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SpaceX’s new Falcon 9 fairing recovery ship kicks off sea trials ahead of next launch
After a brief installation period, SpaceX’s second Falcon 9 fairing-catching ship departed Port Canaveral to begin sea trials with its new net and arms, a critical step before it can be declared ready to attempt its first fairing recovery.
Known as GO Ms. Chief, the ship’s first opportunity could come as early as a few weeks from now, potentially marking a major milestone for SpaceX’s fairing recovery and reuse program.
On his first shoot for Teslarati, photographer Richard Angle (@RDAnglePhoto) managed to capture Ms. Chief while departing Port Canaveral on October 23rd, heading a few miles off the coast to kick off sea trials likely focused on proving out a wide range of new hardware installed in the last month. Those trials began less than 24 hours after technicians installed Ms. Chief’s recovery net for the first time ever, with the ship’s subsequent trip into the Atlantic Ocean essentially marking the completion of her transformation from fast supply vessel (FSV) to SpaceX fairing catcher.
SpaceX is currently in the midst of its longest lull in launch activity since September 2016, likely triggered by the unavailability of customer payloads and the company’s own internal Starlink missions. Unfortunately, although the lull was initially expected to end as early as mid-October, the internal Starlink launch (Starlink-1) expected to lead the charge slipped about a month for unknown reasons and is now expected no earlier than November – likely in the second half of the month.
As a small consolation, Starlink-1’s launch delays mean that the newly-outfitted Ms. Chief may be able to inaugurate its new net and arms by attempting to recover one of the mission’s Falcon 9 fairing halves, while the nearly identical GO Ms. Tree attempts to snag the other half. Even if more tweaking and sea trials are needed to prove her readiness, SpaceX’s next launch is still likely several weeks away, hopefully giving the company’s recovery team plenty of time to prepare Ms. Chief and practice recovery operations.
As of October 2019, SpaceX has successfully caught two Falcon fairing halves during the company’s last two back-to-back recovery attempts, beginning with a Falcon Heavy fairing half caught on June 25th and ending with a Falcon 9 fairing half caught on August 7th. Beyond Ms. Tree’s two catches, SpaceX has successfully recovered a number of additional fairing halves after they performed soft landings in the Atlantic Ocean, including both halves launched in May 2019 for the company’s first dedicated Starlink mission.
Given that SpaceX has technically caught two halves of a payload fairing, it’s possible that one is female and the other male, potentially meaning that one of SpaceX’s upcoming Starlink launches could feature the first fully-reused Falcon 9 fairing. Regardless, assuming one or both were recovered in good condition, it’s even more likely that at least one half (with the other half new) will be reused on one (or both) of those upcoming flights.
Said by CEO Elon Musk to make up approximately 10% of the cost of a new Falcon 9 (~$6M), routine fairing recovery and reuse would close the last remaining loop for Falcon 9 reusability, with boosters and fairings accounting for roughly 75-80% of the total cost of the rocket. SpaceX has no plans to attempt to recover or reuse Falcon 9’s second stage, choosing instead to prioritize development of the fully-reusable Starship launch vehicle.
Preparing the oven-cured carbon composite shells that make up the bulk of SpaceX’s Falcon fairings takes a disproportionate amount of time and factory floor space. Even if Falcon fairings can only be reused once or twice, it would effectively double or triple the effectiveness of the current manufacturing apparatus, cutting the relative cost of production by 50% or more for the price of operating Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief.
Fairing reuse will be a critical part of ensuring that the first phase of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation can be launched as affordably as possible on Falcon 9. With at least 24 launches needed to cover most populated areas, cutting even a few million dollars per launch could produce savings on the order of $100M, equivalent to the production cost of 100-200 Starlink satellites.
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Elon Musk has acknowledged that early discussions with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) could bring the company into his ambitious Terafab semiconductor project, signaling a possible partnership with the world’s leading contract chipmaker.
Musk confirmed that early talks are underway, but as of right now, they are “just discussions.” There is no confirmation of a deal nor dismissal of the possibility of one, leaving open the prospect of one of the largest advanced-chip collaborations under discussion in the U.S.
@wholemars Just discussions, but something may come of it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2026
The report that speculated on potential discussions between Terafab and TSMC comes from Tim Culpan, who outlined a few ways the collaboration could operate. One is TSMC using the project as an “anchor customer” for future facilities in Texas, potentially contributing process expertise, operational know-how, or capacity while Terafab provides capital, long-term purchase commitments, or both.
Tesla and SpaceX jointly developed the Terafab project, with Intel already participating on the tech side. Elon Musk announced the project in March, and it intends to produce more than one terawatt of AI compute capacity annually once fully built.
Company statements place the first phase at approximately $16.8 billion in cost, with later filings pointing to a total that could reach well into the tens of billions across multiple stages.
Intel joined the effort in April 2026 and is expected to supply its 14A manufacturing process for the full-scale plant.
