News
SpaceX fairing catcher Mr Steven armless once more for maintenance and upgrades
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 fairing catcher ship Mr Steven has had all four new arms removed as the company’s recovery engineers and technicians continue to iterate on his fairing recovery mechanism and operational strategy.
The purpose of this round of arm removal is unknown, but the work going on at Berth 240 is nevertheless a fascinating glimpse into SpaceX’s preferred mode of operations, mainly focusing on constant improvement, tireless iteration, and minimized bureaucratic burden.
Two of Mr Steven’s arms were laying dockside yesterday. Perhaps adjustments due to last week’s fairing drop tests? Getting close to next fairing recovery attempt mid-September. #SpaceX #mrsteven @Teslarati pic.twitter.com/Ev3r2N2bBv
— Pauline Acalin (@w00ki33) August 19, 2018
Originally spotted testing the behavior of a Falcon 9 fairing half in Mr Steven’s new net around August 13th, West Coast recovery technicians had completely removed all four of the vessel’s large arms and all eight of his arm booms just one week later, leaving the boat armless for the first time in roughly two months.
The speed of that seemingly significant hardware removal alone is rather interesting, suggesting that routine removal of Mr Steven’s arms could be wholeheartedly feasible for short-term requirements, be it a clearance issue for traversing canals or perhaps even some sort of modular recovery setup that could optimize Mr Steven for catching Falcon fairings, Dragons, and perhaps even Falcon upper stages.
- A gif demonstrates just how taut Mr Steven’s net can be, thanks to mechanized rigging. 08/13/18 (Pauline Acalin)
- Mr Steven sans two arms, August 19th. Note the red and black inflatable structure floating at his bow. (Pauline Acalin)
- Just two arms and a dream. (Pauline Acalin)
- Mr Steven sans arms once more, August 21st. (Pauline Acalin)
Wild speculation aside, it can be said with certainty that the ability to remove Mr Steven’s arms so rapidly will make the lives and work of the technicians and engineers tasked with maintaining, testing, and improving the vessel’s recovery mechanisms considerably easier, demanding just a few days of work for complete disassembly. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk did note around the time of the upgraded arm and net installation that those new arms would be retractable and “springy, like a highly damped trampoline.”
The inclusion of large white damping booms to support that supposed springiness was indeed visually confirmed while SpaceX was testing the vessel’s net with a real Falcon 9 fairing, but it’s quite clear that no retraction mechanism was included on the first iteration of Mr Steven’s upgraded arms. Chances are good that this full-up arm removal is related in some way to Musk’s retraction reference, perhaps triggered by observations made during that aforementioned testing with a real fairing half, just days after which arm removal had already been half-completed.
Yes, and springy, like a highly damped trampoline
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2018
Mr Steven’s next shot at catching a Falcon 9 fairing will follow the launch of Argentinian Earth-sensing satellite SAOCOM-1A, to be followed up soon after with the SpaceX launch of SAOCOM-1B. 1A is currently targeting late September or early October for its journey to orbit.
Meanwhile, the lightweight payload (~1600 kg/~3500 lb) and relatively low orbit (near-polar, 620 km/385 mi) have aligned to allow the Falcon 9 Block 5 booster the chance to be the first SpaceX rocket to debut the company’s West Coast rocket landing zone, companion to the pad’s two well-worn East Coast brethren.
For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!
Elon Musk
How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts
Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.
Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.
The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.
Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026
Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.
For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.
The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.
Investor's Corner
Tesla’s flying Roadster just revealed something bigger than the car
Analysts say the Roadster demo puts a Tesla and SpaceX merger back on the table.
The Roadster unveiling near Waco ended Thursday night, and by Friday morning much of the investor reaction had less to do with the car than with who owns the rocket technology inside it.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the event “puts the Tesla/SpaceX relationship on the table in a tangible way,” pointing to the propulsion, pressure vessel and control hardware sitting on a Tesla product. Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management called the demo “a ridiculous display of engineering” with “no commercial value” beyond embarrassing traditional automakers, though he said it showed Musk wants the two companies together.
