

News
SpaceX recovers fairing intact for the first time, Starlink communicating back to Earth
With the launch of PAZ and two of their own Starlink demo satellites, SpaceX has completed its fourth successful launch of 2018, and continued an aggressive series of reusability-focused flight-tests.
Amazingly, the company managed to successfully recover a fairing intact for the first time ever, an absolutely crucial step towards ramping the Falcon family’s launch cadence and reusability. According to CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX’s fairing recovery vessel Mr. Steven missed the fairing by a few hundred meters, meaning that the fairing gently landed in the Pacific Ocean, rather than Mr. Steven’s now-famous fairing recovery net. This is quite possibly the first time in aerospace history that an orbital rocket’s payload fairing has been recovered intact, and the fairing in question looks very much intact.
- It may look unassuming, but that fairing half could swallow an entire school bus and by all means should not be in one piece. (Fairing from PAZ, photo by Elon Musk)
- A closeup of the landed fairing. This particularly fairing is the first flight of Fairing 2.0, a recent upgrade. (Elon Musk)
- Mr Steven is currently undergoing arm surgery (upgrades) at SpaceX’s future BFR factory lot, known as Berth 240. (Elon Musk)
As mentioned by Musk, that massive piece of hardware had to survive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere at no less than Mach 8, considerably more than two times faster than the famous SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. While the fairing’s parafoil appears to have sunk after being quickly detached, careful observers will note three vertical bars at its three corners, almost certainly the points where that parafoil attaches to them and allows it to gently float down to the ocean surface. While not nearly as consequential as SpaceX’s growing expertise with Falcon booster recovery and reuse, each fairing – made largely of carbon fiber composites – takes a huge amount of time and effort to complete, and cost upwards of $3 million each ($6m for both halves). In this sense, SpaceX has managed to recover a pallet of cash, as Musk humorously likened the effort fairing reuse to in 2017.
Given just how good the fairing’s condition appears to be, as well as the calm sea states, it’s very likely that SpaceX will try to pick up the landed fairing with a crane, although that would require a different vessel – Mr. Steven has no crane! Teslarati’s Pauline Acalin will undoubtedly be checking out the Port of San Pedro once Mr. Steven has returned to shore, in hopes of capturing the first-ever photos of a recovered orbital rocket fairing.
Remote camera has been retrieved, wet with morning dew…and WITH images! Awesome launch by SpaceX. @teslarati #SpaceX #Paz #Starlink pic.twitter.com/tDTXxZErN4
— Pauline Acalin (@w00ki33) February 22, 2018

