

SpaceX
SpaceX hot-fires Crew Dragon’s Falcon 9 as separate rocket spied in Arizona
A SpaceX Falcon 9 booster has been spotted traveling eastbound through Wilcox, AZ, indicating a shipment from the company’s Hawthorne, CA rocket factory to its McGregor, TX facilities for hot-fire acceptance testing.
Captured by Reddit user codercotton on October 28th, this first stage (S1) is headed to Texas at the same time as SpaceX’s facilities appear to be wrapping up an extended test campaign with the Falcon 9 rocket stages that will launch an uncrewed Crew Dragon on the upgraded spacecraft’s first trip into orbit.
The team at our rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas completed a static fire test last night of the Falcon 9 booster that will launch SpaceX’s first demonstration mission for @NASA’s Commercial Crew Program – one step closer to flying astronauts to the @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/iDYNoamCvU
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 27, 2018
This duo of Falcon 9 appearances highlights an unusual few months of what is often called “core spotting” by close followers of SpaceX. Typically, SpaceX ships and hot-fire tests a Falcon 9 booster every month, give or take roughly two weeks. It’s clear, however, that the imminent start of Crew Dragon launches under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) has created some unique requirements with respect to both booster, upper stage, and individual engine testing in Texas.
For example, Falcon 9 B1051 – a new booster assigned to Crew Dragon’s first uncrewed demonstration launch (DM-1) – appears to have been testing in McGregor for the better part of three months, apparently including multiple hot-fire tests of the rocket. Prior to Commercial Crew, a nominal round of acceptance testing in McGregor would be expected to last between two and four weeks between arrival and departure. As such, spending three months or more in McGregor is very unusual, particularly for a brand-new booster like B1051.
B1051’s extended period of testing can likely be traced back to two main factors. At a more technical level, B1051 could be the first Falcon 9 Block 5 booster to have SpaceX’s upgraded COPVs (carbon-overwrapped pressure vessels) – bottles designed to hold helium and nitrogen at pressures around 5000 psi (35 MPa) – fully integrated on both the first and second stages. Perhaps not a major technical hurdle for SpaceX, this milestone is undoubtedly one of NASA’s most myopic and obsessive mountains-out-of-molehills in terms of the intense ‘certification’ burdens dumped on SpaceX over the course of CCP. SpaceX has apparently spent at least 1.5 years systematically designing, testing to destruction, and redesigning an in-house COPV, to the extent that CEO Elon Musk described the updated design as “by far the most advanced pressure vessel ever developed by humanity … It’s nuts.”
- In mid-September, CEO Elon Musk presented an update to BFR in front of Falcon 9 B1054 and at least three other visible boosters. (Eric Ralph)
- SpaceX’s NASA astronauts pose in front of the main Falcon assembly line, September 2018. (SpaceX)
- An October 2018 NASA video included this brief glimpse of SpaceX’s assembly line. (SpaceX)
- Falcon 9 shows off some of its COPVs in a tour of SpaceX’s Hawthorne factory. (SpaceX)
Juggling Falcon 9 tests
Despite the extreme lengths of testing apparently required for the Falcon 9s that will launch Crew Dragon, it can be concluded with some certainty that SpaceX has still managed to fit in normal tests of a number of non-Crew boosters, upper stages, and Merlins. According to the above SpaceX tweet, B1051 is clearly still in Texas and is unlikely to leave for Florida until November (several days are needed to prepare a booster for transport). However, a different booster was spotted heading from California to Texas just this morning.
Further, Falcon 9 booster B1054 – nearly complete and stationed in front of the only real exit route – was spotted in SpaceX’s Hawthorne factory in mid-September, while an unknown first stage was caught departing the factory for Texas roughly two weeks later. Finally, at the same time as the mystery booster was being trucked to Texas, an even more mysterious Falcon 9 – visibly sooty and thus flight-proven – was spotted inside one of SpaceX Hawthorne’s separate refurbishment hangars, with at least three Merlins removed from its octaweb. Perhaps this is somehow related to the Falcon 9 booster (missing four of nine Merlins) headed East on October 28th.
Finally, according to a member of the /r/SpaceX subreddit, a separate Falcon 9 booster apparently arrived at SpaceX’s Vandenberg, CA launch facilities on October 26th, perhaps Falcon 9 B1046.3 preparing to launch for the third time for Spaceflight’s SSO-A rideshare mission, NET November 19.
https://twitter.com/_TomCross_/status/1048483536917823488
As with most things SpaceX, definitive answers are exceedingly rare when it comes to day-to-day operations like Falcon 9 transportation and even official confirmation of the particular boosters involved with any given launch. Understandably, these more esoteric details are probably treated as “need-to-know” only, and while I and many others would love to know, we certainly don’t *need* to know.
For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!
Elon Musk
Elon Musk: Self-sustaining city on Mars is plausible in 25-30 years
Musk noted that true self-sufficiency requires Mars to develop “all the ingredients of civilization.”

