SpaceX
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft nears launch debut as Falcon 9 tests wrap up
Known as Demonstration Mission 1 (DM-1), the inaugural flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is closer than ever before as the company wraps up ground testing of the rocket that will launch it.
Meanwhile, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are continuing to prepare for DM-2 – the first launch of Crew Dragon with crew onboard – by familiarizing themselves with SpaceX’s completed hardware, software, and procedures.
Commercial crew astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are getting familiar with operating inside @SpaceX's Crew Dragon, fully suited! pic.twitter.com/41cqRwhzdp
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) November 2, 2018
Originally expected to occur before the end of 2017, Commercial Crew partners SpaceX, Boeing, and NASA have been forced to repeatedly delay the inaugural uncrewed and crewed launches of both the Crew Dragon (SpaceX) and Starliner (Boeing) crew transport vehicles, which have slipped roughly 3-6 months with every quarterly schedule update.
Generally speaking, the sources of those delays can be split evenly between NASA and its two commercial partners. A majority of the commercial-side slips can be attributed to unexpected hardware failures between the beginning of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and expected launch dates, with SpaceX experiencing two catastrophic failures of Falcon 9 (CRS-7 and Amos-6) and Boeing suffering a major anomaly while performing ground tests ahead of a Starliner pad-abort. Prior to the September 2016 Amos-6 failure of Falcon 9, SpaceX was arguably on track for the inaugural launch of Crew Dragon in late-2017/early-2018, having already completed a successful pad-abort demonstration in 2015 and eight successful launches since the CRS-7 failure.
- In this illustration, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is shown in low-Earth orbit. (SpaceX)
- SpaceX’s Demo Mission-1 Crew Dragon seen preparing for vacuum tests at a NASA-run facility, June 2018. (SpaceX)
- The DM-1 Crew Dragon testing inside SpaceX’s anechoic chamber, May 2018. (SpaceX)
- NASA Astronaut Suni Williams, fully suited in SpaceX’s spacesuit, interfaces with the display inside a mock-up of the Crew Dragon spacecraft in Hawthorne, California, during a testing exercise on April 3. (SpaceX)
The Statue and the Hare
Aside from serious hardware failures, the rest of SpaceX’s Commercial Crew delays can be blamed on the company’s tendency to relentlessly iterate, improve, and generally modify both its hardware and software, to the extent that SpaceX’s Vice President of Production stated in mid-2018 that “[SpaceX has] never built any two vehicles identically”. For NASA’s often dysfunctionally and counterproductively risk-averse human spaceflight divisions, that sentence alone is probably enough to trigger panic attacks. As a result, SpaceX has been led to significantly change its style of operations over the last several years, reaching some sort of compromise that was more acceptable to NASA.
Further, despite the failures of CRS-7 and Amos-6, SpaceX continued to dramatically modify Falcon 9’s design – a major vehicle-wide upgrade known as Falcon 9 1.2 (Full Thrust, Block 1) debuted on the CRS-7 return-to-flight, while Amos-6 would have been the first launch of Falcon 9 Block 3 and likely failed as a result of faster fueling procedures and much colder propellant. Less than a year later, SpaceX debuted Falcon 9 Block 4. Roughly half a year after that, SpaceX debuted Falcon 9 Block 5, perhaps the most significant upgrade to the rocket yet. Ultimately, all changes made to Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon translate into additional work for NASA and SpaceX, known formally as “certification” and informally as exhaustive testing sandwiched by mountains of paperwork.
- DM-2 astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley train for their first flight in Crew Dragon. (NASA)
- SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule C203 – then assigned DM-2 – is seen here in August 2018. (Pauline Acalin)
- SpaceX installed its Crew Access Arm (CAA) in September 2018. (Tom Cross)
- SpaceX’s extraordinary custom spacesuit. Crew Dragon astronauts will wear this suit while inside the space capsule. (Pauline Acalin)
- A concert of Draco thrusters work to push Dragon away from the ISS and back towards Earth. (ESA)
In the case of the CCP, NASA itself has been a major source of delays as Boeing and SpaceX get much closer to launch dates and hardware is effectively completed, integrated, and ready to go. According to both Hans Koenigsmann (VP of Flight Reliability) and Gwynne Shotwell (President and COO) in the last few months, both executives were supremely confident that the hardware (Crew Dragon: capsule, trunk; Falcon 9: Merlins, upper stage, booster; Launch Complex 39A) would be ready for DM-1 no later than December 2018. Those statements imply that additional delays were unlikely to be a consequence of hardware readiness, indicating that delays beyond December would presumably be caused by paperwork and/or ISS scheduling.
