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SpaceX hot-fires Crew Dragon’s Falcon 9 as separate rocket spied in Arizona

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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.

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.

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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.”

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.

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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!

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

SpaceX’s next project will produce Starships at a level that sounds impossible

1,000 rockets per year is an insane number, especially considering Starship’s sheer size.

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Credit: SpaceX

Elon Musk has revealed bold plans for SpaceX’s newest Starbase facility in Texas, predicting it will become a birthplace for “so many spaceships.” The upcoming “Gigabay,” a massive $250 million production hub in Starbase, Texas, is designed to manufacture up to 1,000 Starship rockets per year.

That’s an insane number of rockets for a single facility, especially considering Starship’s sheer size. 

One of the world’s largest industrial structures

SpaceX’s Gigabay is expected to stand roughly 380 feet tall and enclose 46.5 million cubic feet of interior space, making it one of the largest industrial structures to date. The facility will feature 24 dedicated work cells for assembling and refurbishing Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, complete with heavy-duty cranes capable of lifting up to 400 U.S. tons, as noted in a Times of India report.

Construction crews have already placed four tower cranes on-site, with completion targeted for December 2026. Once operational, the Gigabay is expected to boost SpaceX’s launch cadence dramatically, as it would be able to build up to 1,000 reusable Starships per year, as noted in a report from the Dallas Express. Musk stated that the Gigabay will be “one of the biggest structures in the world” and hinted that it represents a major leap in Starbase’s evolution from test site to full-scale production hub.

A key step toward Mars and beyond

Starship is SpaceX’s heavy-lift rocket system, and it remains a key part of Elon Musk’s vision of a multiplanetary future. The vehicle can carry 100–150 tonnes to low Earth orbit and up to 250 tonnes in expendable mode. With several successful flights to date, including a perfect 11th test flight, the Starship program continues to refine its reusable launch system ahead of crewed lunar missions under NASA’s Artemis initiative.

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Starship is unlike any other spacecraft that has been produced in the past. As per Elon Musk, Starship is a “planet-colonizer” class rocket, as the magnitude of such a task “makes other space transport task trivial.” Considering Starship’s capabilities, it could indeed become the spacecraft that makes a Moon or Mars base feasible. 

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Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck fleet takes over at SpaceX’s Starbase

Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.

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Credit: @derek1ee | X

Tesla Cybertrucks have taken over at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, as hundreds of the all-electric pickup trucks were spotted late last week rounding out a massive fleet of vehicles.

The Cybertruck fleet is geared toward replacing gas vehicles that are used at Starbase for everyday operations. The only surprise about this is that it was not done sooner:

Deliveries have been going on for a few weeks, as Cybertrucks have made their way across the state of Texas from Austin to Starbase so they could be included in SpaceX’s fleet of vehicles at the facility.

Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.

However, there are some other perspectives to consider as SpaceX is utilizing such a massive fleet of Cybertrucks. Some media outlets (unsurprisingly) are seeing this as a move of weakness by both Tesla and SpaceX, as the aerospace company is, in a sense, “bailing out” lagging sales for the all-electric pickup.

It’s no secret that Tesla has struggled with the Cybertruck this year, and deliveries have been underwhelming in the sense that the company was anticipating between 1 million and 2 million orders for the vehicle before it was widely produced.

A lot of things changed with the Cybertruck between its 2019 unveiling and 2023 initial deliveries, most notably, price.

The price of the Cybertruck swelled significantly and priced out many of those who had pre-ordered it. Some have weighed the option of whether this purchase was a way to get rid of sitting inventory.

However, it seems more logical to consider the fact that SpaceX was likely always going to transition to Teslas for its fleet, especially at Starship, at some point.

It doesn’t seem out of the question that one Musk company would utilize another Musk company’s products, especially considering the Cybertruck has been teased as the vehicle that would be present on Mars.

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News

SpaceX successfully launches 100th Starlink mission of 2025

With 100 Starlink missions completed for 2025, space enthusiasts have noted that SpaceX has successfully launched 2,554 Starlink satellites so far this year.

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(Credit: Starlink)

SpaceX achieved its 100th Starlink mission of the year on Friday, October 31, marking another milestone for 2025. 

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink broadband satellites successfully lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:41 p.m. ET, carrying another 28 Starlink satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Falcon 9 booster’s 29th flight

Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage touched down on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. This marked the booster’s 29th flight, which is approaching SpaceX’s reuse record of 31 missions.

This latest mission adds to SpaceX’s impressive 138 Falcon 9 launches in 2025, 99 of which were dedicated to Starlink, according to Space.com. The company’s focus on reusing boosters has enabled this breakneck pace, with multiple launches each week supporting both Starlink’s expansion and external customers.

Starlink’s network continues massive global expansion

Starlink remains the largest active satellite constellation in history, with more than 10,000 satellites launched, nearly 8,800 of which are currently active. SpaceX recently achieved Starlink’s 10,000-satellite milestone. With 100 Starlink missions completed for 2025, space enthusiasts have noted that SpaceX has successfully launched 2,554 Starlink satellites so far this year.

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Starlink, which provides high-speed, low-latency internet connectivity even to the world’s most remote areas, has been proven to be life-changing technology for people across the globe. The service is currently operational in about 150 countries, and it currently has over 5 million subscribers worldwide. From this number, 2.7 million joined over the past year.

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