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Elon Musk crowns WARR Hyperloop with 3rd consecutive win after record-breaking 290 mph run
WARR Hyperloop, a team of students from the Technical University of Munich, has been dubbed as the overall winner of the 2018 Hyperloop Pod Competition. During its winning runs, Team WARR’s sleek, aerodynamic pod was able to propel itself to speeds of 290 mph, breaking the record set last December by Virgin Hyperloop One’s pod, which hit the 240 mph mark.
As noted by SpaceX on the event’s official page, the competition for 2018 would be focused on a single criterion — maximum speed. This year’s competition only had a couple of requirements for the teams participating in the event. The Hyperloop Pods must be self-propelled, and they have to be fast. Very, very fast.
https://twitter.com/WARR_Hyperloop/status/1021256781106835457
Achieving top speed in SpaceX’s Hyperloop test track on its headquarters in Hawthorne, CA, is a challenge in itself. The test track, after all, is only 0.8 miles long, which requires the self-propelled pods to accelerate hard immediately from a standstill. In a press release last month, Team WARR stated that they are hoping to achieve 372 mph (600 kph) in this year’s competition. The team’s pod ultimately did not hit 372 mph, but its 290 mph run was enough to crown it the winner of this year’s Hyperloop event.
Elon Musk was in attendance at the 2018 Hyperloop Pod Competition. For their feat, Team WARR received a special token from the Tesla and SpaceX CEO — a signed, metallic model of Musk’s original Hyperloop pod design. With this win, WARR Hyperloop has managed to establish itself as the team to beat in SpaceX’s competition. The team of students from Munich, after all, has garnered the fastest pod award for three consecutive events.
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- A token for the winning team, from Elon Musk. [Credit: WARR Hyperloop]
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- WARR Hyperloop’s pod inside SpaceX’s test track. [Credit: WARR Hyperloop]
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- WARR Hyperloop’s pod. [Credit: WARR Hyperloop]
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- Team WARR celebrates after winning the 2018 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. [Credit: WARR Hyperloop]
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- Elon Musk congratulates Team WARR for winning the 2018 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. [Credit: WARR Hyperloop]
WARR Hyperloop wins the 2018 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. [Credit: WARR Hyperloop/Flickr]
The three finalists for the 2018 Hyperloop Pod Competition were formidable teams. Apart from Team WARR, Team Delft from the Netherlands, which won the overall best pod award in SpaceX’s first Hyperloop competition, was also present. EPF Loop from Switzerland was also a finalist. When it came to the actual top speed attempts, Delft Hyperloop and EPF Loop were faced with misfortune.
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Team Delft’s Hyperloop pod, for one, was only able to attain a top speed of 88 mph before stalling. The pod, which was the latest iteration of its winning design during the first Hyperloop Competition, was already showing problems in the week leading up to the event, including a fried circuit board not long before the competition. EPF Loop, on the other hand, was also met with complications that ultimately caused its pod to accelerate to speeds of only 55 mph.
Ultimately, WARR Hyperloop’s victory could very well be due to the engineering that went to the team’s pod itself. As noted by WARR Hyperloop in a press release, this year’s pod has been upgraded from a 50 kW electric motor to a system employing eight smaller electric motors with a total output of 240 kW or 320 hp. The pod is also smaller than its predecessor and is more aerodynamic in shape, allowing it to accelerate and stop without any problems.
Watch WARR Hyperloop’s teaser for its pod in the video below.
Elon Musk shed two new bits of detail on Starship following its 13th test launch, which was an overwhelming success.
SpaceX launched Starship for the 13th time last Friday after two delays: one on Monday when several Raptor engines did not ignite, and another on Thursday due to unfavorable weather conditions in Starbase, Texas.
The launch was overwhelmingly successful. SpaceX was able to complete a necessary test of the heat shield tiles by increasing the acceleration of Starship from launch throughout the flight; 20 Starlink v3 satellites were released with no issue; the Super Heavy Booster landed safely in the Gulf of America, Ship successfully reignited engines while in space; and it also splashed down without incident in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
Nevertheless, more details are coming out about Starship, and Musk is doing the talking.
Starship Will Be Retrieved in the Ocean
Musk revealed on Tuesday night that Starship would be recovered by a ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX routinely tries to recover Starship after splashdown in an effort to find out more about the flight by examining the spacecraft afterward.