In this sense, it could well be the case that NASA’s behind-schedule completion of critical certification and approval paperwork – paperwork that NASA alone required and knew it would have to finish prior to launch for the last several years – will or already have delayed SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon launch by at least a month. DM-1 is currently targeting a launch in January 2019.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX’s newest Starmind will make earth data centers obsolete
Elon Musk confirmed Starmind as SpaceX’s AI satellite constellation name, targeting one million orbital compute nodes.
Elon Musk confirmed that Starmind will be the official name of SpaceX’s planned AI satellite constellation, following a trademark filing by xAI that surfaced earlier this week. Starmind is what’s being described to the FCC as a constellation of up to one million AI satellites
It’s worth noting that SpaceX’s Starlink communication satellite and Starmind are built on the same orbital infrastructure concept but serve entirely different purposes. Starlink is a connectivity network, with satellites receiving and relaying data between points on Earth, and functioning as a high-speed internet backbone in space. The satellites themselves do not process or think, and move information from one place to another, the same function a fiber cable performs underground.
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
Starmind, on the other hand, is something completely different, and tather than moving data, its satellites would compute data through artificial intelligence and directly in orbit using onboard processors powered by large solar arrays. Where a Starlink satellite is essentially a very fast pipe, a Starmind satellite is a server. The practical implication is that Starmind would allow AI models to run inference, process queries, and generate outputs from space, then beam results down to users anywhere on Earth within milliseconds, and without the data ever needing to travel to a terrestrial data center.
Starship will be able to carry 30 to 50 AI1 satellites per launch, delivering the equivalent of dozens of server racks per flight, with no land acquisition, no power grid approval, and no cooling infrastructure required on the ground.
SpaceX is pursuing this new technology as terrestrial data centers are running into hard limits such as lack of physical space, community opposition, and power and water consumption at a scale that is increasingly difficult to permit. Space has unlimited solar power, natural vacuum cooling, and no zoning boards. Musk said in a June 8 video presentation that he expects space to become the lowest-cost location to deploy AI compute within two to three years. Two AI1 prototypes are scheduled to launch in early 2027, with volume production targeted for the end of that year at a new facility called Gigasat.
The real world applications Starmind enables extend well beyond powering Grok. A constellation of orbiting AI processors could run inference workloads for any paying customer, anywhere on Earth, with latency measured in milliseconds rather than the seconds associated with ground-based cloud routing across continents. Starmind, if it scales as described, would make SpaceX the landlord of AI compute the same way Starlink made it the landlord of satellite internet.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX makes $20 billion move to optimize its balance sheet
SpaceX announced today that it commenced its first-ever public bond offering, marking a significant step in the newly public company’s capital markets strategy.
The company announced an offering of senior unsecured notes expected to raise at least $20 billion.
The move comes just a short time after SpaceX completed one of the largest initial public offerings in history. In mid-June, the company priced shares at $135 and raised more than $85 billion, propelling founder Elon Musk’s net worth past the trillion-dollar mark and giving the firm substantial liquidity.
🚨 SpaceX has announced its inaugural offering of senior unsecured notes.
The net proceeds will be used to repay outstanding loans under its bridge loan facility in full.
This inaugural debt offering represents a financing milestone for SpaceX, which previously depended… pic.twitter.com/pcOZuVbTRv
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 22, 2026
According to the company’s SEC filing, the net proceeds from the notes will be used primarily to repay in full the outstanding borrowings under its existing bridge loan facility, cover related fees and expenses, and fund general corporate purposes. The offering is being conducted under Rule 144A, as well as Regulation S, targeting qualified institutional buyers and non-U.S. investors. Notes will be unsecured obligations ranking equally with other unsubordinated debt.
