SpaceX
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket are almost ready for astronauts
In a Commercial Crew update presented by Program Manager Kathy Lueders to the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), the agency has confirmed that SpaceX is deep into the final stages of hardware preparation and testing ahead of their first uncrewed and crewed demonstrations launches of Crew Dragon.
Barring a miracle for Commercial Crew Program partner Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft program or serious faults leading up to SpaceX’s own debuts, SpaceX is all but guaranteed to become the first private company in history to design, build, and launch a spacecraft into Earth orbit with real astronauts onboard.
PICTURE OF B1051!!! It will ship to the Cape from McGregor soon.
Solar panel array on the trunk for the DM-1 capsule will take place in Hawthorne. pic.twitter.com/K82GANn5zr
— Michael Baylor (@MichaelBaylor_) August 27, 2018
SpaceX’s DM-1 Crew Dragon (serial number C201; “C” for capsule, “2” for Dragon 2, and “01” for capsule #1) capsule is already in Florida at one of the company’s spacecraft processing facilities, while that vehicle’s trunk segment – a module mounted below the capsule responsible for providing power (solar arrays), thermal regulation (radiator panels), and external cargo lift capacity – is scheduled to ship from Hawthorne, CA to Florida by the end of September. Demonstration Mission-1 (DM-1) is currently targeting a launch debut no earlier than November 2018.
DM-1’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle, booster B1051 and an expendable second stage, are also making significant progress towards the Crew Dragon’s uncrewed debut launch. NASA’s report noted that B1051 was on track for shipment (presumably to the Cape) sometime in the fall (technically anytime after August 31st) and that the upper stage would likely find its way to Florida soon after, sometime in September. Due to the fact that Merlin Vacuum engine qualification has not yet been completed, that milestone is likely the only thing standing between S2 shipment to FL, as SpaceX typically builds and tests both Falcon 9 segments near-simultaneously.
- One of the aforementioned balloon-drop parachute tests. (SpaceX)
- The DM-1 Crew Dragon capsule soon after completion. (SpaceX)
- DM-1 seen conducting acoustic testing in Ohio. (SpaceX)
- Falcon 9 B1051, DM-1’s rocket of choice, seen during construction in SpaceX’s Hawthorne factory. (SpaceX)
- B1051’s octaweb, the structure that Merlin engines attach to and thrust against. (SpaceX)
- The DM-2 Crew Dragon’s trunk module seen during production. (SpaceX)
- Crew Dragon astronauts test the capsule’s display controls. (SpaceX)
- SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule C203 – then assigned DM-2 – is seen here in August 2018. (Pauline Acalin)
Meanwhile, SpaceX has successfully completed a duo of unique and critical tests of Crew Dragon’s parachute systems, carrying a Crew Dragon mass simulator (i.e. boilerplate) up to 45,000 feet (13,700 m) under a huge balloon before dropping the mockup, a test series designed to prove out the ability of the parachute system to successfully deploy and function in the exact flight regimes the real hardware will experience while safely returning astronauts to Earth. As NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders herself noted, that type of testing is extremely difficult to pull off, but SpaceX has thus far completed two.
On the launch pad side of things, SpaceX will be exclusively conducting Crew Dragon missions from Pad 39A. The company completed installation of a strikingly modern-looking crew access arm (CAA) just days ago, marking a crucial milestone for the historic launch complex to be truly ready to support human spaceflight once more, a heritage represented physically by the tower the arm is installed on (Shuttle-era) and the pad’s foundation and thrust diverter (constructed to support Saturn V’s Apollo moon missions).
That’s right provided the two Crew Dragon test flights go well. Hardware will def be ready. https://t.co/KcAFArYn1x
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2018
Further down the road, SpaceX has already entered into the late stages of hardware integration and preparation for the second Crew Dragon demonstration mission (DM-2), which will almost without a doubt see SpaceX become the first private entity in history to build, launch, and operate a crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit.
According to NASA’s SpaceX-derived schedule, that particularly historic spacecraft is expected to be ready for launch as early as January, a full three months prior to its current April 2018 launch date. CEO Elon Musk did note recently on Twitter that the hardware for both crewed and uncrewed demonstration missions would “def[initely] be ready” for the launch dates of November 2018 and April 2019.
Catch all the technical SpaceX-related slides below.
- August 27, 2018. (NASA)
- August 27, 2018. (NASA)
- August 27, 2018. (NASA)
- August 27, 2018. (NASA)
- August 27, 2018. (NASA)
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Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s Texas ranch to showcase the lifelong work that changed the world
Elon Musk is building a product gallery at his Texas ranch spanning his lifelong inventions.
Elon Musk took to X earlier today, noting “Am putting together a product gallery at my ranch in Texas.” in response to a resurfaced famous quote from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s wherein he draw parallels of the Tesla CEO to legendary physicist Albert Einstein.
