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SpaceX’s Mr Steven gains upgraded arms to catch its first Falcon 9 fairings
SpaceX’s iconic Falcon 9 payload fairing recovery ship, known as Mr Steven, has been spotted in California’s Port of San Pedro having new arms installed with two cranes and a crew of SpaceX technicians. Aside from the sudden addition of dramatically different arm design, a large inflatable structure also took shape – seemingly overnight – right behind Mr Steven, the purpose of which is entirely unclear.
Incredibly, these massive new arms and their new equally large support struts and base plates have begun installation barely two weeks after Mr Steven took roost and had his old arms removed at SpaceX’s Berth 240 property. While the timeline of the arm and net upgrades – mentioned by CEO Elon Musk several weeks ago – was previously uncertain, the incredibly quick turnaround from old arm removal to new arm install suggests that SpaceX may, in fact, be aiming to have Mr Steven ready for recovery operations as early as Iridium-7, scheduled for launch on July 20th. In all likelihood, the fairing recovery vessel will be held up till the subsequent Vandenberg Air Force Base launch while a net with an area perhaps four times larger is custom-built for SpaceX.
A massive inflatable structure appeared out of nowhere at Berth 240 roughly four days after Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin had last checked up on the facility. (Pauline Acalin)
Nevertheless, SpaceX’s speed rarely fails to surprise, and it’s entirely possible that a new, larger net was already ordered some time ago in preparation for the eventuality that Mr Steven’s first recovery mechanism was unsuccessful. Given the fact that at least two main arms and perhaps eight white, cylindrical struts have apparently been completed and are awaiting installation at Berth 240, it’s probable that the lead time on this new recovery mechanism stretches back at least several months, likely at least a month before Musk mentioned that Mr Steven would have its usable catching area grown “by a factor of [four]” in early June.
Yup, we are extending the net area by a factor of 4
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2018
Closing the fairing recovery gap
With four times the net available to catch wayward Falcon 9 payload fairings, SpaceX may be able to finally close the gap between Mr Steven and the successful and routine recovery and reuse of the second of three main Falcon 9 (and Heavy) components. At roughly 10% of the total cost (not price) of a single-booster Falcon 9, the considerable effort being put into the recovery of carbon-composite payload fairings is in a way motivated more by manufacturing bottlenecks than by the money it will save SpaceX (somewhat less than $3m per half).
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- Taken on Friday, these two photos show the new arm mounting brackets, installed on Mr Steven the week of July 2nd. (Pauline Acalin)
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- Scarcely 48 hours later, an entirely new pear-shaped arm and two huge, circular struts were successfully installed, presumably the first of four sets. (Pauline Acalin)
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- (Pauline Acalin)
SpaceX’s team of composite technicians and engineers will need to reliably fabricate as many as ~50 payload fairing halves in 2018, effectively one half each week
By recovering payload fairings before they touch the ocean surface, the company may – in one fell swoop – be able to dramatically reduce the operational expenditure required to sustain the annual production of dozens of Falcon fairings, each of which requires an inescapable and tediously slow stint in a massive autoclave, only a few of which can be squeeze into the company’s Hawthorne factory. As an example, SpaceX’s team of roughly 150 dedicated composite technicians and engineers will need to reliably fabricate as many as ~50 payload fairing halves – nearly a full half each week – to sustain SpaceX’s anticipated 2018 manifest of 24-28 launches, excluding three Cargo Dragon resupply missions that don’t need fairings.
While both Crew and Cargo Dragon spacecraft and trunks contain a large proportion of carbon fiber-composite structures, every composite Falcon 9 interstage that rolled off of the assembly line since February 2018 is part of a Block 5 booster and is thus expected to support a bare minimum of several missions on its own, functionally multiplying the useful output of any given production line even while the amount of work (and thus work-hours) is reduced. While Falcon 9 boosters – making up roughly 70% of the cost of the entire rocket – have been successfully upgraded to support several reuses each, SpaceX still has to produce a new payload fairing and upper stage for each launch. A spectacular Block 4 farewell earlier this month – complete with a recoverable booster expended to make way for Block 5 – simply served to emphasize the company’s desire to mitigate the expandability of both (currently) unreusable segments of Falcon 9.
