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SpaceX’s space-bound Crew Dragon stars in spectacular preflight photos [gallery]

SpaceX's first flightworthy Crew Dragon spacecraft rolled out to Pad 39A atop Falcon 9 B1051 on Feb 28, ready for its inaugural trip to low Earth orbit. (SpaceX)

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7 years ago

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SpaceX and NASA are both participating in an exceptional media blitz on the verge of Crew Dragon’s orbital launch debut, sharing dozens of detailed photos and videos documenting the advanced spacecraft’s many years of development and its brief final voyage out to Launch Complex 39A (Pad 39A).

Scheduled to attempt its first launch at 2:48 am EST (07:48 UTC), March 2nd, CEO Elon Musk has already teased one significant part of a spectacular, hosted webcast SpaceX has prepared for the milestone launch, arguably the biggest step the company will have taken towards its foundational goal of “making humanity a multiplanetary species”. Riding along on the uncrewed demonstration mission will be a test dummy – Starwoman – known as Ripley, a close relative of the Starman character now orbiting the sun in deep space.

Coming straight off of SpaceX’s February 21st Falcon 9 launch of commsat PSN-6 and Spaceflight’s GTO-1 rideshare, the contrast with the media presence behind Crew Dragon’s launch debut is stark. Regular SpaceX launches have grown into a routine distribution of official behind-the-scenes photos: one photo of Falcon 9 vertical on the pad after the rocket goes vertical, a hosted webcast with excellent live views of the mission, high-quality launch photos taken by SpaceX or contracted photographers, and – less frequently – a rare photo or two of the booster’s landing. NASA-led launches are a different story entirely, followed by USAF missions in a distant second place.

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Particularly so given that NASA has funded 99-100% of Crew Dragon’s costly development, SpaceX customers can typically reserve the right to request special views and even post photos of their own in launch or program contracts. As a civilian federal agency, NASA is largely obligated to share photos, insofar as they generally play nice with arms trafficking regulations like the US’ ITAR. For any number of reasons, SpaceX has become noticeably less keen on sharing photos of its milestones and more routine operations, regardless of whether or not a given subject is likely to raise the ire of ITAR.

While the company still shares far more than they technically have to (i.e. nothing), competitors like ULA tend to share far more even for extraordinarily security-conscious National Reconnaissance Office launches. Regardless of the company’s reasons, to which they have every right, the floodgates have been opened in the two or so months that have built up to Crew Dragon’s inaugural launch.

Combined, NASA and SpaceX have shared dozens of extremely high-quality photos of Falcon 9, Crew Dragon, and the general behind-the-scenes work required to make every launch (including this one) happen. SpaceX has also offered numerous rare glimpses into those processes, including rocket’s roll-out to Pad 39A and a brief 60-second overview featuring clips of much of the Crew Dragon development work that has been ongoing for 5+ years.

Onwards and upwards

Put simply, this mission may be the most important launch since SpaceX graduated from Falcon 1 to Falcon 9 almost nine years ago. Founded by Elon Musk with a single-minded purpose of creating cost-effective, reusable rockets that could allow or at least motivate humans to one day reach Mars, the pursuit of human spacecraft has been on the minds and agendas of Musk and SpaceX since the company’s 2002 formation. If Crew Dragon’s orbital debut is successful, SpaceX will have taken the biggest step yet in the direction of those lofty aspirations, thanks in large part to the funding and expertise bestowed upon the company through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

While SpaceX technically owns and operates it, Crew Dragon is a fundamentally NASA-owned vehicle with respect to fundamental capabilities and limitations baked into its design. The countless hundreds of thousands of hours of experience derived from developing Crew Dragon will, however, feed directly into Starship, a spacecraft that will very nearly be SpaceX’s and SpaceX’s alone, from a blank sheet of paper to Mars (fate permitting).

 

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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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Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million

The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.

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3 hours ago

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December 24, 2025

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Credit: Starlink/X

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark. 

The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.

9 million customers

In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day. 

“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote. 

That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.

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Starlink’s momentum

Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.

Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future. 