Falcon 9 roars into the dark California sky with PAZ and Starlink. (Pauline Acalin)
- Similar to the Iridium-4 launch that had LA screaming “ALIENS!!!”, this launch gave an incredible show to California. (Pauline Acalin)
- SpaceX intends to launch three Falcon 9s from all three of its pads in just seven days. Pictured here their VAFB pad in California. (Pauline Acalin)
- SpaceX’s first Starlink prototypes launched in late February aboard a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster. (Pauline Acalin)
- Tragically, the pictured bird is not a falcon, but a vulture. (Pauline Acalin)
Starlink hopes tempered despite apparent success
While only mentioned a few times during the webcast, the Falcon 9 that launched earlier today was also carrying additional co-passengers – two SpaceX demonstration satellites, in this case. Confirmed to have successfully deployed and begun communicating with SpaceX ground control, this is another huge accomplishment for SpaceX and marks their first-ever steps into dedicated satellite manufacturing and operation. Despite the significance of this event, SpaceX was keen to lower expectations for the satellite internet network, named Starlink. The following statement was provided during the webcast:
“Even if these satellites work as planned, we still have considerable technical work ahead of us to design and deploy a low Earth orbit satellite constellation. If successful, [this system] would provide people in low to moderate population densities around the world with affordable, high-speed internet access, including many that have never had internet access before.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfgTyTzgYVm/
For all intents and purposes, this appears to be a significant departure from previous statements given about Starlink by the rocket company. The explicit mention of “low and moderate” population densities being the only focus of service contrasts heavily with a general sense that Starlink was intended from the outset to provide universal internet around the globe to anyone who could afford the service. This certainly serves as a confirmation that there are major technological hurdles that will need to be overcome for Starlink to become the universal internet many have come to hope for from SpaceX – it would appear that it will be quite difficult to serve high-density populations with SpaceX’s current choice of technologies for their constellation.
Still, the demand is undeniably there. Even readers of Teslarati expressed an immediate desire to ditch their cable companies and ISPs, both in the US and abroad. If SpaceX can make it happen, they will have hordes of eager ISP-hating internet users desperate for any alternatives, and your author is proudly among them. The badly served aside, it sounds like SpaceX may be pivoting towards Starlink as a method of connecting the underserved – mainly those in rural or undeveloped areas. Even in the US, this is a major problem for those that do not live near large cities, and US ISPs are exceptionally anti-consumer in these situations – often times charging obscene costs for cable installation or outright refusing to provide coverage. Starlink could be a boon for those individuals in the US and elsewhere, especially where a simple lack of infrastructure is the cause. Much of Africa suffers from this, although mobile networks have become a backbone for a relatively unique pattern of mobile phone usage.
- .While SpaceX’s own visualizations are gorgeous and thrilling in their own rights, Romax’s interpretation adds an unparalleled level of shock and awe. (SpaceX)
- SpaceX’s first two Starlink prototype satellites are pictured here before their inaugural Feb. 2018 launch, showing off a utilitarian design. (SpaceX)
Here’s to hoping that SpaceX manages to once again rise to an exceptional technological challenge. As with all R&D efforts, the company’s satellite effort would be helped immensely with additional funds, and thankfully Falcon 9 Block 5 is very nearly ready to fly its first missions. This highly reusable iteration of the rocket could enable SpaceX to fly dozens of missions with a single Falcon 9 booster, and would thus enable unprecedented profit margins for a launch company, at least in the interim. Eventually, SpaceX is bound to bring down its prices for the customer, but the first need to recoup their reusability and Falcon Heavy investments, while also ensuring a sound business plan to support the development of their BFR and BFS vehicles that may one day enable the colonization of space. Starlink may be another beneficiary of those profits, and could itself one day act as a source of reliable funding for SpaceX’s interplanetary endeavors.
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk: Self-sustaining city on Mars is plausible in 25-30 years
Musk noted that true self-sufficiency requires Mars to develop “all the ingredients of civilization.”

Elon Musk has stated that a self-sustaining human settlement on Mars could be established in 25-30 years, provided launch capacity increases dramatically in the coming decades.
Speaking at the All-In Summit, the SpaceX CEO said building a self-sufficient colony depends on exponential growth in “tonnage to Mars” with each launch window, highlighting Starship’s role as the company’s pathway to interplanetary initiatives.
Mars settlement goals
Musk noted that true self-sufficiency requires Mars to develop “all the ingredients of civilization,” from food production to microchip manufacturing. Starship Version 3 is expected to support the first uncrewed Mars test flights, while future iterations could reach 466 feet in height and deliver larger payloads critical for settlement. Ultimately, Musk stated that an aggressive timeline for a city on Mars could be as short as 30 years, as noted in a Space.com report.
“I think it can be done in 30 years, provided there’s an exponential increase in the tonnage to Mars with each successive Mars transfer window, which is every two years. Every two years, the planets align and you can transfer to Mars.
“I think in roughly 15, but maybe as few as 10, but 10-15-ish Mars transfer windows. If you’re seeing exponential increases in the tonnage to Mars with each Mars transfer window, then it should be possible to make Mars self-sustaining in about call it roughly 25 years,” Musk said.
Starship’s role
Starship has flown in a fully stacked configuration ten times, most recently in August when it completed its first payload deployment in orbit. The next flight will close out the Version 2 program before transitioning to Starship Version 3, featuring Raptor 3 engines and a redesigned structure capable of lifting over 100 tons to orbit.
While SpaceX has demonstrated Super Heavy booster reuse, Ship reusability remains in development. Musk noted that the heat shield is still the biggest technical hurdle, as no orbital vehicle has yet achieved rapid, full reuse.
“For full reusability of the Ship, there’s still a lot of work that remains on the heat shield. No one’s ever made a fully reusable orbital heat shield. The shuttle heat shield had to go through nine months of repair after every flight,” he said.
News
Tesla Model Y may gain an extra 90 miles of range with Panasonic’s next-gen battery
The Japanese company is pursuing an anode-free design.

