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Relive SpaceX’s high-altitude Starship launch debut in 4K [video]
SpaceX has published a 4K recap of Starship serial number 8’s (SN8) spectacular high-altitude launch debut, highlighting all crucial aspects of the immensely successful test flight and hinting at the next steps forward.
On December 9th, after days of anticipation and delays for the unprecedented test flight, Starship SN8 sailed through a clean preflight flow, ignited three Raptor engines, and lifted off around 4:45 pm CST – just 15 minutes before the launch window was scheduled to close. In a move that would later be confirmed to be intentional, Starship’s ascent went exactly as planned with all three Raptors sequentially shutting down over the course of almost five minutes – necessary, said Elon Musk, to keep the rocket from “[blowing] through the [12.5-kilometer] altitude limit.”
Although technical difficulties prevented a high-altitude NASA reconnaissance jet from capturing aerial footage of the spectacle from up high, SpaceX certainly seems to have made do with more mundane platforms, capturing all aspects of Starship SN8’s launch in high definition.
At apogee, Starship SN8 vented most of the remaining liquid oxygen in its main tank and shut down the last active Raptor engine, kicking off an unprecedented guided freefall back to Earth. To achieve that feat, Starship SN8 had to reach apogee more or less vertical, begin falling tail-first, activate cold-gas thrusters and actuate four giant flaps to tilt belly-down, and use those same thrusters and flaps to maintain stability.
Likely reaching speeds of around 150 m/s (~330 mph) during that freefall, Starship SN8 made it look effortless, twitching its flaps and occasionally using a burst of thrusters to elegantly and stably glide back to about 1 km (~0.6 mi) above the ground. At that point, the rocket ignited one – and then two – Raptor engines with no apparent issue, gimballing violently and firing thrusters to flip its 9m by 50m (30 ft by 165 ft) hull ~120 degrees in a handful of seconds, ending in a tail-down landing configuration.
Up to that point, more than six minutes into the flight test, Starship SN8 had all but aced the gauntlet of firsts SpaceX had thrown at it, notably surpassing CEO Elon Musk’s expectation of a successful ascent but otherwise failed descent.
Instead, SN8 made it just a dozen or two seconds away from a soft landing before things went wrong. According to Musk, who commented after the fact, the Starship’s fuel (methane) header tank – a small secondary tank used to store landing propellant at high pressures – began to exhibit lower than needed pressures in the seconds before touchdown. Whether intentional or not, one of the two Raptors ignited during SN8’s flip maneuver shut down around ten seconds later, at which point the lone remaining engine throttled up only to have its plume turn an almost solid green.
In simple terms, without enough pressure in the fuel header, Raptor’s combustion turned very oxygen-rich, dramatically ramping up the heat and literally melting the engine’s copper-rich combustion chamber liner (hence the green hue). Had that tank been able to maintain pressure, it’s reasonable to assume that SN8 would have stuck a soft landing just like SN5 and SN6 did a few months prior. Thankfully, Musk says the source of the pressure issue was “minor” and, as SpaceX notes at the end of the recap, Starship SN9 is almost ready to carry the torch forward.
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.
Tesla has snagged a deal with IMC Logistics to supply the company with 50 Semi units for its logistics operations.
IMC handles drayage and landside logistics and has over 2,700 asset trucks in its fleet. In its over forty years of service, it has established more than 50 locations across the United States and spans operations from coast to coast.
Jim Gillis of IMC said that the addition of the Tesla Semi will help IMC move toward a “zero-emission service for long-haul lanes.”
The move is one that has become more common over the past few years, as more and more companies doing large-scale logistics have moved to sustainable powertrains, using either Tesla or others.
🚨 IMC Logistics announced that it will add 50 Tesla Semis to its fleet https://t.co/ymh1Ca2IuX
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 5, 2026
Tesla’s Semi program just entered its first truly public phase, as the company handed over its first production units to companies in September, although a pilot program with companies like PepsiCo. and Frito-Lay has been ongoing for years.
IMC announced its intention to purchase 50 Semi units from Tesla in September, and according to VP of Marketing and Public Relations on September 29 to Trucking Drive, the company will take delivery either this week or took delivery late last week.
With surging prices of diesel and high logistics costs, Tesla and the Semi could truly revolutionize how companies manage their fleets. With the advent of Full Self-Driving, the Semi will potentially cut down on driver fatigue and increase productivity, while decreasing the cost of operation per mile by being cheaper to refuel.
Tesla had a dedicated Semi handover event at the Semi factory in Sparks, Nevada, a few weeks back, as it officially introduced its truck to many company fleets that have been waiting to add these sustainable powertrains.
Tesla reveals early Robotaxi charging strategy, showing scrappy DNA
Tesla Robotaxi expands hours, Musk explains why it’s been a challenge
