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SpaceX’s first Starship booster a step closer as custom parts arrive
While SpaceX remains focused on Starship flight testing as the dust settles from SN8’s launch debut, the company continues to make slow but steady progress building the first Super Heavy booster prototype.
For the most part, SpaceX has learned from trial and error and developed a decent stainless steel rocket manufacturing process by building a dozen Starship prototypes over the last ~12 months, ranging from a lone nosecone tip to stout test tanks and Starship SN8, which launched to 12.5 km (~7.8 mi) earlier this month. Practically identical below the nose, Super Heavy directly benefits from that maturity and is more or less an extended Starship tank section with more engines and bigger legs.
In many ways, Super Heavy can be much simpler than Starship, as a suborbital booster has no need for header tanks, flaps, or a nosecone, and can be much stronger and heavier in all aspects. However, carrying three or more times as propellant as Starship (and carrying Starship itself), Super Heavy also needs to be stronger. All those changes – requiring new design work and new fabrication – take time. In a great sign that most of that work is complete, some of that custom hardware needed to strengthen and power Super Heavy has begun to arrive over the last several weeks.
SpaceX began stacking the first Super Heavy booster (BN1) on November 8th and appears to have more or less paused integration operations after joining eight rings. Production continued apace, however, and no less than five ring sections destined for Super Heavy appeared over the next several weeks. Why assembly slowed down is unclear but it’s reasonable to assume that SpaceX was trying to keep its focus primarily on Starship SN8’s launch debut and the preparation of several other full-scale ships, where early work on Super Heavy could ultimately be for naught if Starship flight tests uncover major design flaws.
Regardless of the reason, BN1 remains eight rings (14.5m/48ft) tall as of December 14th, representing one-fifth of Super Heavy’s full 70-meter (~230 ft) height.
On December 17th, one of the parts unique to Super Heavy unexpectedly appeared in SpaceX’s South Texas shipyard, labeled “B1 FWD PIPE DOME”. The dome was quickly sleeved with a stack of three steel rings with labels confirming that the assembly was Super Heavy BN1’s common tank dome – “common” because it’s shared by both booster propellant tanks. The new dome is unique to all previous Starship domes, featuring a smaller, more reinforced cutout – likely because Super Heavy doesn’t need header tanks.
It also appears to borrow from Starship’s forward dome design, using the same rougher steel normally used to cap off Starship methane tanks.
Unlike Starship common domes, which place a spherical methane header tank at the bottom, Super Heavy’s common dome will have a transfer tube welded directly to its nozzle-like opening. As it turns out, what could be the first Super Heavy methane transfer tube was delivered to Boca Chica late last month.
Unlike Starship transfer tubes, the new plumbing appeared to have a much wider diameter and was delivered in four sections, meshing well with the fact that Super Heavy tanks are roughly twice as tall as Starship’s. Able to support as many as 28 Raptors compared to Starship’s 6, Super Heavy transfer tubes will also need to pump more than five times as much methane per second at full thrust, which could explain the larger diameter.
Finally and perhaps most significantly, aerial photos from RGV Photography appeared to capture the first glimpse of what might be the hardest custom part required by Super Heavy – a thrust structure designed to support up to 28 Raptor engines. On December 10th, casually sitting between Starship Mk1’s remains (on the white concrete mount) and a tent, a flat ring with clear eightfold symmetry and a donut-like cutout large enough to fit a Starship thrust puck with room to spare was easily visible.
The hexagonal symmetry was the main giveaway, matching comments from CEO Elon Musk that Super Heavy’s thrust structure will feature a central ring of eight engines surrounded by an outer ring of up to 20 more Raptors. Assuming the first Super Heavy booster only flies with a few Raptor engines, that sole eight-engine ‘puck’ may be all that SpaceX needs to complete BN1.
News
Tesla Australia Exec: No regulatory barriers for FSD release
Tesla’s FSD demonstrations have been quite impressive as of late.
Recent comments from Tesla’s Country Director for Australia and New Zealand Thom Drew have provided an exciting update for Full Self Driving’s upcoming release in Australia. As per the executive, there is currently no regulatory barrier to FSD being rolled out to Australian roads.
Drew’s comments came on the heels of a video demonstration featuring FSD Supervised navigating Melbourne’s central business district.
Tesla FSD’s Australia Demo
Shared by the Tesla AI team’s official account on social media platform X, FSD Supervised’s demonstration in Melbourne’s central business district sparked a lot of conversations online. Electric vehicle enthusiasts on X were quite impressed with the system’s capabilities to handle the city’s busy and crowded streets. Even more were pleasantly surprised when FSD Supervised performed a smooth hook turn in its demonstration.
In a comment to News.com.au, Drew emphasized that FSD’s global expansion is a priority for Tesla. “That’s Elon’s push. We have a global engineering team that are working across markets around a lot of FSD… actively working across all our markets to roll it out,” the executive noted.
