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SpaceX fires up Starship’s Raptor engine hours before huge regulatory milestone

SpaceX has fired up a full-scale Starship prototype for the fourth time in a little more than three weeks. (NASASpaceflight - bocachicagal)

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SpaceX has fired up the same full-scale Starship rocket for the fourth time, igniting its Raptor engine less than an hour before the FAA officially published a launch license of the ship’s hop test debut.

The ignition marked the fourth time a Raptor engine has been fired up on Starship SN4 since May 5th, thankfully avoiding issues that caused fires and damage during the third and most recent engine test while also verifying that the ship and its Raptor are ready for their flight debut. In an apparent coincidence, the FAA published what serves as a license of Starship’s hop debut less than an hour after SN4 completed its latest test.

While not immediately obvious, this means that SpaceX has effectively surmounted a huge regulatory hurdle previously standing in the way of a full-scale Starship flight test campaign. Now, the path to Starship’s flight debut is just shy of wide-open.

Starship SN4, May 25th. (NASASpaceflight – bocachicagal)

Incredibly, the bureaucratic milestone SpaceX has thus passed may actually be bigger news than the Starship wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and Raptor engine ignition test the company completed earlier today, defying an unspoken law of spaceflight. This is because the license Starship received is completely different from the separate licenses SpaceX used for Starhopper’s first and second flight tests.

Starhopper was certified by the FAA as an experimental vehicle with experimental permits that are far more restrictive than those bestowed upon truly operational launch vehicles like Falcon 9 and Atlas V. For example, Starhopper’s experimental permits – like most others that the FAA has doled out – allowed for a single flight with a very strict ceiling. Launch licenses, of course, deal with operational rockets that must head to orbit or high altitudes on a recurring, semi-routine basis.

SpaceX has taken a major regulatory leap forward with a full FAA launch license for suborbital Starship launches. (NASASpaceflight – bocachicagal)

For the past few months, the general assumption has been that SpaceX would work with the FAA to retool its existing 150m (~500 ft) Starhopper launch permit to enable Starship SN4’s identical hop debut. In a total surprise, the FAA has instead issued a full launch license for Starship, meaning that SpaceX effectively has blanket permission for an indefinite number of minimally-restricted Starship flight tests until May 2022.

The only obvious qualifier is a note that the FAA has licensed SpaceX “to conduct suborbital reusable launch vehicle (RLV) missions”, meaning that a new license will obviously be needed for Super Heavy and orbital flight tests. Additionally, the license requires SpaceX to follow an unattached “ground track and trajectory” included as part of its FAA application, potentially restricting the kinds of launches the company can perform with it.

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SpaceX Starship Prototype S… by Eric Ralph on Scribd

Thanks to Starship SN4’s apparently successful fourth static fire test and the acquisition of an unrestricted FAA suborbital launch license, SpaceX has effectively cleared all significant hurdles in the way of the first flight of a full-scale Starship. SN4 continues to perform admirably and even had ~25 metric tons (~55,000 lb) of stainless steel ballast installed just yesterday to counteract the impressive thrust of Raptor on its imminent hop debut.

Of course, CEO Elon Musk has heavily implied that Starship’s first flight will have to wait until after Crew Dragon’s inaugural NASA astronaut launch, currently scheduled no earlier than May 30th. Regardless, SpaceX appears to be ready for Starship to take flight, and with an FAA license secured, that milestone could come any day now.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event

The rollout will be accompanied by a livestream at 8 p.m. Pacific Time.

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Credit: xAI/X

Elon Musk has officially confirmed that Grok 4, the latest version of xAI’s large language model, will launch on July 9. The rollout will be accompanied by a livestream at 8 p.m. Pacific Time, hosted on xAI’s official account on X.

xAI goes straight to Grok 4

Back in May, leaks indicated that xAI was getting ready to ship Grok 3.5. Considering Musk’s recent comments, however, it appears that the artificial intelligence startup would be focusing on the large language model’s fourth iteration instead. As noted in a Financial Express report, users on X have sighted references to Grok 4 in the lead up to the update’s launch, such as “grok-4-prod-mimic” and “Grok 4 Code.”

Musk’s Grok 4 announcement comes as AI competition intensifies between major players including OpenAI, Google, and xAI. With Musk’s Colossus supercomputer fully operational in Memphis, xAI appears to be accelerating its AI product roadmap.

Musk pushes Grok toward political neutrality

Grok 4’s launch also follows a recent controversy involving political bias, as noted in a CNN report. Last week, Grok responded to a user on X stating that political violence in the U.S. since 2016 had come more from the political right than the left. The chatbot noted in a later reply that its answer was based on information from sources like Reuters, the Journal of Democracy, and University of Maryland studies. 