Dimon made the remark at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland back in January 2025, telling CNBC at the time, “SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, I mean, the guy is our Einstein.” The remark seemingly ended a long-time feud between the two high profile execs.
While details are thin about the exact location of Elon Musk’s Texas ranch and any pending projects that would serve as a gallery and homage to his portfolio of revolutionary product inventions spanning from 1984 to 2025, land acquisition records point to roughly a location of several thousand acres in Bastrop County, east of Austin near the Colorado River and held through an LLC called Horse Ranch LLC that’s managed by Musk’s longtime personal friend and family wealth manager Jared Birchall. Birchall also serves as the CEO of Neuralink.
Tesla’s “ecological paradise” in Giga Texas may be larger than expected
The broader Bastrop County footprint surrounding the ranch has grown significantly. Entities tied to Musk have accumulated approximately 2,000 acres in Bastrop County as of mid-2026, up from 700 acres earlier in the year, with possibly as much as 6,000 acres acquired in total across Bastrop and Travis counties based on deed records.
No completion date for the gallery has been announced and Musk has not confirmed whether it will be open to the public. As Teslarati has reported, SpaceX just completed the largest IPO in history raising $75 billion, a milestone that makes this particular moment in Musk’s career a natural inflection point for looking back at what he has built through the years.
Am putting together a product gallery at my ranch in Texas https://t.co/xQf5FRy4uz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2026
Starting with Blastar, a simple space shooter game Musk coded at 12 years old and sold to a South African magazine for $500. From there the timeline moves through a commercial career that started with Zip2 in 1995, a city guide software company sold to Compaq for roughly $300 million in 1999. That was followed by X.com in 1999, which merged with Confinity to become PayPal, acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. SpaceX came in 2002, Tesla in 2003, SolarCity in 2006, the Supercharger network in 2012, Neuralink in 2016, The Boring Company in 2016, OpenAI co-founded in 2015, X acquired in 2022, xAI in 2023, Optimus in 2024, the Cybercab in 2026, and most recently SpaceXAI following the SpaceX and xAI merger. The gallery will also likely include items that blur the line between product and cultural artifact, among them The Boring Company’s Not-a-Flamethrower from 2018, Tesla Short Shorts from 2020, and Burnt Hair perfume released under X in 2022.
News
SpaceX unveils Starlink next-gen V5 kit: here’s what’s new
SpaceX’s Starlink has launched its latest residential hardware kit: the V5. Designed for reliable high-speed internet, the new terminal represents a significant leap forward in user equipment.
The next generation Starlink Kit is designed to deliver reliable, high-speed home internet. Starlink V5 has a smaller form factor and lightweight design with greater power efficiency than the Starlink V4.
With speeds up to 375+ Mbps, Starlink V5 delivers seamless connectivity… pic.twitter.com/0dorU6n0oD
— Starlink (@Starlink) July 14, 2026
The new V5 Starlink kit features a dramatically smaller and lighter form factor, measuring approximately 384 mm x 306 mm x 34 mm and weighing just 1.1 kg, which is less than half the weight of the previous V4 model, which was 2.9 kg.
This compact design makes installation easier and more versatile, whether mounted on a roof, pole, or even integrated with a pipe adapter. An integrated LED light aids setup in low-light conditions.
Power efficiency sees major gains too. The V5 draws only 35-50W, reducing energy consumption and making it ideal for off-grid or solar-powered setups. Despite its smaller size, performance remains robust. Starlink claims peak speeds of 375+ Mbps, supported by a new Wi-Fi 6 Router Mini that covers up to 2,200 square feet and connects up to 235 devices simultaneously.
The kit maintains strong signal reliability in diverse environments, from urban rooftops to remote rural areas, as demonstrated in the promo footage released by SpaceX, showing seamless operation under cloudy skies.
These improvements expand suitable applications considerably. Households can enjoy lag-free 4K streaming, smooth video conferencing, online gaming, and smart home device management without interruption. The V5’s efficiency and portability also benefit RVs, small businesses, and temporary installations in disaster-recovery zones where quick deployment is critical. Its lightweight build lowers shipping costs and simplifies user handling compared to bulkier predecessors.
Starlink’s Broader Impact on Global Internet Connectivity
Since SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019, the constellation has grown rapidly. By mid-2026, over 10,400 satellites orbit Earth, with thousands more deployed annually. This massive low-Earth-orbit network delivers broadband to approximately 160 countries and territories, reaching millions of users who previously lacked reliable internet access.
Starlink plays a vital role in bridging the digital divide. It provides essential connectivity to remote communities, maritime vessels, airlines, and regions affected by natural disasters or infrastructure gaps. By combining advanced satellite technology with iterative hardware upgrades like the V5 kit, SpaceX continues to push the boundaries of global internet access, fostering education, economic opportunity, and emergency response capabilities worldwide.
As production ramps up, the V5 promises to make high-performance internet even more accessible to users everywhere.