Musk has said existing suppliers, including Samsung and TSMC, remain important for near-term needs; Tesla already has production arrangements with Samsung for AI5 and AI6 chips, but that future demand from Optimus robots, Cybercab vehicles, and planned space-based data centers will eventually exceed what the global industry can currently deliver.
Terafab is positioned as the long-term answer to that projected shortfall, and Tesla did something similar during COVID to avoid a chip shortage. This is just a much larger-scale solution.
If the partnership were to materialize, it would add TSMC’s industry-leading strategies to a project that already combines Tesla’s and SpaceX’s capital and offtake with Intel’s process technology. For now, the only public confirmation is Musk’s brief acknowledgement that conversations are occurring.
Tesla’s early strategy for charging units operating within its Robotaxi fleet reveals that the company surely has not lost any of that scrappy DNA that took it from an unlikely success story to the most valuable carmaker in the world.
An observer at a Tesla Supercharger in Austin spotted ten total Robotaxi vehicles arrive: one Cybercab and nine Model Y units. A Tesla employee was waiting at the lot and allowed each unit to park itself; every car that arrived had nobody in it.
Tesla wins FCC approval for wireless Cybercab charging system
The Tesla employee would walk around and plug each car in, adjusting the parking if needed:
So look at what I found. This is how Tesla charges unsupervised robotaxis at a public supercharger. Here is a driverless Cybercab showing up with no one in it. There are 9 other Model Ys that showed up too. A Tesla employee is walking around and plugging each of them in. She also moves the cars if they are not positioned well enough to charge. I love this process. One person charges multiple robotaxis at once
— Abhimanyu Yadav (@WorldlyReviewer) October 3, 2026
It’s a very interesting strategy, but extremely understandable at this early point in the Robotaxi program. It’s only been out for about 15 months, and Cybercab just entered the fleet in early September.
On top of that, Tesla is still working tirelessly on its wireless charging apparatus, and a new patent was just published regarding that product last week.
However, this is just another example of how Tesla still has plenty of that scrappy DNA leftover from the “production hell” days, when CEO Elon Musk slept on the floor of the factory, employees were working crazy hours, Tesla was building Sprung Structures to build cars in, and the company was tiptoeing on the brink of bankruptcy.
@Teslarati Sheer magnitude of the entire production system is hard to appreciate. Almost every element of production is >75% automated. Only wire harnesses & general assembly, which are <10% of production costs, are primarily manual.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2020
For now, Tesla is utilizing a simple system for recharging its ride-hailing vehicles, and that is a Tesla employee doing it manually until another solution presents itself. Sure, it’s not the most high-tech thing, and it certainly is not what people might have expected at this point in time, but it works, and it’s keeping the entire suite running.
Tesla is expanding its Robotaxi service hours by pushing the time back by one hour, keeping the ride-hailing service operational until 11 p.m., one hour later than previously.
CEO Elon Musk confirmed the change and offered a specific reason the expansion has been gradual: the system still needs to reliably avoid small pets that are difficult to see after dark, as they commonly blend into the color of the road, especially when they’re grey.
The latest adjustment restores only a fraction of the operating window the service once held. When paid Robotaxi rides began in Austin on June 22, 2025, vehicles ran from 6 a.m. to midnight.
In September 2025, Tesla lengthened the day to a 2 a.m. close, producing a 20-hour window that stayed in place for most of the following year. By early August of this year, the cutoff had already been pulled back; an August 26 update formalized hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. across Austin and several other markets.
The October move to 11 p.m. therefore leaves the Austin day one hour shorter than the original launch schedule and three hours shorter than the 2025 peak.
Musk addressed the constraint directly after the announcement. “The main thing we’re trying to solve is making sure that we don’t run over pets when they’re hard to see at night,” he wrote. “Literally trying to avoid grey kittens on grey tarmac in the dark.”
Robotaxi operating hours moved from 10pm to 11pm.
The main thing we’re trying to solve is making sure that we don’t run over pets when they’re hard to see at night. Literally trying to avoid grey kittens on grey tarmac in the dark.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2026
The example points to a low-contrast perception problem in which a small animal can blend into the road surface under limited lighting.
Tesla’s vehicles rely on cameras and neural-network processing rather than lidar; Musk has previously argued that advanced vision software can extract useful information even in low light by analyzing photon counts, but the pet-detection case remains the stated limiter in later hours.
The modest schedule change arrives alongside faster growth in the purpose-built Cybercab fleet. Texas registration data tracked by observers showed the Austin Cybercab count rising sharply in recent weeks, reaching 169 vehicles after more than 100 were added in a short span.
Tesla has indicated that a broader shift toward 24-hour operation is tied to the upcoming FSD v15 software release expected this month on Robotaxi vehicles. Until that capability is validated for the edge cases Musk described, the company continues to add service time incrementally rather than jumping straight to overnight coverage.
The one-hour extension gives Austin riders a later option for evening trips while the underlying detection work continues.
Elon Musk teases TSMC as potential Terafab partner
Tesla reveals early Robotaxi charging strategy, showing scrappy DNA
