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SpaceX may have signed a fairing agreement with ULA supplier RUAG (Update: no agreement)
According to unverified and speculative comments reportedly made to a member of the space industry by a RUAG spokesperson, the prominent aerospace supplier may have reached an agreement with SpaceX to manufacture a handful of larger payload fairings for future Falcon 9 and Heavy launches.
In the likely event that SpaceX is one of two contractors awarded a portion of several dozen US military launch contracts next year, the company will need to be able to cater to niche requirements, including accommodating unusually tall military satellites. Those satellites can be so tall that SpaceX’s own payload fairing – generally middle-of-the-pack relative to competitors’ offerings – may be too short, meaning that SpaceX will have to find ways around that minor shortcoming.
Update: Tim Chen has retracted his earlier comments and has stated that there is actually no agreement currently in place with SpaceX for RUAG to produce taller fairings out of its new Decatur, AL factory.
Additionally, ULA CEO Tory Bruno clarified that the company’s “[new fairing] has [ULA] intellectual property in its design and manufacture … [and] is currently planned only for use on Atlas and Vulcan”, meaning that any cooperation between SpaceX and RUAG would likely require a new production facility and a somewhat different fairing design.
“ULA’s new fairing, which is built in our factory in Decatur, has our intellectual property in its design and manufacture. This fairing is currently planned only for use on Atlas and Vulcan. You would want to ask RUAG about business they might have with their other customers.”
Tory Bruno, August 14th, 2019
Regardless of the veracity of these recent claims, it appears that SpaceX has three obvious responses at its disposal: design and build an entirely new variant of its universal Falcon fairing, purchase the necessary fairings from an established supplier, or bow out of launch contract competitions that demand it. The latter option is immediately untenable given that it could very well mean bowing out of the entire US military competition, known as Phase 2 of the National Security Space Launch program’s (NSSL; formerly EELV) Launch Services Procurement (LSP).
For dubious reasons, the US Air Force (USAF) has structured the NSSL Phase 2 acquisition in such a way that – despite there being four possible competitors – only two will be awarded contracts at its conclusion. The roughly ~30 launch contracts up for grabs would be split 60:40 between the two victors, leaving two competitors completely emptyhanded. In short, bowing out of the Phase 2 competition could mean forgoing as many as one or two-dozen contracts worth at least $1-2B, depending on the side of the 60:40 split.

According to a handful of recent comments and developments, SpaceX has likely sided with the option of procuring taller fairings from an industry supplier. As it turns out, European company RUAG has effectively cornered the Western rocket fairing market, with SpaceX being the only Western launch company currently building its own fairings. RUAG builds fairings for both Arianespace’s Ariane 5 and Vega rockets and ULA’s Atlas V. Additionally, RUAG will build and supply fairings for both companies’ next-gen rockets – Arianespace’s Ariane 6 and ULA’s Vulcan – and builds fairings for a number of smallsat launch companies.
Comments made in June by a RUAG official confirmed that there was some semblance of a relationship between SpaceX and RUAG for the purpose of satisfying USAF needs for taller fairings, although the phrasing suggested that the cooperation was in its early stages and nothing had been solidified.
“In a June 12 letter to Smith, the company’s CEO Peter Guggenbach makes the case that legislation forcing access to suppliers is unnecessary in this case because RUAG does not have an exclusive arrangement with ULA and is willing to work with SpaceX or any other launch providers.
“For this competition, we are in the process of submitting or have submitted proposals to multiple prime contractors regarding launch vehicle fairings. In those agreements, we share technical data to support a prime contractor’s bid while protecting our intellectual property.”
RUAG vice president Karl Jensen told SpaceNews the company has a “significant partnership” with ULA but is looking to work with others too. “We have an offer to SpaceX,” he said. “We don’t know if they’ll accept it.”