Elon Musk has stated that a self-sustaining human settlement on Mars could be established in 25-30 years, provided launch capacity increases dramatically in the coming decades.
Speaking at the All-In Summit, the SpaceX CEO said building a self-sufficient colony depends on exponential growth in “tonnage to Mars” with each launch window, highlighting Starship’s role as the company’s pathway to interplanetary initiatives.
Mars settlement goals
Musk noted that true self-sufficiency requires Mars to develop “all the ingredients of civilization,” from food production to microchip manufacturing. Starship Version 3 is expected to support the first uncrewed Mars test flights, while future iterations could reach 466 feet in height and deliver larger payloads critical for settlement. Ultimately, Musk stated that an aggressive timeline for a city on Mars could be as short as 30 years, as noted in a Space.com report.
“I think it can be done in 30 years, provided there’s an exponential increase in the tonnage to Mars with each successive Mars transfer window, which is every two years. Every two years, the planets align and you can transfer to Mars.
“I think in roughly 15, but maybe as few as 10, but 10-15-ish Mars transfer windows. If you’re seeing exponential increases in the tonnage to Mars with each Mars transfer window, then it should be possible to make Mars self-sustaining in about call it roughly 25 years,” Musk said.
Starship’s role
Starship has flown in a fully stacked configuration ten times, most recently in August when it completed its first payload deployment in orbit. The next flight will close out the Version 2 program before transitioning to Starship Version 3, featuring Raptor 3 engines and a redesigned structure capable of lifting over 100 tons to orbit.
While SpaceX has demonstrated Super Heavy booster reuse, Ship reusability remains in development. Musk noted that the heat shield is still the biggest technical hurdle, as no orbital vehicle has yet achieved rapid, full reuse.
“For full reusability of the Ship, there’s still a lot of work that remains on the heat shield. No one’s ever made a fully reusable orbital heat shield. The shuttle heat shield had to go through nine months of repair after every flight,” he said.
News
SpaceX is partnering with chipmakers to enable Starlink satellite-to-cell service
President Gwynne Shotwell outlined the effort during a space industry conference in Paris.

SpaceX is working with microchip manufacturers to integrate satellite-connectivity hardware into smartphones, advancing its plan for direct-to-device services through Starlink.
The move follows the company’s $17 billion acquisition of wireless spectrum from EchoStar Corp., a deal that positions SpaceX to operate more independently of traditional telecom carriers.
President Gwynne Shotwell outlined the effort during a space industry conference in Paris this week, as noted in a Bloomberg News report.
Starlink direct-to-device
Starlink currently serves millions of customers in over 100 countries, primarily through ground-based dishes. The company, however, is now expanding into satellite-to-cell service, which should enable unmodified phones to connect directly with orbiting satellites. While SpaceX has a partnership with T-Mobile US, the EchoStar spectrum purchase gives it more control to negotiate with global carriers on its own terms.
“We’re working with chip manufacturers to get the proper chips in phones,” the SpaceX President stated. “We will now be initiating discussions with telcos in a different way now. Now it’s our spectrum, but we want to work with them, almost providing capacity and wholesaling capacity to their customers.”
The company plans to launch satellites capable of supporting its direct-to-device business within two years, with early mobile phone testing expected by late 2026.
Starship program continues test flights
Shotwell also addressed SpaceX’s Starship program, which recently completed its 10th test flight in August. She said the mission met all objectives, providing a critical morale boost to teams after a challenging development year.
“My Starship team needed that win,” Shotwell noted. “Development programs always are kind of a 24/7 operation, and I was really pleased for them.”
SpaceX is planning to fly one more iteration of the current Starship prototype, known as V2, before transitioning to the next-generation V3 vehicle. That version, expected to debut late this year or early 2026, is designed to be more capable and support eventual crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.
“The V3, which we want to fly hopefully late this year, but maybe early next year, is really the vehicle that could take humans to the moon and Mars,” Shotwell stated.
News
U.S. Judge dismisses lawsuit against SpaceX Starship Boca Chica launch site
The ruling found that the FAA had met its obligations in reviewing the potential environmental effects of Starship launches.

A U.S. district court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by conservation groups challenging the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval of SpaceX’s expanded rocket launch operations in Boca Chica, Texas.
The ruling, issued Monday, found that the FAA had met its obligations in reviewing the potential environmental effects of Starship launches.
FAA review withstands legal challenge
The lawsuit centered on whether the FAA properly assessed the impact of SpaceX’s operations on endangered wildlife, including ocelots, jaguarundis, and Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, as noted in a report from The Guardian. The plaintiffs argued that noise, light pollution, and construction activity degraded the surrounding habitat, which also serves as nesting grounds for threatened shorebirds.
The lawsuit cited SpaceX’s April 2023 Starship test, which destroyed its launchpad and scattered debris across a large area. The blast reportedly ignited a grassfire and damaged wildlife habitats, including a bobwhite quail nest.
Judge Carl Nichols, for his part, ruled that the FAA had satisfied its obligation“to take a hard look at the effects of light on nearby wildlife.” The decision effectively cleared a regulatory hurdle for SpaceX, which has been working to expand Starship launch activity at its Boca Chica facility.
A continued ramp
SpaceX continues to scale its operations nationwide. Beyond Starship, the company is also seeking approval to nearly double Falcon rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, from 50 annually to 95.
Former President Trump has also shared his intention to increase U.S. launch capacity, setting a target for substantial growth by 2030. Considering that SpaceX is by far the world’s dominant launch provider, Trump’s support for more launches will likely benefit the private space company.
For now, at least, the ruling should allow continued expansion at a time when Starship remains central to long-term goals such as Mars missions and NASA’s Artemis program.
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla launches new Supercharger program that business owners will love
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
Tesla Board takes firm stance on Elon Musk’s political involvement in pay package proxy
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla deploys Unsupervised FSD in Europe for the first time—with a twist
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla explains why Robotaxis now have safety monitors in the driver’s seat
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla is already giving Robotaxi privileges hours after opening public app
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
Elon Musk says Tesla will take Safety Drivers out of Robotaxi: here’s when
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
Elon Musk is setting high expectations for Tesla AI5 and AI6 chips
-
News1 week ago
Tesla is improving this critical feature in older vehicles