We’re sending a ship out to recover Starship https://t.co/fUqUZTITO9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2026
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This helps engineers find out more about why things might have happened, allows them to examine any potential damage or anomalies that might have occurred, and increases the chances of an even more successful flight next time thanks to the additional information recovered.
Ship Could Have Been Caught by Tower Arms, Musk claims
Musk has already indicated that SpaceX will plan to attempt a catch of Starship with the 14th test flight. While this would be a major accomplishment, it would be an expected next step, considering the fact that the Super Heavy Booster has already been caught by the chopsticks on numerous occasions.
The ship landing was precise, meaning that it would have been caught by the tower arms https://t.co/6nbNrRfX9P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
A ship catch would be a great indication of where SpaceX stands in terms of reusability and launch cadence. A successful catch with relatively no incidents would be a good sign that SpaceX is nearing a more frequent launch of Starship, but also that the reusability of the massive rocket would be something many would expect in the near future.
It is a necessity to make life multiplanetary.
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Elon Musk has updated his timeline for when humans will walk on Mars and for when ships will simply get there.
The objective of getting to Mars has been one of Musk’s biggest goals since becoming a serial entrepreneur and realizing that time on Earth is limited. Musk has said several times he hopes to die on Mars, and not by impact.
Musk now believes that people will be on Mars in “roughly 5 to 7 years.” He said that a Mars lander will get there “a few years sooner.”
People on Mars in roughly 5 to 7 years.
Mars lander a few years sooner.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
The response from Musk comes after NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that SpaceX’s biggest priority is the Moon and not Mars. Because of this, Isaacman conceded that he believes nuclear power and propulsion investments will provide “potentially the pathway with the fewest miracles required to put four people on Mars in the next 10 to 15 years.”
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Of course, this is what NASA can do through taxpayer funding and nuclear investments, he added.
Musk’s grand ambitions are much more optimistic than most, and it is certainly a double-edged sword. This is not the first time timelines for Mars have been somewhat lofty, especially to those normal thinkers like you and me, not super geniuses like Musk.
In fact, the SpaceX and Tesla frontman has said on at least a dozen occasions that we could be on Mars in the coming years. Musk said 2020 would be the big year as early as 2009. In 2020, he was “highly confident” of a landing in 2026, and had even said 2024 in a best-case scenario.
The point is, the range has varied, and it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll get there. This latest adjustment to the timeline is typical of Musk, and while the Moon has seemingly taken priority over Mars, it is still worth mentioning that the ultimate goal is to make life multiplanetary, and it starts potentially with the Red Planet.
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) got an absolutely crazy price target rating from Raymond James after the company experienced a tough first few weeks following its Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Despite the tumultuous start, SpaceX has plenty of believers, and the company’s massively successful Starship launch last Friday, its 13th test flight of the massive rocket, went so smoothly that Raymond James analysts pushed its price target on the company to roughly 7 times its current trading level.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
The firm officially put a “Strong Buy” rating and an $800 price target on the stock. It currently trades at around $113. Its all-time high is $225.64, reaching this trading level shortly after shares first went public.
Raymond James’ price target is tied to the firm’s confidence after Starship’s 13th test flight. Analysts at the firm said it was an incremental step that reduces engineering risks, citing the widely successful heat shield test that CEO Elon Musk recently detailed, the smooth deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, and a successful in-space engine relight.
SpaceX also managed to see Starship splash down safely in the Indian Ocean, while the Super Heavy Booster fell down to the Gulf of America with no incidents.
It is interesting to see these launches have such a tremendous impact on the stock and what investors think of it. After SpaceX initially delayed the Starship launch last week, shares fell tremendously. Most probably did not realize that the stand-down is a standard practice, especially if everything is not perfect.
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The mission was initially aborted due to an issue with Raptor engines. This was resolved, and Starship launched last Friday after another delay on Thursday, which was caused by weather.
Now that analysts have seen what SpaceX launches are capable of and how impressive the feat is, firms are adjusting their price targets accordingly, making it known that they have high expectations for the space exploration company.
Elon Musk sheds two new bits of detail on Starship after 13th test launch
Elon Musk updates the SpaceX timeline for Mars