No Regulatory Barriers
Interestingly enough, Drew also stated that there is no regulatory barrier to FSD hitting Australia’s roads. This suggests that FSD may be released in Australia once Tesla is satisfied with the local calibration and performance of the system on the country’s inner city streets.
“There’s currently no blockers in Australia to releasing Full Self Driving Supervised, as we have in North America. It’s something our business is working on releasing. I don’t have a timeline currently for you, but it’s certainly very exciting to be able to bring that to a market that doesn’t have a regulatory blocker,” Drew stated.
Tesla’s FSD demonstrations have been quite impressive as of late, with the company also publishing a video showing the system navigating France’s Arc de Triomphe, one of Europe’s most complicated roundabouts, recently. Over in China, a Tesla Model 3 owner also used FSD to travel almost 2,485 miles from the Henan Province to the base camp of Mt. Everest.
News
Tesla China registrations bounce back to 11.1k vehicles in May’s 2nd full week
Tesla China’s domestic vehicle registrations have been volatile in recent weeks.
Tesla reported 11,130 insurance registrations in China in the week of May 12-18, 2025. These represent a 262.5% increase from 3,070 registrations that the company saw in the week ending May 11.
Tesla China’s domestic vehicle registrations have been volatile in recent weeks, suggesting that Giga Shanghai may still be exporting Model 3 and Model Y vehicles to foreign territories this month.
Tesla China’s Registrations
In the week ending May 4, Tesla China saw 7,300 new vehicle registrations. This was not that surprising considering that Tesla may still be allocating Gigafactory Shanghai’s output to vehicle exports. In the week ending May 11, however, industry watchers were quite surprised to see just 3,070 registrations from Tesla China.
The 262.54% bounce in vehicle registrations in the week ending May 18 is thus a pleasant update from the world’s biggest and most competitive electric vehicle market. Even with these results, however, industry watchers still note that Tesla China’s registrations this 2025 are still down 6.5% year-over-year.
Tesla China does not report its weekly sales figures, though the company’s overall performance in the domestic automotive sector can be inferred through new vehicle registration data. Fortunately, these registrations are closely tracked by industry watchers, as well as local automakers such as Li Auto.
Domestic Sales and Exports
Following the start of domestic deliveries of the new Model Y in China, expectations were high that the company would see a steady rise in registrations this second quarter. Giga Shanghai does not only supply vehicles to the domestic Chinese market, after all, as the facility also serves as the company’s primary vehicle export hub, providing Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers to several territories.
Tesla China sold 28,731 vehicles domestically and exported 29,728 vehicles in April. In comparison, the company saw 74,127 domestic registrations and 4,701 exports in March 2025, as per data compiled by CNEV Post. Considering Tesla China’s registrations this May, it would not be surprising if the company’s exports this month would exceed March’s 4,701 units.
xAI is bolstering its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis with 168 Tesla Megapacks, enhancing the energy infrastructure for its ambitious AI supercomputer expansion. The deployment underscores xAI’s push to lead AI innovation while addressing environmental concerns.
The first Colossus site is connected to a 150 megawatts (MW) substation powered by MLGW and TVA. It is supported by approximately 156 Megapacks, providing 150 MW of stored energy backup to xAI’s supercomputer. The 168 Tesla Megapacks recently delivered to xAI’s Memphis site will provide battery storage backup to Colossus 2.
In December 2024, xAI doubled the capacity of Colossus to 200,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, which consumes 250 MW of power–enough to energize 250,000 homes. In March 2025, the AI company bought a 1-million-square-foot site in Whitehaven, Memphis, for $80 million. xAI’s Whitehaven site could host up to 350,000 GPUs with the potential to deploy the largest number of Tesla Megapacks for backup power.
xAI plans to scale Colossus up to 1 million GPUs to create the world’s largest AI supercomputer. A 1-million-GPU setup would require over 1 gigawatt, about one-third of Memphis’s peak summer demand.
Initially reliant on natural gas turbines, Colossus faced criticism for nitrogen oxide emissions. The 150 MW substation, completed in early 2025, reduced turbine use by half, with Megapacks providing cleaner backup power. By fall 2025, xAI expects the second substation to come online. Once the second substation is online, the remaining turbines will only be used for backup, reducing the project’s carbon footprint.
Tesla Energy’s Q1 2025 performance, with a 156% year-over-year increase and 10.4 GWh of storage deployed, supports xAI’s needs. Tesla’s Megapack factory in Waller County, Texas, set to create 1,500 jobs, signals further commitment to scaling energy solutions for projects like Colossus.
xAI’s rapid expansion, backed by Tesla Megapacks, positions it to rival AI leaders like OpenAI and Google. The Colossus 2 deployment reflects a strategic blend of cutting-edge AI and sustainable energy. As Memphis’ infrastructure adapts to unprecedented power demands, xAI and Tesla are reshaping the AI landscape with a focus on efficiency and environmental responsibility.
Tesla Australia Exec: No regulatory barriers for FSD release
Tesla China registrations bounce back to 11.1k vehicles in May’s 2nd full week
xAI receives more Tesla Megapacks for Colossus 2
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