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SpaceX ‘destacks’ Starship and Super Heavy: what’s next?
On February 14th, a bit less than four days after the giant rocket was used as a backdrop for CEO Elon Musk’s first Starship presentation in years, SpaceX lifted Starship off of the Super Heavy booster and lowered the upper stage to the ground.
In early August 2021, the same pair – Booster 4 and Ship 20 – were stacked for the first time for what was described as a fit test. After briefly forming the largest rocket ever assembled, the stages were ‘destacked’ about an hour later and would ultimately return to the Starbase factory for finishing touches. Six months, one ship cryoproof, three booster cryoproofs, and three ship static fire tests later, Ship 20 and Booster 4 were once stacked to form a massive 119-meter-tall (390 ft) tall rocket
This time around, Starship S20 was stacked on top of Super Heavy B4 not with a giant crane but with a ‘launch and integration tower’ that had been outfitted with three giant arms in the interim. The tower’s main pair of arms – ‘chopsticks’ – lifted the ~100-ton (~220,000 lb) Starship almost 100 meters off the ground, swung it over Super Heavy, and then carefully lowered the stages until Super Heavy was able to latch on.
On its first true demonstration, the complex process went far smoother than anyone outside of SpaceX expected, taking the tower just four or so hours from the start of the lift to hard mate. On February 10th, shortly before Musk’s Starship update, SpaceX even opened the ‘chopsticks’ to their full breadth, leaving all of Starship S20’s weight on Super Heavy B4 and also demonstrating what the pad will likely look like moments before the first orbital Starship launch.
On February 14th, after about four days fully stacked, the tower arms reattached to Ship 20, detached from Super Heavy, and lowered the Starship back to the ground, where it was eventually installed on a transport stand. Later that night and early the next day, SpaceX then moved the ship to a small concrete pad adjacent to the launch tower that’s believed to be meant for cryogenic proof testing. It’s unclear why SpaceX didn’t tested the fully stacked Starship given that both ship and booster have already completed multiple cryogenic proof tests (or wet dress rehearsals with real propellant) over the last few months.
It’s also unclear what more SpaceX can gain from testing Ship 20 on the ground, short of full-stack operations. On Sunday, February 13th, SpaceX did, however, begin filling the orbital launch site’s fuel tanks with liquid methane (LCH4) for the first time. It’s possible that instead of using Ship 20 to test any aspect of the relatively ancient Starship prototype, SpaceX will use Ship 20 to test the orbital tank farm – particularly the fuel side of the farm, which has yet to be tested. Perhaps after testing those systems on the ground, SpaceX will re-stack Ship 20 and Booster 4 and perform a similar wet dress rehearsal to test the tower’s plumbing, the ship-fueling arm, and the overall structural integrity of the fully-stacked rocket.
SpaceX has test windows tentatively scheduled on February 16th, 17th, and 18th.
Elon Musk
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.
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.
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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NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.
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Tesla AI team burns the Christmas midnight oil by releasing FSD v14.2.2.1
The update was released just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla is burning the midnight oil this Christmas, with the Tesla AI team quietly rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2.2.1 just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla owner shares insights on FSD v14.2.2.1
Longtime Tesla owner and FSD tester @BLKMDL3 shared some insights following several drives with FSD v14.2.2.1 in rainy Los Angeles conditions with standing water and faded lane lines. He reported zero steering hesitation or stutter, confident lane changes, and maneuvers executed with precision that evoked the performance of Tesla’s driverless Robotaxis in Austin.
Parking performance impressed, with most spots nailed perfectly, including tight, sharp turns, in single attempts without shaky steering. One minor offset happened only due to another vehicle that was parked over the line, which FSD accommodated by a few extra inches. In rain that typically erases road markings, FSD visualized lanes and turn lines better than humans, positioning itself flawlessly when entering new streets as well.
“Took it up a dark, wet, and twisty canyon road up and down the hill tonight and it went very well as to be expected. Stayed centered in the lane, kept speed well and gives a confidence inspiring steering feel where it handles these curvy roads better than the majority of human drivers,” the Tesla owner wrote in a post on X.
Tesla’s FSD v14.2.2 update
Just a day before FSD v14.2.2.1’s release, Tesla rolled out FSD v14.2.2, which was focused on smoother real-world performance, better obstacle awareness, and precise end-of-trip routing. According to the update’s release notes, FSD v14.2.2 upgrades the vision encoder neural network with higher resolution features, enhancing detection of emergency vehicles, road obstacles, and human gestures.
New Arrival Options also allowed users to select preferred drop-off styles, such as Parking Lot, Street, Driveway, Parking Garage, or Curbside, with the navigation pin automatically adjusting to the ideal spot. Other refinements include pulling over for emergency vehicles, real-time vision-based detours for blocked roads, improved gate and debris handling, and Speed Profiles for customized driving styles.
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
