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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk & Raptor engine make surprise visit to Florida Starship
While on the East Coast for Falcon Heavy’s third launch, also described as SpaceX’s most difficult launch yet, CEO Elon Musk dropped by the company’s Florida Starship campus and recorded a small acceptance speech for his 2019 Stephen Hawking Medal.
On the very same day, at the very same site, a lone Raptor was effectively displayed for all to see to such an extent that unaffiliated photographers were able to capture impressively detailed photos. Almost the certainly the first time a full-scale Raptor has traveled east of Texas, the engine’s presence at SpaceX’s Florida Starship site is truly surprising in light of the fact that the East Coast campus is solely focused on building orbital-class prototypes. Why, then, is one of SpaceX’s small handful of completed Raptors in Florida?
About a month ago, Elon Musk was announced as the recipient of 2019’s Stephen Hawking Medal of Science Communication. Meant to be awarded in person at a ceremony in Switzerland, Musk was unable to attend the event due to a schedule conflict with Falcon Heavy’s third launch, but the infamously busy CEO managed to film a brief thank you message that was then broadcast in Switzerland.
In what seems to be a coincidence, Musk’s message – either recorded or streamed – was filmed on SpaceX’s Florida Starship development campus, a surprisingly large facility uncovered less than two months ago. The CEO was standing in the sun directly in front of two large segments of the second orbital-class Starship prototype, part of a parallel development process featuring a second Starship prototype (and separate Starhopper) in Texas. Musk’s appearance at Starship Florida is not particularly surprising; if he flew all the way to Florida for Falcon Heavy, might as well tour SpaceX’s newest Florida facilities on the same trip.
Raptor Mystery: Episode II
What is surprising, however, is the presence of what looks like a finished Raptor engine in Florida. Looks can certainly be deceiving but SpaceX’s Florida Starship prototype – while undeniably flying through preliminary assembly – does not appear to be anywhere near flight-readiness. In Boca Chica, a partially separate SpaceX team is working to prepare Starhopper – a partial-fidelity, suborbital prototype – for low-altitude, low-velocity hop tests
Back in May, a mystery Raptor engine – believed to be serial number 04 (SN04 – appeared in South Texas and was soon installed on Starhopper for fit-checks and tests of the engine’s thrust vectoring capabilities. SN04 was soon uninstalled and shipped elsewhere; perhaps to SpaceX’s rapidly-progressing Florida Starship. If the surprise Florida Raptor is, in fact, SN04, then it’s safe to assume that it will remain inert for the time being, serving as a fit-check article and opportunity for training and familiarizing technicians and build engineers. At the moment, Florida’s Starship lies in several large segments, including what appears to be the early stages of its first propellant tank bulkhead(s).
Nevertheless, as partially demonstrated above, SpaceX’s Florida team is wasting no time at all. By all appearances, they are rapidly catching up with Texas, at least as long as Boca Chica’s Starhopper work is excluded. Given the benefit of the doubt, SpaceX Texas would likely be at a similar stage of Starship develop after a similar amount of time (~2-3 months), but much of the Boca Chica workforce has been focused intently on building, upgrading, and testing Starhopper, essentially a flying testbed for Raptor and BFR development.
To an extent, Florida’s orbital Starship prototype looks even more refined than its relatively rugged Texas cousin. Given an additional 1-2 months of nonstop work and a rate of progress similar to the last two months, it’s not out of the question that the Florida prototype will begin to seriously resemble a finished Starship. By all realistic accounts, some of the most difficult work will be found inside and around Starship’s finished aeroshell, though, and the process of outfitting avionics, plumbing the propellant/propulsion sections, and implementing hydraulic/actuation systems will be a huge amount of work.
Even after Starship East is effectively complete, SpaceX will still face the seemingly immense challenge of transporting a massive spacecraft that weighs several dozen tons and measures 9m (30 ft) in diameter and 60m (200 ft) tall from Cocoa to Pad 39A, a full 20-30 miles of public roads and highways. In fact, the easiest method of transporting may involve getting Starship onto a barge in the nearby Indian River and towing it 100+ miles by water to the beach adjacent to Pad 39A. Regardless, neither method is going to be quick or easy and both will put on quite a show for local observers.
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event
The rollout will be accompanied by a livestream at 8 p.m. Pacific Time.
Elon Musk has officially confirmed that Grok 4, the latest version of xAI’s large language model, will launch on July 9. The rollout will be accompanied by a livestream at 8 p.m. Pacific Time, hosted on xAI’s official account on X.
xAI goes straight to Grok 4
Back in May, leaks indicated that xAI was getting ready to ship Grok 3.5. Considering Musk’s recent comments, however, it appears that the artificial intelligence startup would be focusing on the large language model’s fourth iteration instead. As noted in a Financial Express report, users on X have sighted references to Grok 4 in the lead up to the update’s launch, such as “grok-4-prod-mimic” and “Grok 4 Code.”
Musk’s Grok 4 announcement comes as AI competition intensifies between major players including OpenAI, Google, and xAI. With Musk’s Colossus supercomputer fully operational in Memphis, xAI appears to be accelerating its AI product roadmap.
