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SpaceX wants to move Starship Mk2 to one of its Florida launch pads later this month
According to documents filed with local city and transportation authorities in recent months and cataloged by a few local news outlets and spaceflight fans, SpaceX is preparing to transport its East Coast Starship prototype – known as “Mk2” – as early as later this month.
Throughout August 2019, local resident, spaceflight fan, photographer, and cookie-baker Julia Bergeron did a significant amount of groundwork to flesh out an estimated route for Starship Mk2. Delivering the massive rocket prototype from Cocoa, Florida to SpaceX’s Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A facilities would involve a 30+ mile trip by road, cost-prohibitive due to the amount of work required. Confirmed by documents unearthed by local ClickOrlando journalists, SpaceX will instead transport the rocket a few miles by road before loading it onto a barge and shipping the vehicle the rest of the way to KSC.
According to ClickOrlando’s report, those documents indicate that SpaceX will work with Roll-Lift – a familiar contractor for the company – to move Starship the few miles from its Cocoa, FL build site to a river access point located off of a nearby bridge. Once there, it will be loaded onto a barge on the Indian River and pass through the Canaveral Barge Canal to reach the Banana River. Once that leg is complete, it’s a fairly straight shot by barge to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Turn Basin, historically used to deliver extra-large rocket components like Saturn V stages and Space Shuttle External Tanks.
After arriving at the Turn Basin, a few-mile trek along KSC’s Pad 39 Crawlerway will mark the last leg of the spaceship’s move to Pad 39A, where SpaceX broke ground just days ago on a concrete foundation that will eventually support a launch mount for Starship and Super Heavy.
Currently disassembled into a nose cone, upper nose, and tank section, it remains to be seen if SpaceX will transport Starship Mk2 in pieces or integrate the three segments before moving the giant rocket. Stretching 9m (30 ft) in diameter and 45-55m (150-180 ft) tall depending on the stage of assembly, Starship will likely weigh several dozen metric tons (100,000+ lb) and pose major challenges over such a long journey.
SpaceX and city workers have already spent the last two or so months either raising or burying a number of utility lines along the proposed transport route, a necessity to give a vertical Starship the headroom needed to traverse several miles of public roads.
After this move, it’s likely that SpaceX will move its Florida Starship factory to a new site inside the bounds of Kennedy Space Center. Currently known by the road it sits beside, SpaceX has already begun work on its prospective Roberts Road facilities. Proposed in 2018 as a convenient Falcon 9 refurbishment and launch control center (LCC), Roberts Road could also provide at least as much room for Starship production as is available at SpaceX’s current Cocoa, FL property while sidestepping the logistical headaches of transporting Starships – let alone Super Heavy boosters – dozens of miles.
SpaceX currently has more than two dozen stainless steel rings strewn about its Cocoa, FL build facilities, enough raw material to build more than 45m (150 ft) of the first Super Heavy booster or a Starship Mk3 prototype. Starship Mk2 has suffered some minor delays as a result of Hurricane Dorian but is poised to be capped with its third and final propellant tank dome before the end of the month. Starship Mk1 (located in Boca Chica, TX) and Starship Mk2 remain more or less neck-and-neck as the distinct SpaceX teams compete to complete their prototypes first.
According to ClickOrlando’s documentation, SpaceX plans to move Starship Mk2 to Pad 39A as early as this month. The on-road leg will take place at night and require road and highway closures, while SpaceX estimates that the entire transportation process could take up to two weeks from start to finish.
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Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Marie Nilsson, chair of Sweden’s IF Metall union and a prominent critic of Tesla, has left X and is urging audiences to follow the union on Meta’s Threads instead.
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Anti-Tesla union leader exits X
In a comment to Dagens Arbete (DA), Nilsson noted that her exit from X is not formally tied to IF Metall’s long-running labor dispute with Tesla Sweden. Still, she stated that her departure is affected by changes to the platform under Elon Musk’s leadership.
“We have stayed because many journalists pick up news there. But as more and more people have left X, we have felt that the standard has now been reached on that platform,” she said.
Jesper Pettersson, press officer at IF Metall, highlighted that the union’s departure from X is only indirectly linked to Tesla Sweden and Elon Musk. “Indirectly it does, since there is a lot of evidence that his ownership has caused the change in the platform to be so significant.