SpaceNews, 06/13/2019
Interestingly, although ULA’s RUAG-built Atlas V fairing is slightly narrower than SpaceX’s 5.2m (17 ft) diameter fairing, Atlas V’s largest fairing is significantly taller, supporting payloads up to 16.5m (54 ft) tall compared to 11m (36 ft) for Falcon 9 and Heavy. Given that just a tiny portion of military spacecraft actually need fairings that tall, SpaceX is apparently not interested in simply modifying its own fairing design and production equipment to support a 20-30% stretch.
This likely relates in part to the fact that one of SpaceX’s three NSSL Phase 2 competitors – Northrop Grumman (Omega), Blue Origin (New Glenn), and ULA (Vulcan) – are guaranteed to receive hundreds of millions of dollars of development funding after winning one of the two available slots (60% or 40% of contracts). SpaceX, on the other hand, will receive no such funding while still having to meet the same stringent USAF requirements compete in LSP Phase 2. Of note, Congressman Adam Smith managed to insert a clause into FY2020’s defense authorization bill that could disburse up to $500M to SpaceX in the event that the company is one of Phase 2’s two winners.
Despite this potential influx of infrastructure-focused funds, SpaceX may still be pursuing taller Falcon fairings from RUAG as a backup in the event that the company is not one of the two Phase 2 winners or is unable to use some of the $500M secured by Rep. Smith to develop its own stretched fairing.
On August 12th, SpaceX – along with Blue Origin, ULA, and NGIS – submitted bids for NSSL Phase 2 launch services, confirming that all four companies will indeed be in the running for contracts. The USAF is not expected to announce the results of this competition until Q2 2020.
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Tesla Full Self-Driving’s new version officially gets a wider rollout
So far, v14 has introduced a handful of new features and improvements, but the first versions needed refinement before Tesla made an effort to expand the population. It had issues with a brake stutter, but this has been mostly resolved.

Tesla’s newest Full Self-Driving version is officially rolling out wider to customers outside of the Early Access Program (EAP), in preparation for a total launch of the new v14 suite.
Over the past several weeks, Tesla has been working to refine its new v14 Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in an effort to have it ready for the entire fleet of vehicles in the United States. We are lucky enough to be in the EAP, so we’ve been able to test new features and rollouts first-hand.
So far, v14 has introduced a handful of new features and improvements, but the first versions needed refinement before Tesla made an effort to expand the population. It had issues with a brake stutter, but this has been mostly resolved.
Additionally, the rollout of the new Mad Max Speed Profile has gathered some attention.
🚨 Tesla “Mad Max” testing on FSD v14.1.2
It drives like a human being! Consistent lane changes, keeps up with quicker traffic, very refined
Well done Tesla Team pic.twitter.com/wzTucDhczA
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 19, 2025
Now that Tesla has started rolling out v14.1.3 yesterday to EAP members, the company ultimately decided that it was time to expand the software to more vehicles, as many owners are reporting that they’re receiving it:
We are SOOOO BACK!
v14.1.3 installing on my 2024 Model 3!@WholeMarsBlog pic.twitter.com/uNHOc9fyV8— Joseph (@ScarantinoX) October 20, 2025
Additionally, the suite has started to expand to Model S and Model X vehicles, so this rollout is not exclusive to Model 3 and Model Y:
I did over an hour of driving with FSD v14.1.3 in my Model S tonight and experienced 0 disengagements. First impressions video uploading shortly… pic.twitter.com/aFfmBphAsC
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 21, 2025
The only issue with this rollout is that it still appears to be missing the Cybertruck, which Tesla was transparent about earlier this month. Although the company planned to release v14 to Cybertrucks by the end of the month, there has been no hint that this is going to happen.
This is already the third iteration of v14 in the past two weeks, indicating that Tesla is truly addressing the shortcomings of past versions and rolling out updates as quickly as possible.
News
Tesla makes crazy move to spur short-term demand in the U.S.

Tesla has made a crazy move with its leasing terms in the United States to spur demand in the short term, as Q4 is moving along quickly.
