission, the Starship will splash down in the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy first stage booster, with its 24 Raptor engines, which SpaceX said was previously used during flight test eight, is also scheduled to splash down in the ocean. In several previous missions, it returned to the launch site and was caught by the tower’s mechanical “chopstick” arms.

The development of Starship hasn’t come easily for SpaceX, with several high-profile setbacks along the way. However, despite an explosion on the launch pad during a pre-flight engine test and several explosions and mechanical failures during previous test flights, Musk has long maintained that learning from failures is an integral part of SpaceX’s engineering process.

“I’m not surprised where the program is. It’s moving forward through the usual SpaceX iterative development model, and not surprisingly, it’s behind SpaceX’s ambitious schedule projections,” said Greg Autry, associate provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida. “But that wouldn’t make it any different than almost everything else that they’ve done in the past, other than that the scale of this is so large,” he added.

Autry is President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the chief financial officer of NASA.

Autry says he’s confident that SpaceX is headed in the right direction and said that Elon Musk and his companies tend to prove their critics wrong in the long run, delivering results even if it takes longer than anticipated.

“About ten years ago, Elon Musk promised me I was going to have a self-driving car shortly, and a lot of people said that was completely crazy. It wasn’t shortly, but I now have a self-driving car. I literally get in my car, push the button, and fifty miles later, I arrive at work. It is amazing. He delivers eventually,” Autry said.

Experts say that making the next generation of U.S.-designed and built rockets and spacecraft work is critical to achieving NASA’s goals of not only returning to the Moon but building a permanent lunar settlement and doing it before the Chinese.

During a late September ceremony at the Johnson Space Center announcing the new class of NASA astronauts, Acting NASA Administrator and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy spoke about the competition for space dominance.

“Now some are challenging our leadership in space, say, like the Chinese, and I’ll just tell you this, I’ll be damned if the Chinese beat NASA or beat America back to the Moon,” said Duffy. “We are going to win. We love challenges. We love competition, and we are going to win the second space race back to the Moon,” he added.

Autry, who first wrote about a new space race with China back in 2010, says China is determined to reach the Moon and dominate low-Earth orbit, but he believes the global competition will push American efforts forward.

“There are very credible people saying that they’re about to eclipse us in the next five years. I think that’s great for the prospect of competition that spurs us to work harder and take our role more seriously, and frankly to put funding into programs that we badly, badly need to fund,” said Autry.

Autry says that today’s space race should be compared to the “Age of Exploration” in the 15th and 16th centuries. He points out that while China had “an ambitious sailing-exploration program” in the early 1400s, European countries overtook the Chinese when the Europeans accelerated their global exploration efforts later in the century, at a time when China was pulling back.

“We are at that same moment in time right now. The countries that aggressively pursue going to the Moon and using the assets of space will dominate human history for the next several hundred years,” Autry said.

Autry believes that the billions of dollars being spent by companies like SpaceX and the federal government to support space exploration, return to the Moon and potentially get to Mars is money well spent.

“The countries that choose to take advantage of space resources will be wealthy, prosperous and happier than the countries that don’t. We have plenty of history to show that,” Autry said.

Autry says you just have to look at the first space program to see the benefits of this kind of investment.

“We would not have the computing environment, AI, the internet, solar power, fuel cells, and a variety of technologies at the level they are now if we had not made those investments that drove so much effort into engineering development and STEM education. It created the boom we’ve experienced since the second half of the 20th century,” he added.

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