Would you rather go to the moon with Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos?

The proper answer is Elon Musk because SpaceX and NASA are working together to get humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972. SpaceX won the contract to work with NASA over Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s company.

Work on the moon lander project has finally resumed after a six month legal battle between SpaceX and NASA and Blue Origin. Blue Origin missed out on the moon lander contract to SpaceX. Thursday, November 4th, a federal judge ruled in favor of SpaceX again.

The decision came after months of back and forth between the two space companies. Blue Origin sued NASA because they felt as if the contract was unfairly awarded to SpaceX. Blue Origin did however land a smaller contract to design a lunar lander.

Now that the legal battles are through, work on the Artemis program, NASA’s flagship effort to get back to the moon, will resume immediately. All is not lost for Blue Origin however, because more contracts for more lunar missions will be announced next year.

NASA did originally want to have multiple lunar lander programs but that was quickly changed after they were awarded limited funding by Congress. With only a quarter of what the White House requested for funding it made sense to choose SpaceX, whose bid was half the price of Blue Origin’s.

NASA hopes to reach the moon by 2024 which even before the legal challenges seemed unrealistic. The litigation forced NASA and SpaceX to pause their work for six months and now 2024 could be off the table.

Was Kyle Rittenhouse in the right or the wrong?

Kyle Rittenhouse is currently the defendant in a homicide case where he shot three men and two of them died. Rittenhouse testified on the stand for hours, sobbing, giving detailed accounts of what happened before, during, and after the shooting on August 25th, 2020.

Rittenhouse is being charged with six criminal counts, including intentional and reckless homicide, reckless endangerment and illegal possession of a firearm. His testimony was given amid clashes and shouting in the courtroom. The judge and the prosecutor sparred bitterly over the judicial procedure.

Mr. Rittenhouse’s defense team called for a mistrial with no possibility of retrial because the prosecutor, Thomas Binger, might be purposefully sabotaging his own case to avoid an acquittal.

Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, joined other armed civilians in downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin to help protect property. This came after the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer, Rusten Sheskey.

Mr. Rittenhouse has had no debate over the basic facts of the case: He shot and killed two men and wounded a third, with a rifle that a friend had bought on Rittenhouses’ behalf that year.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Rittenhouse said, “I defended myself,” explaining why he had fired his gun eight times. Rittenhouse was grilled with several questions asking why he was carrying a gun if he was only there to give medical care and protect property. “I brought the gun for my own protection,” Rittenhouse stated, adding he did not think he would feel the need to use it.

Transfers and Super Seniors are abundant in college basketball this season.

College basketball is underway again after a couple of showcase games at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. The Garden hosted four of the most prestigious college basketball programs to kick off the season. Duke and Kentucky traded blows before Duke, who is ranked No. 9, took home the victory. Following that game, No. 3 ranked Kansas topped Michigan State.

Ochai Agbaji led the Jayhawks with 29 points and after the game said, “to be on this stage, be in this moment, lead my team to a win, that’s why I came back.” Agbaji spent part of the off-season deciding between the NBA draft and returning to Kansas.

Gonzaga returns to No. 1 in the preseason polls despite losing Jalen Suggs and Corey Kispert, who were crucial pieces to the team that made it to the NCAA championship game last season. But the Bulldogs’ star player, Drew Timme, is returning as well as Andrew Nembhard, the veteran point guard. Chet Holmgren, number 1 ranked prospect of his class, joins the bulldogs this season as well.

There are a slew of big names not starting the season. The biggest being Mark Few, head coach of the Gonzaga Bulldogs. He was suspended one game for driving under the influence in September in Idaho.

The super seniors across the nation are taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility that they were granted thanks to the pandemic. The Big East Conference has 28 fifth-year players among just 11 schools, with each school having at least one.

Not only are the super seniors ready for the season, but so are the transfers. In April the NCAA ruled that all transfers would be eligible to play immediately instead of being required to sit out a season. A third of Division 1 men’s college basketball players transferred after last season.