Musk pushes Grok toward political neutrality
Grok 4’s launch also follows a recent controversy involving political bias, as noted in a CNN report. Last week, Grok responded to a user on X stating that political violence in the U.S. since 2016 had come more from the political right than the left. The chatbot noted in a later reply that its answer was based on information from sources like Reuters, the Journal of Democracy, and University of Maryland studies.
Musk stated that Grok’s response was a “major fail.” “Major fail, as this is objectively false. Grok is parroting legacy media. Working on it,” he wrote in a post on X. By the end of June, Musk noted that he was “grinding all night with the xAI team” and that they were making “good progress.” He also stated that the model “Will be called Grok 4. Release just after July 4th. Needs one more big run for a specialized coding model.”
News
Tesla opens massive solar Supercharger station in California
The Supercharger opened to customers ahead of Fourth of July weekend, while Tesla continues phase two of construction on the site.
Tesla has officially launched the first several Supercharging posts at a massive station in California, notably including solar canopies and grid-scale batteries to offer completely renewable charging.
Last week, Tesla announced on X that it opened the first 84 Supercharger stalls of a planned 168-stall station in Lost Hills, California. Additionally, the massive Supercharger project features 11MW of solar canopies and 10 Megapack batteries for off-grid charging powered entirely by solar energy.
Tesla completed the first phase of the project just days ahead of the busy Fourth of July holiday weekend, adding that initial construction took just eight months. In addition to the remaining charging stalls, Tesla says it’s building a set of lounge areas, renderings of which can be seen below alongside current photos of the site.
Notably, the site also includes V4 charging posts for the company’s latest available charging speeds, and it’s located near the busy junction between I-5 and Highway 46 in Kern County.
“Thank you [Kern County] and [PG&E] for collaboration and approvals,” Tesla wrote in a follow-up post.
Credit: Tesla Charging | X
Credit: Tesla Charging | X
Credit: Tesla Charging | X
Credit: Tesla Charging | X
Tesla Supercharger Maps for North America, Europe, and Asia pic.twitter.com/0U5r0XRPyo
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 2, 2025
READ MORE ON TESLA SUPERCHARGERS: Tesla launches ultra-fast V4 Superchargers in China for the first time
Testing at the LA Diner, plus Musk update on potential Tesla solar Gigafactory
The huge Tesla Supercharger station completed phase one of construction fairly quickly, especially given how long Tesla has been working on its unique Los Angeles diner, drive-in, and Supercharger location. Still, the company was seen performing some testing at the nearly-completed charging station earlier this month, and will reportedly be holding a job fair.
Elon Musk also responded on Monday morning to a post on X, suggesting that Tesla is “thinking about” building a U.S.-based solar Gigafactory in order to help support increased power needs with AI growth, and to bolster domestic solar production.
Tesla is building a new UFO-inspired Supercharger in the heart of Alien country
News
Tesla driver walks away from major accident with minor injuries
The driver sustained only minor injuries, and the exact cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The driver of a Tesla Model Y survived and walked away from a harrowing accident on Monday in California, only sustaining minor injuries despite the vehicle being impaled by a guardrail.
On Monday morning around 4:34 a.m., the Los Banos division of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) responded to the accident on I-5 near Panoche Road, involving a 23-year-old in a Tesla Model Y. According to a post on social media, the driver veered off the road for unknown reasons in the northbound lane, before crashing directly into the guardrail and impaling the vehicle.
You can read the full message and photos from Los Banos CHP below, as were shared in a Facebook post on Monday afternoon.
This morning a Tesla model y was traveling in the #1 northbound lane of I-5 north of Panoche Rd. For unknown reasons driver allowed V-1 to veer off the roadway, travel through a dirt center divide, and crashed into the fixed metal guardrail. Lucky for the driver he only sustained minor injuries and was able to walk away. Driving a vehicle requires 100% attention to the road. Avoid distractions and focus on driving.
Credit: CHP Los Banos (via Facebook)
Credit: CHP Los Banos (via Facebook)
Credit: CHP Los Banos (via Facebook)
In a statement to SFGate, CHP officer Myles Anderson said that the driver only sustained minor injuries, while no arrests are made and drugs and alcohol are not suspected to have been involved. The report also notes that Tesla’s “cruise control and lane assistance features” were activated, according to Anderson. However, it’s not entirely clear if this is referring to Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD), or to the cruise control and lane assist features baked into Autopilot.
At the time of writing, CHP has not yet responded to Teslarati’s request for clarification and additional details on the matter.
Tesla Crash Safety Ratings across its lineup: pic.twitter.com/ny30R7ceji
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 1, 2025
READ MORE ON TESLA SAFETY: Tesla rolls out crucial new safety feature aimed at saving children
The news comes after Tesla has touted its vehicles as incredibly safe for many years. In December, for example, the company highlighted receiving top safety scores from regulators on four different continents throughout the world, including from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) in the U.S.
Tesla has also listed the goal of making its vehicles the safest on the road throughout the years, both in the overall design of its vehicles and in its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) programs.
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Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event
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