The more specific forecast came a day earlier from Barclays. Analyst Dan Levy told clients a deal could be announced before Tesla’s annual meeting, which must happen by December 6, and that an announcement in late October or early November could make shareholder approval harder. Barclays expects SpaceX to be the buyer in an all stock deal, with Tesla holders receiving SpaceX shares at a premium, based on market values of roughly $2.1 trillion for SpaceX and $1.5 trillion for Tesla. If nothing lands around the meeting, the bank still sees an announcement within 6 to 12 months.
The Roadster demo just added more weight to merger speculations. Tesla’s demo used cold gas thrusters and pressure tanks of the kind SpaceX uses on Falcon 9, and Musk described the car as a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX engineers, as we mentioned in our breakdown of the three Roadster configurations.
Musk has not publicly addressed a deal since the event, as far as we have seen. His most direct answer remains the one he gave at the All In Summit, when he said that with so much collaboration, “who can imagine what action one might take” without ruling anything out. Ives has held to a 2027 timeline since his March note, and Musk pushed back on the China piece of the speculation when ARK floated a year end announcement in August.
The next test is Tesla’s third quarter earnings call on October 21. However, we recall in July that Musk told analysts, “we can’t talk about combining companies and that kind of thing on an earnings call,” so a clear answer wouldn’t be expected.
News
How Tesla’s Roadster fan system and thrusters are built to dominate the corners
Tesla’s Roadster uses fans, active wings and cold gas thrusters to create grip at any speed.
Tesla’s new Roadster is best known for flipping through the air in Texas, but the technology that matters most for a race track is the stuff that keeps it on the ground. Tesla’s Roadster page describes a multi-mode fan and ground sealing system that acts as a downforce generator, pulling air out from beneath the car. Tesla says it provides enough suction to hold the vehicle upside down, even when stationary.
That is the key difference from the wings and diffusers on a normal supercar. Conventional aero only makes downforce when the car is moving, and it grows with speed, so a car has the least grip in the slow corners and under hard braking. A fan system makes downforce at any speed. Tesla’s patent, which we covered last year, describes fans and deployable skirts that create sealed or partially sealed regions under the car, with the fans extracting air to lower the pressure and increase grip and stability.
Still processing this … the most unreal thing I’ve seen. https://t.co/HtEuvnkZjY
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 16, 2026
Tesla pairs that with active wings, a next generation steer by wire system and a Track Mode that lowers the car and changes the suspension, with high downforce and low drag settings for the circuit. To keep weight down, Tesla points to magnesium, titanium and carbon fiber, manual controls and a fixed seat position, which it says lets the car respond to driver inputs almost instantly.
Tesla Roadster: Three configs, one can fly, 0-60 in 0.8 seconds
The cold gas thrusters are the other half. On the Thrust version they sit at the rear and Tesla says they take the car from 0 to 60 mph in under 0.9 seconds, while the Rocket version adds perimeter thrusters for forward, upward and lateral rotational movement. Tesla says the all electric actuators make micro adjustments within a fraction of a second.
Roadster transforms in Track Mode
These aero features aren’t just for looks: they provide the best passive downforce package of any road car (approaching F1 levels!) with wing actuation driven by the @Tesla_Optimus actuator system https://t.co/AqrC4qUga9
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 16, 2026
Musk has been talking about records for years. In June 2019 he said, “We’re going to do things with the new Roadster that are kind of unfair to other cars.” That September, when a follower asked whether the Roadster would beat the Nürburgring production car record, he replied with one word, “Absolutely,” as we reported at the time. In February 2024 he said Tesla had “radically increased the design goals” for the car and that its sub one second 0 to 60 time would be “the least interesting part.”
There are caveats. Tesla has not published a lap time or a verified cornering figure, so the record talk is still a promise rather than a result. Tesla also says the car is not approved for public road use, and the thruster features are limited to the Rocket trim, which is invite only. Fan cars have also been banned or withdrawn before, and getting a sealed underbody to work on a rough public road is a harder problem than on a smooth track. The first real test will be an official lap at a circuit.