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- Meanwhile, the purpose of this massive inflatable ring is almost entirely unclear, as it would appear to be redundant with the initial installation of Mr Steven’s new recovery mechanism. (Pauline Acalin)
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- Arm installation will presumably continue over the course of the week, hopefully reaching completion in time to recovery Iridium-7’s payload fairing. (Pauline Acalin)
If Mr Steven can recover even a small fraction – say 25% – of SpaceX payload fairings launched annually, the exact same level of effort (and thus capital) could support 25% more launches annually or reduce the work hours spent on fairing production by 25%. As it happens, SpaceX’s next-generation rocket (BFR) happens to be built (theoretically) almost entirely out of carbon-composites, from the propellant tanks to the spaceship’s delta wing.
Originally meant to focus on the wholly unexpected appearance of a giant inflatable structure at Berth 240, SpaceX’s breakneck pace of action abruptly recentered it on the equally unexpected installation of one the vessel’s first upgraded arms, meant to support a net that could be as much as four times larger than its predecessor. That symbolism on its own is a worthy representation of some of the best aspects of SpaceX’s world-class team of engineers and technicians, acting as a slightly more on-topic corollary to the equally rapid design, prototyping, fabrication, and testing of ad-hoc ‘submarines’ intended to help a number of Thai children currently trapped in a cave near the country’s border with Myanmar/Burma.
Mr Steven shows off the first of four new arms as a mysterious inflatable ring patiently sits astern. (Pauline Acalin)
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Elon Musk
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark.
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
9 million customers
In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day.
“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote.
That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.
Starlink’s momentum
Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future.
News
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.
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Tesla AI team burns the Christmas midnight oil by releasing FSD v14.2.2.1
The update was released just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla is burning the midnight oil this Christmas, with the Tesla AI team quietly rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2.2.1 just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla owner shares insights on FSD v14.2.2.1
Longtime Tesla owner and FSD tester @BLKMDL3 shared some insights following several drives with FSD v14.2.2.1 in rainy Los Angeles conditions with standing water and faded lane lines. He reported zero steering hesitation or stutter, confident lane changes, and maneuvers executed with precision that evoked the performance of Tesla’s driverless Robotaxis in Austin.
Parking performance impressed, with most spots nailed perfectly, including tight, sharp turns, in single attempts without shaky steering. One minor offset happened only due to another vehicle that was parked over the line, which FSD accommodated by a few extra inches. In rain that typically erases road markings, FSD visualized lanes and turn lines better than humans, positioning itself flawlessly when entering new streets as well.
“Took it up a dark, wet, and twisty canyon road up and down the hill tonight and it went very well as to be expected. Stayed centered in the lane, kept speed well and gives a confidence inspiring steering feel where it handles these curvy roads better than the majority of human drivers,” the Tesla owner wrote in a post on X.
Tesla’s FSD v14.2.2 update
Just a day before FSD v14.2.2.1’s release, Tesla rolled out FSD v14.2.2, which was focused on smoother real-world performance, better obstacle awareness, and precise end-of-trip routing. According to the update’s release notes, FSD v14.2.2 upgrades the vision encoder neural network with higher resolution features, enhancing detection of emergency vehicles, road obstacles, and human gestures.
New Arrival Options also allowed users to select preferred drop-off styles, such as Parking Lot, Street, Driveway, Parking Garage, or Curbside, with the navigation pin automatically adjusting to the ideal spot. Other refinements include pulling over for emergency vehicles, real-time vision-based detours for blocked roads, improved gate and debris handling, and Speed Profiles for customized driving styles.
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
