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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon abort test gets closer to launch with SuperDraco static fires

A pair of Crew Dragon's upgraded SuperDraco abort engines perform a static fire test. (SpaceX)

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SpaceX has posted a video showing the static fire test of a pod of Crew Dragon SuperDraco abort thrusters, indicating that the complex system has been successfully redesigned (“upgraded”) to fix the faults that caused a Dragon capsule to explode in April 2019.

This progress keeps SpaceX on track for two critical Crew Dragon milestones, both of which are now expected to occur sooner than later.

Published just a few hours prior, CNBC journalist Michael Sheetz reported that SpaceX is planning to static fire the Super Draco abort thrusters of Crew Dragon capsule C205 as early as November 2nd.

Capsule C205 – along with an expendable trunk – were reassigned to support Crew Dragon’s crucial In-Flight Abort (IFA) test after flight-proven capsule C201 was destroyed just prior to a SuperDraco static fire test on April 20th. Having just successfully completed Crew Dragon’s first uncrewed orbital launch, space station docking, and ocean recovery (Demo-1), the plan was to reuse C201 to perform the IFA test.

Crew Dragon C205 would support Demo-2 – the spacecraft’s first NASA astronaut launch – and C206 would support Post-Certification Mission 1 (PCM-1), meaning Dragon’s first operational delivery of astronauts to the ISS.

Crew Dragon capsule C205 and Falcon 9 booster B1046 arrived in Florida around October 3rd ahead of SpaceX’s critical In-Flight Abort (IFA) test. (SpaceX)
Excluding Falcon 9, all pieces of SpaceX’s first astronaut-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft are visible in this one frame: capsule C206, a heat shield, and what looks like a nearly finished trunk. (Teslarati – Pauline Acalin)

Instead, Crew Dragon C201 suffered a catastrophic explosion just prior to a SuperDraco static fire test at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Landing Zone (LZ) facilities. Capsule C205 was diverted to support the In-Flight Abort, while C206 was moved up to support Demo-2. Had C201’s static fire been successful, SpaceX could have been ready to launch Crew Dragon’s IFA mission as early as May or June.

As Michael Sheetz reported, SpaceX now plans to perform a similar static fire test of the IFA Crew Dragon capsule as early as November 2nd. It’s unclear if this static fire would have been performed had C201 not exploded, but CNBC suggests that NASA and a number of other parties will be watching the results of this test closely.

SpaceX’s first spaceworthy Crew Dragon capsule prepares for its first Falcon 9-integrated static fire and a post-recovery test fire three months later. (SpaceX)

Whether that’s true or not, it’s unclear just how relevant a SuperDraco static fire of a factory-fresh Crew Dragon spacecraft (C205) is to C201’s failure. The latter spacecraft had completed months of testing (much of it fueled), spent a week in orbit, reentered Earth’s atmosphere, and splashed down in saltwater barely a month and a half prior to the fated test.

Regardless, it looks like SpaceX and NASA understandably want to perform a (relatively) similar static fire test to verify that – at a minimum – the Dragon capsule’s abort thrusters are in working order. As SpaceX’s static fire video illustrates, SuperDraco thrusters – as well as each integrated pair of engines – are all static fired in McGregor, Texas as part of routine acceptance testing. If all goes as planned during the November 2nd static fire, as well as the Falcon 9 rocket’s own static fire, Crew Dragon’s In-Flight Abort mission could launch as early as late-November.

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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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SpaceX just launched its secret Starfall saucer again

SpaceX launched its Starfall capsule again on Bandwagon-5, this time listed openly beside rideshare customers.

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An artist’s illustration of a SpaceX Starfall capsule reentering Earth’s atmosphere. (Image: SpaceX)
An artist’s illustration of a SpaceX Starfall capsule reentering Earth’s atmosphere. (Image: SpaceX)

SpaceX launched its Starfall reentry capsule for the second time on Tuesday morning, flying it as the payload of the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission. Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida at 7:04 a.m. ET with 32 payloads, and the first stage booster, on its 19th flight, landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas about nine minutes later.

Starfall was scheduled to separate last, 2 hours and 48 minutes after liftoff. The final customer satellite on SpaceX’s mission timeline comes off the upper stage about an hour and nine minutes in, which left a long gap before the capsule was due to be released alone. SpaceX later posted that the payload deployment sequence is complete. At liftoff, the company said Starfall “enables affordable, routine access to a microgravity environment, providing unique opportunities for on-orbit manufacturing, scientific research, and testing.”

As Teslarati reported before the first Starfall flight, SpaceX made no public announcement about the vehicle then, and nearly everything known came from FAA and FCC filings. This time Starfall is an item name on the official mission page, listed beside paying rideshare customers. SpaceX has still not said what, if anything, is aboard this Starfall, Spaceflight Now noted.

The FAA’s environmental assessment from May describes a disk about 10.2 feet wide and 2.5 feet tall that weighs roughly 4,600 pounds and can bring 2,200 pounds of payload back to Earth.

Interestingly, the same rocket also carries a competitor’s hardware. Varda Space Industries launched its W-Series 7 capsule on Bandwagon-5, a spacecraft about three times smaller than Starfall that will test whether microgravity can improve the solubility of a cancer drug called Protac. It is Varda’s ninth reentry capsule, and W-8 and W-9 launched earlier this month on Transporter-18. SpaceX has been Varda’s launch provider since the company’s first Falcon 9 rideshare contract in 2021.

SpaceX has not published where or how this Starfall will come down. The preview we ran in June described a recovery from the Pacific Ocean, and the company has not said whether this flight follows the same plan. The launch also arrives hours before SpaceX posts its third quarter results after the market closes, a report we previewed earlier this week.

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The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”

The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.

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The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”

The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.

Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.

Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.

The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.

The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.

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Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027

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Credit: Grok Imagine

Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”

SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.

It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.

Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.

Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:

There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.

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