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May 21 (UPI) — SpaceX on Thursday scrubbed the planned first test flight for its redesigned Super Heavy megarocket, the largest rocket ever built, from its new Texas launch pad.

Following several delays of the countdown at 40 seconds remaining, SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot announced the launch would be delayed due to engineering issues which could not be immediately remedied.

“We are expecting to be able to make another flight attempt tomorrow, but obviously stay tuned to our social media,” he said.

In addition to trying out the redesigned Super Heavy propulsion system, the launch is meant to assess upgraded systems on Starship, including the deployment of 22 Starlink satellite simulators, intentionally stressing its new flight control flaps and attempting the “dynamic banking maneuver” that it eventually will use to land back on its pad.

When it takes off, the uncrewed mission will be the 12th flight for Starship as SpaceX develops what is expected to be a primary vehicle for NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon.

“The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and testing,” SpaceX said on its website.

The V3, which is 408 feet tall and more powerful than previous Super Heavy rockets, includes 33 redesigned Raptor engines — Starship has six of its own — will take off from South Texas for a round of primary tests similar to previous launches.

The rocket, SpaceX said, is hoped to successfully launch, ascend, separate from the second stage — Starship — and then perform boostback and landing burns in the Gulf of Mexico.

“As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch,” the company said.

During the hot-stage separation, Starship will light its engines to enter a sub-orbital path, performing tests and then splashing down in the Indian Ocean.

Tests of the space vessel are important as NASA’s Artemis III mission in 2028 is expected to test connecting the Orion crew capsule to both Starship and Blue Origin‘s Blue Moon, although Blue Moon has yet to be launched for its first test flight.

Starship also is expected to be the ship that delivers Americans back to the moon in the next several years.

May 1 (UPI) — May Day demonstrations are expected Friday, as organizers call for boycotts of school, work and shopping in protest of the Trump administration’s policies.

The May Day Strong protests are to mark International Labor Day. While Labor Day in the United States is in September and is a celebration of the achievements of organized labor, May Day — May 1 — is traditionally a day of protest.

The message this year is that the United States should be “focusing on workers over billionaires,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle told NPR.

“We know there are bus drivers in New York and teachers in Idaho and nurses in Louisiana who are feeling the impact of a system that has decided … to put billionaires ahead of everyone else,” she said.

More than 500 labor unions, student groups and community organizations are expected to participate, organizers said.

A student group, Sunrise Movement, said on X that more than 100,000 students were expected to miss school in the one-day strike. The organization said it is made of “young people fighting fascism to win a Green New Deal.”

This year, rising prices and stagnant wages make this year’s protest especially important, Terrence Wise, an organizer with Missouri Workers Center in Kansas City, Mo., told USA Today.

“If you want to see real change, you’ve got to be a part of the solution. Because if you’re not out organizing and you’re not out in the streets and you’re not talking to your neighbors, you’re part of the problem,” Wise said.

May Day began in Chicago in 1886 as a protest demanding an eight-hour workday and is celebrated around the world.

“People have figured out who’s rigging the game and are taking action,” People’s Action Executive Director Sulma Arias told USA Today. “What we expect is people to come out and deliver a clear message. … They understand that they’re seeing broken promises by an administration that promised to make things more affordable. And yet none of that has happened for everyday people who are still struggling.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the administration of President Donald Trump supports workers.

“The Trump administration has never wavered from standing up for American workers, from renegotiating broken trade deals to securing trillions in manufacturing investments to slashing taxes on overtime to securing our border. President Trump will always have the backs of American workers,” Desai said.

April 24 (UPI) — Hundreds of rallies are planned nationwide on Saturday as part of a “Communities Not Cages” action aimed at protesting the number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The protests come amid ICE’s plans to construct eight new detection centers and 16 processing centers, adding at least 116,000 beds to the number the agency has available for detaining people who are allegedly in the country illegally, Axios reported.

At the end of March, No Kings held its third protest — which saw more than 3,000 simultaneous demonstrations across the United States — since President Donald Trump retook office and engaged in a crackdown on immigration.

Detention Watch Network, the organization behind this Saturday’s rallies, called the scouting, purchasing and retrofitting of warehouses to detain between 1,500 and 10,000 people each “particularly horrifying.”

“Shockingly, ICE’s budget now exceeds many militaries around the world,” the organization said on its website.

“In the face of the administration’s unrelenting expansion of immigration detention, communities across the country are demanding to shut down detention centers and halt detention expansion,” it said.

One local group that is coordinating with Detention Watch Network’s “Communities Not Cages National Day of Action” is Shut Down Etowah, a group that previously protested the Biden administration until it stopped detaining people there, AL.com reported.

The Etowah County, Ala., facility is “too broken to be fixed,” the group said this week in a press release, noting that its’ “atrocious” conditions include bed bugs, 23-hour lockdowns and light fixtures that have not been fixed.

ICE earlier this year said it was launching a program under section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act after lauding its 2025 record of motivating 2.5 million alleged illegal immigrants to leave the country, more than 600,000 of whom were arrested and deported.

Chocolate lovers will soon be able to enjoy a brand new theme park based on an iconic Swiss brand, and at the heart of it all will be a real-life working chocolate factory to explore

If you’ve got a serious sweet tooth, and spent your entire childhood reading and re-reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, then a new attraction could soon be top of your bucket list.

Switzerland is already a major destination for chocolate lovers and for many of them the highlight of the trip is visiting Maison Cailler in Broc, Gruyère. It’s where the iconic Cailler chocolate has been made since the late 19th-century, and is among the oldest chocolate factories in the world to still be in operation.

At the moment, chocolate lovers can visit the factory and take tours, and there’s already a museum on the history of Cailler. Guests can take a chocolate workshop to learn to make their own treats such as truffles, and of course, there are plenty of opportunities for tastings along the way.

Now, new plans could mean the chocolate factory will be just the start of the excitement for fans of the brand. While the current attraction is 2,000 m², there are plans for it to be expanded to nearly 30,000m², allowing for what its website bills as a “memorable sensory experience”. The plan is for a park that’ll take around four to six hours to explore, taking visitors on a “journey of discovery through cocoa”.

Around 400,000 visitors a year already visit the attraction, making it one of Switzerland’s most visited museums, and there are reports that the park could double this number in the first phase alone.

Plans also include a cable car to whisk visitors from the car park to the factory, and a ‘flying theatre’ that will allow for stunning views over the Swiss scenery. There will also be a huge cocoa greenhouse so visitors can see how chocolate is grown and harvested.

And if that’s not enough chocolate-themed fun, a new hotel will allow visitors to indulge their sweet tooth overnight. If the project goes forward, the first phase should be open by 2030.

Maison Cailler can be reached by train from Montreux, and even the journey itself has been designed for chocolate enthusiasts with a themed train that zips you across stunning Swiss landscapes. Most visitors from the UK fly to Geneva, just a 90 minute flight from the UK, with a number of services run by easyJet, TUI, and British Airways.

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Broc itself is worth spending some time in, whether it’s in the winter when the snowy Alps are at their most beautiful, or during the summer when the mountains are lush and green. Explore the fairytale-like Château de Gruyères whose stone walls are covered in ornate oil paintings and treasures.

Just down the road another of the area’s famous exports is made. At La Maison du Gruyère you can explore a working cheese factory and sample this distinctive local product. You can even take a tour and see the huge wheels of cheese being ripened to perfection.

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