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SpaceX shades airline for seeking contract with Amazon’s Starlink rival

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1 week ago

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December 15, 2025

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Credit: Richard Angle

SpaceX employees, including its CEO Elon Musk, shaded American Airlines on social media this past weekend due to the company’s reported talks with Amazon’s Starlink rival, Leo.

Starlink has been adopted by several airlines, including United Airlines, Qatar Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, WestJet, Air France, airBaltic, and others. It has gained notoriety as an extremely solid, dependable, and reliable option for airline travel, as traditional options frequently cause users to lose connection to the internet.

Many airlines have made the switch, while others continue to mull the options available to them. American Airlines is one of them.

A report from Bloomberg indicates the airline is thinking of going with a Starlink rival owned by Amazon, called Leo. It was previously referred to as Project Kuiper.

American CEO Robert Isom said (via Bloomberg):

“While there’s Starlink, there are other low-Earth-orbit satellite opportunities that we can look at. We’re making sure that American is going to have what our customers need.”

Isom also said American has been in touch with Amazon about installing Leo on its aircraft, but he would not reveal the status of any discussions with the company.

The report caught the attention of Michael Nicolls, the Vice President of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX, who said:

“Only fly on airlines with good connectivity… and only one source of good connectivity at the moment…”

CEO Elon Musk replied to Nicolls by stating that American Airlines risks losing “a lot of customers if their connectivity solution fails.”

There are over 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit currently, offering internet coverage in over 150 countries and territories globally. SpaceX expands its array of satellites nearly every week with launches from California and Florida, aiming to offer internet access to everyone across the globe.

SpaceX successfully launches 100th Starlink mission of 2025

Currently, the company is focusing on expanding into new markets, such as Africa and Asia.

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Tesla hints at Starlink integration with recent patent

“By employing polymer blends, some examples enable RF transmission from all the modules to satellites and other communication devices both inside and outside the vehicle.”

Published

2 weeks ago

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December 13, 2025

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Credit: Grok

Tesla hinted at a potential Starlink internet terminal integration within its vehicles in a recent patent, which describes a vehicle roof assembly with integrated radio frequency (RF) transparency.

The patent, which is Pub. No U.S. 2025/0368267 describes a new vehicle roof that is made of RF-transparent polymer materials, allowing and “facilitating clear communication with external devices and satellites.”

Tesla believes that a new vehicle roof design, comprised of different materials than the standard metallic or glass elements used in cars today, would allow the company to integrate modern vehicular technologies, “particularly those requiring radio frequency transmission and reception.

Instead of glass or metallic materials, Tesla says vehicles may benefit from high-strength polymer blends, such as Polycarbonate, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, or Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate.

These materials still provide ideal strength metrics for crashworthiness, stiffness for noise, vibration, and harshness control, and are compliant with head impact regulations.

They would also enable better performance with modern technologies, like internet terminals, which need an uninterrupted signal to satellites for maximum reception. Tesla writes in the patent:

“By employing polymer blends, some examples enable RF transmission from all the modules to satellites and other communication devices both inside and outside the vehicle.”

One of the challenges Tesla seems to be aware of with this type of roof design is the fact that it will still have to enable safety and keep that at the forefront of the design. As you can see in the illustration above, Tesla plans to use four layers to increase safety and rigidity, while also combating noise and vibration.

It notes in the patent that disclosed examples still meet the safety requirements outlined in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).

Starlink integrated directly into Tesla vehicles would be a considerable advantage for owners. It would come with a handful of distinct advantages.

Initially, the inclusion of Starlink would completely eliminate cellular dead zones, something that is an issue, especially in rural areas. Starlink would provide connectivity in these remote regions and would ensure uninterrupted service during road trips and off-grid adventures.

It could also be a critical addition for Robotaxi, as it is crucial to have solid and reliable connectivity for remote monitoring and fleet management.

Starlink’s growing constellation, thanks to SpaceX’s routine and frequent launch schedule, will provide secure, stable, and reliable internet connectivity for Tesla vehicles.

SpaceX reaches incredible milestone with Starlink program

Although many owners have already mounted Starlink Mini dishes under their glass roofs for a similar experience, it may be integrated directly into Teslas in the coming years, either as an upgrade or a standard feature.

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