Panasonic is developing a new high-capacity EV battery that could potentially extend the range of a Tesla Model Y by 90 miles.
The Japanese company, one of Tesla’s key battery suppliers, is pursuing an anode-free design that it says could deliver a “world-leading” level of capacity by the end of 2027.
Panasonic’s anode-free design
The technology Panasonic is pursuing would eliminate the anode during the manufacturing process, as noted in a Reuters report. By freeing up space for more active cathode materials such as nickel, cobalt, and aluminum, the Japanese company expects a 25% increase in capacity without expanding battery size.
That could allow Tesla’s Model Y to gain an estimated 145 kilometers (90 miles) of additional range if equipped with a battery that matches its current pack’s size. At the same time, Panasonic could use smaller, lighter batteries to achieve the Model Y’s current range.
Panasonic also aims to reduce reliance on nickel, which remains one of the more costly raw materials. A senior executive previewed the initiative to reporters ahead of a scheduled presentation by Panasonic Energy’s technology chief, Shoichiro Watanabe.
Tesla implications
The breakthrough, if achieved, could strengthen Panasonic’s position as Tesla’s longest-standing battery partner at a time when the automaker is preparing to enter an era of extreme scale driven by high-volume products like the Cybercab and Optimus.
Elon Musk has stated that products like Optimus would be manufactured at very high scale, so it would likely be an all-hands-on-deck situation for the company’s suppliers.
Panasonic did not share details on production costs or how quickly the new batteries might scale for commercial applications. That being said, the Japanese supplier has long been a partner of Tesla, so it makes sense for the company to also push for the next generation of battery innovation while the EV maker pursues even more lofty ambitions.
Elon Musk
Tesla called ‘biggest meme stock we’ve ever seen’ by Yale associate dean

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is being called “the biggest meme stock we’ve ever seen” by Yale School of Management Senior Associate Dean Jeff Sonnenfeld, who made the comments in a recent interview with CNBC.
Sonnenfeld’s comments echo those of many of the company’s skeptics, who argue that its price-to-earnings ratio is far too high when compared to other companies also in the tech industry. Tesla is often compared to companies like Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft when these types of discussions come up.
Fundamentally, yes, Tesla does trade at a P/E level that is significantly above that of any comparable company.
However, it is worth mentioning that Tesla is not traded like a typical company, either.
Here’s what Sonnenfeld said regarding Tesla:
“This is the biggest meme stock we’ve ever seen. Even at its peak, Amazon was nowhere near this level. The PE on this, well above 200, is just crazy. When you’ve got stocks like Nvidia, the price-earnings ratio is around 25 or 30, and Apple is maybe 35 or 36, Microsoft around the same. I mean, this is way out of line to be at a 220 PE. It’s crazy, and they’ve, I think, put a little too much emphasis on the magic wand of Musk.”
Many analysts have admitted in the past that they believe Tesla is an untraditional stock in the sense that many analysts trade it based on narrative and not fundamentals. Ryan Brinkman of J.P. Morgan once said:
“Tesla shares continue to strike us as having become completely divorced from the fundamentals.”
Dan Nathan, another notorious skeptic of Tesla shares, recently turned bullish on the stock because of “technicals and sentiment.” He said just last week:
“I think from a trading perspective, it looks very interesting.”
Nathan said Tesla shares show signs of strength moving forward, including holding its 200-day moving average and holding against current resistance levels.
Sonnenfeld’s synopsis of Tesla shares points out that there might be “a little too much emphasis on the magic wand of Musk.”
Elon Musk just bought $1 billion in Tesla stock, his biggest purchase ever
This could refer to different things: perhaps his recent $1 billion stock buy, which sent the stock skyrocketing, or the fact that many Tesla investors are fans and owners who do not buy and sell on numbers, but rather on news that Musk might report himself.
Tesla is trading around $423.76 at the time of publication, as of 3:25 p.m. on the East Coast.
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