The move is one that is pretty crazy in terms of the lease price, as one of the deals shows a drop of nearly one-quarter of the previous pricing. These deals are obviously being started to really drive demand over the next week and a half.
Tesla has offered new leasing terms on the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck, cutting lease prices by 23 percent for the Model 3, 15 percent for the Model Y, and 7 percent for the Cybertruck.
New prices on these leases are as follows:
- Tesla Model 3: $329/mo, down from $429 — 23 percent discount
- Tesla Model Y: $449/mo, down from $529 — 15 percent discount
- Tesla Cybertruck: $699/mo, down from $749 — 7 percent discount
The lease terms are $3,000 down, a 36-month lease term, and 10,000 miles per year. Tesla is also showing $0 down lease prices automatically on its website.
For the Model 3, these same terms with $0 down would be $419. The Model Y with $0 down would be $543 a month, and the Cybertruck would be $851 a month.
These terms are also for the entry-level configurations of each vehicle, so for the Model 3, it’s the Model 3 Standard. The Model Y price is for the Model Y Standard, and the Cybertruck is the All-Wheel-Drive.
Tesla launches two new affordable models with ‘Standard’ Model 3, Y offerings
Tesla shows on their website that these lease deals are incredibly short-term and will adjust accordingly on November 1.
Why Tesla is launching these deals for ten days is not necessarily known, but it seems as if the company might be testing demand, as lease deals for the latter half of Q4 could be in the works.
Tesla traditionally launches some pretty tasty deals at the end of each quarter, but this move is somewhat interesting simply because it is not even remotely long-term.
It will be a good test to see if people are more incentivized to wait for these deals now that the $7,500 tax credit has been removed.
News
Tesla Sweden faced with fresh strike from elevator company
Telecom and elevator service providers are the latest to join the widening labor blockade against the EV maker.

Tesla’s operations in Sweden are facing fresh pressure as multiple unions intensify their long-running dispute against the electric vehicle maker. Industrial groups IF Metall and Seko have announced new blockades affecting elevator maintenance and telecom services, escalating their ongoing conflict with Tesla Sweden.
Work stoppages expand to elevator maintenance
Starting October 29, elevator manufacturer Cibes Kalea Sverige will halt all service and maintenance work at Tesla’s facilities under a full blockade ordered by IF Metall. The union’s move targets elevator service visits, which are typically required four times a year in Sweden. Cibes Kalea employs around 70 workers across six sites in Sweden and provides both passenger and freight elevator systems to clients, including Tesla, as noted in a report from Dagens Arbete.
The industrial action follows months of escalating measures from IF Metall, which has aimed to pressure Tesla into signing a collective bargaining agreement. Since early September, the union has initiated several blockades across Tesla’s Swedish network, including work stoppages involving suppliers like Holtab and Linde Material Handling.
This was despite Sweden’s Mediation Institute throwing in the towel at the unions and Tesla’s conflict. “We have tried in every possible way to get the parties to come closer to each other in a way that allows this conflict to end. But now we have come to the end of the road and have realized that it is just as good to end the case,” Director General Irene Wennemo said.
Telecom workers join expanding blockade
In a separate escalation, Seko, another major Swedish union, announced a strike targeting Tesla’s telecommunications infrastructure. “We are now putting a notice on the telecom area and this means that when it comes to networks, fiber or telephony, for example, we will not help where Tesla needs either service, maintenance or new installation of these parts,” Seko chair Gabriella Lavecchia told Sveriges Radio.
Seko has already initiated blockades against Tesla’s postal service and charging stations. The union expects the telecom blockade to have even broader effects given Tesla’s reliance on connectivity for its charging and digital services. “There aren’t many companies in Sweden today that don’t need telephony, fiber, networks, and I would guess that Tesla needs it more than many others,” Lavecchia said.
With 12 strike notices issued in just a few weeks, the conflict shows no signs of easing as unions continue to coordinate pressure through multiple sectors.
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