“We have nevertheless assessed that the platform had value for reaching journalists, politicians and other opinion leaders. But it is a microscopic proportion of the public and our members who are there, and now that value has decreased,” Petterson added.
IF Metall sees Threads as an X alternative
After leaving X, IF Metall has begun using Threads, Meta’s alternative to the social media platform. The union described the move as experimental, noting that it is still evaluating how effective the platform will be for outreach and visibility.
Pettersson acknowledged that Meta also does not operate under Sweden’s collective bargaining model, but said the union sees little alternative if it wants to remain visible online.
“In a perfect world, all large international companies would be supporters of the Swedish model when they come here. But unfortunately, the reality is not like that. If we are to be visible at all in this social media world, we have to play by the rules of the game. The alternative would be to become completely invisible, and that would not benefit our members,” he said.
Despite many recent rumors and various reports, Elon Musk confirmed today that SpaceX is not developing a phone based on Starlink, not once, but twice.
Today’s report from Reuters cited people familiar with the matter and stated internal discussions have seen SpaceX executives mulling the idea of building a mobile device that would connect directly to the Starlink satellite constellation.
Musk did state in late January that SpaceX developing a phone was “not out of the question at some point.” However, He also said it would have to be a major difference from current phones, and would be optimized “purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.”
Not out of the question at some point. It would be a very different device than current phones. Optimized purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2026
While Musk said it was not out of the question “at some point,” that does not mean it is currently a project SpaceX is working on. The CEO reaffirmed this point twice on X this afternoon.
Musk said, “Reuters lies relentlessly,” in one post. In the next, he explicitly stated, “We are not developing a phone.”
Reuters lies relentlessly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
We are not developing a phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
Musk has basically always maintained that SpaceX has too many things going on, denying that a phone would be in the realm of upcoming projects. There are too many things in the works for Musk’s space exploration company, most notably the recent merger with xAI.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
A Starlink phone would be an excellent idea, especially considering that SpaceX operates 9,500 satellites, serving over 9 million users worldwide. 650 of those satellites are dedicated to the company’s direct-to-device initiative, which provides cellular coverage on a global scale.
Nevertheless, there is the potential that the Starlink phone eventually become a project SpaceX works on. However, it is not currently in the scope of what the company needs to develop, so things are more focused on that as of right now.
Tesla has added a notable improvement to its Dashcam feature after complaints from owners have pushed the company to make a drastic change.
Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations that Tesla owners have communicated regarding the Dashcam feature is the lack of ability to retain any more than 60 minutes of driving footage before it is overwritten.
It does not matter what size USB jump drive is plugged into the vehicle. 60 minutes is all it will hold until new footage takes over the old. This can cause some issues, especially if you were saving an impressive clip of Full Self-Driving or an incident on the road, which could be lost if new footage was recorded.
This has now been changed, as Tesla has shown in the Release Notes for an upcoming Software Update in China. It will likely expand to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, and was first noticed by NotaTeslaApp.
The release notes state:
“Dashcam Dynamic Recording Duration – The dashcam dynamically adjusts the recording duration based on the available storage capacity of the connected USB drive. For example, with a 128 GB USB drive, the maximum recording duration is approximately 3 hours; with a 1 TB or larger USB drive, it can reach up to 24 hours. This ensures that as much video as possible is retained for review before it gets overwritten.”
Tesla Adds Dynamic Recording
Instead of having a 60-minute cap, the new system will now go off the memory in the USB drive. This means with:
- 128 GB Jump Drive – Up to Three Hours of Rolling Footage
- 1TB Jump Drive – Up to 24 Hours of Rolling Footage
This is dependent on the amount of storage available on the jump drive, meaning that if there are other things saved on it, it will take away from the amount of footage that can be retained.
While the feature is just now making its way to employees in China, it will likely be at least several weeks before it makes its way to the U.S., but owners should definitely expect it in the coming months.
It will be a welcome feature, especially as there will now be more customization to the number of clips and their duration that can be stored.
Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Elon Musk confirms SpaceX is not developing a phone