Musk stated that Grok’s response was a “major fail.” “Major fail, as this is objectively false. Grok is parroting legacy media. Working on it,” he wrote in a post on X. By the end of June, Musk noted that he was “grinding all night with the xAI team” and that they were making “good progress.” He also stated that the model “Will be called Grok 4. Release just after July 4th. Needs one more big run for a specialized coding model.”

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Tesla opens massive solar Supercharger station in California

The Supercharger opened to customers ahead of Fourth of July weekend, while Tesla continues phase two of construction on the site.

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Credit: Tesla Charging | X

Tesla has officially launched the first several Supercharging posts at a massive station in California, notably including solar canopies and grid-scale batteries to offer completely renewable charging.

Last week, Tesla announced on X that it opened the first 84 Supercharger stalls of a planned 168-stall station in Lost Hills, California. Additionally, the massive Supercharger project features 11MW of solar canopies and 10 Megapack batteries for off-grid charging powered entirely by solar energy.

Tesla completed the first phase of the project just days ahead of the busy Fourth of July holiday weekend, adding that initial construction took just eight months. In addition to the remaining charging stalls, Tesla says it’s building a set of lounge areas, renderings of which can be seen below alongside current photos of the site.

Notably, the site also includes V4 charging posts for the company’s latest available charging speeds, and it’s located near the busy junction between I-5 and Highway 46 in Kern County.

“Thank you [Kern County] and [PG&E] for collaboration and approvals,” Tesla wrote in a follow-up post.

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

Credit: Tesla Charging | X

READ MORE ON TESLA SUPERCHARGERS: Tesla launches ultra-fast V4 Superchargers in China for the first time

Testing at the LA Diner, plus Musk update on potential Tesla solar Gigafactory

The huge Tesla Supercharger station completed phase one of construction fairly quickly, especially given how long Tesla has been working on its unique Los Angeles diner, drive-in, and Supercharger location. Still, the company was seen performing some testing at the nearly-completed charging station earlier this month, and will reportedly be holding a job fair.

Elon Musk also responded on Monday morning to a post on X, suggesting that Tesla is “thinking about” building a U.S.-based solar Gigafactory in order to help support increased power needs with AI growth, and to bolster domestic solar production.

Tesla is building a new UFO-inspired Supercharger in the heart of Alien country

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Tesla driver walks away from major accident with minor injuries

The driver sustained only minor injuries, and the exact cause of the crash remains under investigation.

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Credit: CHP Los Banos (via Facebook)

The driver of a Tesla Model Y survived and walked away from a harrowing accident on Monday in California, only sustaining minor injuries despite the vehicle being impaled by a guardrail.

On Monday morning around 4:34 a.m., the Los Banos division of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) responded to the accident on I-5 near Panoche Road, involving a 23-year-old in a Tesla Model Y. According to a post on social media, the driver veered off the road for unknown reasons in the northbound lane, before crashing directly into the guardrail and impaling the vehicle.

You can read the full message and photos from Los Banos CHP below, as were shared in a Facebook post on Monday afternoon.

This morning a Tesla model y was traveling in the #1 northbound lane of I-5 north of Panoche Rd. For unknown reasons driver allowed V-1 to veer off the roadway, travel through a dirt center divide, and crashed into the fixed metal guardrail. Lucky for the driver he only sustained minor injuries and was able to walk away. Driving a vehicle requires 100% attention to the road. Avoid distractions and focus on driving.

Credit: CHP Los Banos (via Facebook)

Credit: CHP Los Banos (via Facebook)

Credit: CHP Los Banos (via Facebook)

In a statement to SFGate, CHP officer Myles Anderson said that the driver only sustained minor injuries, while no arrests are made and drugs and alcohol are not suspected to have been involved. The report also notes that Tesla’s “cruise control and lane assistance features” were activated, according to Anderson. However, it’s not entirely clear if this is referring to Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD), or to the cruise control and lane assist features baked into Autopilot.

At the time of writing, CHP has not yet responded to Teslarati’s request for clarification and additional details on the matter.

READ MORE ON TESLA SAFETY: Tesla rolls out crucial new safety feature aimed at saving children

The news comes after Tesla has touted its vehicles as incredibly safe for many years. In December, for example, the company highlighted receiving top safety scores from regulators on four different continents throughout the world, including from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) in the U.S.

Tesla has also listed the goal of making its vehicles the safest on the road throughout the years, both in the overall design of its vehicles and in its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) programs.

Tesla Model 3 ranks as the safest new car in Europe for 2025, per Euro NCAP tests

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