The $20 billion bridge loan was used to refinance approximately $17.5 billion in higher-cost “junk” debt tied to X and xAI. SpaceX had merged with xAI in February 2026 in an all-stock deal. The bridge facility, which matures in September 2027, had represented the bulk of SpaceX’s long-term debt.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
In connection with the bond launch, SpaceX disclosed it held approximately $100.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 19. Investor calls began on the announcement date, with pricing and launch expected shortly thereafter. Rating agencies have assigned investment-grade ratings to the proposed bonds, reflecting confidence in SpaceX’s dominant position in commercial launches and the growth trajectory of its Starlink internet offering.
The debt raise also allows SpaceX to optimize its balance sheet by replacing short-term, higher-cost bridge financing with longer-date, lower-cost fixed-income securities. This provides greater financial flexibility to support capital-intensive initiatives, including the development of Starship, the expansion of the Starlink constellation, and the integration of AI capabilities following the xAI combination.
SpaceX shares (NASDAQ: SPCX) fell sharply on the news, dropping over 16 percent overall on the market on Monday. The stock had surged initially after debuting but pulled back amid profit-taking and broader market dynamics.
Overall, the bond offering underscores SpaceX’s transition to a mature public company with access to diverse funding sources. It positions the firm to pursue its long-term vision of multiplanetary expansion and AI infrastructure, while maintaining a disciplined approach to its capital structure in a high-growth but capital-heavy industry.
Elon Musk
SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center
SpaceX confirmed today that it has officially signed its third massive compute deal, providing compute at its Colossus data center in Southaven, Mississippi.
Reflection AI will gain immediate access to NVIDIA GB300 chips at SpaceX’s Colossus 2 data center. In return, Reflection will pay SpaceX $150 million per month starting on July 1, with total payments reaching approximately $6.3 billion if the contract runs through its duration, which is until 2029. Either party can terminate the agreement with 90 days’ notice after the initial three-month period.
CNBC first reported the deal.
🚨 SpaceXAI has agreed to a new compute deal with Reflection AI.
Reflection gets access to NIVIDIA GB300s, and will pay $150M per month to SpaceXAI for the compute. pic.twitter.com/bNPare8U5u
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 22, 2026
This latest partnership highlights SpaceX’s strategy of commercializing its massive Colossus supercomputing infrastructure, originally developed to power Elon Musk’s Grok AI models. The company has rapidly expanded its customer base in the AI sector following its February 2026 merger with xAI, a transaction that valued the combined entity at $1.25 trillion.
SpaceX has previously signed significant compute deals with other major players.
It granted Anthropic exclusive access to the full capacity of its Colossus 1 data center, which exceeds 300 megawatts and includes over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs. Details from SpaceX’s IPO filings indicate Anthropic will pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, potentially generating around $45 billion over the term of the deal.
Additionally, Google agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million per month for compute capacity from October 2026 through June 2029. This 32-month period will provide Google access to roughly 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs, along with supporting processors and memory. Capacity ramps up through September at a reduced fee, with termination options after the first year.
SpaceXA also established arrangements for computing power with Cursor, an AI coding startup. SpaceX acquired them in a $60 billion all-stock deal.
These arrangements position SpaceX’s collective position as an AI infrastructure powerhouse with high-margin revenue potential. The Google deal alone could generate nearly $29.5 billion over its term, while the Reflection contract adds another $6.3 billion.
Combined with the Anthropic arrangement, SpaceX stands to realize tens of billions in revenue from compute leasing in the coming years, which diversifies beyond SpaceX’s traditional rocket launches and Starlink operation.
The deals underscore growing demand for advanced AI training and inference capacity amid chip shortages and surging model development needs. Reflection, valued at $25 billion and focused on “American open intelligence” with government and national security ties, cited recent restrictions on closed models as validation for open-source approaches.
For SpaceX, the partnerships transform capital-intensive data centers into flexible revenue sources while supporting its broader AI ambitions after the company has gone public.








