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SpaceX is ready to build the first Starship destined for space after latest tests
After a busy several days of rocket hardware testing, Elon Musk says that SpaceX may be ready to build the first Starship prototype destined for space.
According to Musk, one test in particular – performed in South Texas just yesterday – is an encouraging sign that SpaceX’s Starship team is becoming increasingly competent at building the massive steel parts that will ultimately make up the generation launch vehicle. For SpaceX, the particular skills and expertise needed to precisely and consistently build a launch vehicle – let alone a rocket as large and complex as Starship – are quite a bit different from those it has mastered with Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon.
A lot of the expertise – particularly engineering talent, countless lessons-learned, and insight into reusability – is directly transferable from Falcon rockets to SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy program. Where it really isn’t transferable, however, is in the methods required to actually build the steel subcomponents that must ultimately be assembled together to form the rocket’s upper stage and booster. As a result, SpaceX has spent more than a year focused on building, testing, scrapping, improving, and re-testing any number of critical Starship components. Over the last four weeks (and last few days in particular), that testing has come to a head and Elon Musk believes the results have opened the door for SpaceX to begin building its first space-bound Starship prototypes.
SpaceX’s latest round of full-scale Starship hardware tests began just 10-20 days ago, depending on how one counts. Back around the start of the new calendar year, SpaceX began rapidly integrating two new Starship bulkheads and two cylindrical steel rings (barrel sections), ultimately delivering a finished ‘test tank’ after just 20 days of work. On January 10th, scarcely 24 hours after the two halves of the test tank were welded together, SpaceX sent the Starship test tank to its nearby launch pad and pressurized it with water until it quite literally burst.
Musk tweeted the results of that intentional test-to-destruction just a few hours after it was completed, revealing that SpaceX’s upgraded production and integration techniques enabled the tank to survive pressures almost 20% greater than the minimum Starships will need to perform orbital launches.
“Critically, the tank reached a maximum sustained pressure of 7.1 bar (103 psi), 18% more than the operating pressure (6 bar/87 psi) Musk says Starship prototypes will need to begin orbital test flights. At 7.1 bar, the test tank would have been experiencing an incredible ~20,000 metric tons (45 million lbf) of force spread out over its interior surfaces — equivalent to ~20% of the weight of an entire US Navy aircraft carrier. Perhaps even more impressive, that same Starship test tank was built from almost nothing extremely quickly, going from first weld to said pressurization test in just three weeks (20 days).
With relatively minor improvements to welding conditions and the manufacturing precision of Starship rings and domes, Musk believes that SpaceX can reliably build Starships and Super Heavy boosters to survive pressures greater than 8.5 bar (125 psi), guaranteeing a safety margin of at least 40%. Even a minor improvement of ~6% would give Starship a safety margin of 125%, enough – in the eyes of most engineering standards committees – to reasonably certify Starships for orbital test flights.”
Teslarati.com — January 12th, 2020
Test Tank 2: The Tankening
This brings us to January 27th, a little over two weeks after SpaceX completed and burst the first standalone Starship test tank. Over the last week, SpaceX has quickly assembled a second Starship test tank, using a few clearly new methods and parts, as well as a brand-new tent built by the same company that Tesla used for Fremont’s fourth General Assembly line.
In the last few days, two new bulkheads and steel rings came together to form Starship test tank #2, which was subsequently prepped for transport and moved about a mile down the road to SpaceX’s launch facilities on the morning of January 27th. Scarcely a few hours later, well before anyone was paying close attention for test activities, Elon Musk took to Twitter to reveal that the second tank had already been subjected to a pressure test with water. That second tank reportedly survived up to 7.5 bar, an improvement of about 6% compared to the first tank.
This time, however, the tank wasn’t actually catastrophically destroyed by the pressure test, instead developing a leak around the weld connecting the two halves that lead SpaceX to back off. Musk says that that presumably small leak will now be repaired, after which the same tank will be tested again but with one significant difference. Musk says that Test Tank #2’s second pressure test will be performed with a cryogenic liquid — most likely liquid nitrogen (LN2).
In replies after his reveal, Musk noted that he believed the second test tank could perform significantly better if pressurized with a cryogenic liquid. That’s because certain types of steel – particularly those SpaceX has chosen for Starship – exhibit something known as cryogenic hardening when exposed to extremely cold temperatures, producing steel that can be dramatically stronger by some measures.
Ultimately, as mentioned above, a tank pressure safety margin of 125% is the minimum most engineering standards provide for any given orbital-class launch vehicle. At 7.5 bar, even under the very unlikely assumption that Starship tanks will not see even a marginal strength increase at cryogenic temperatures, SpaceX’s second Starship test tank has officially hit that 125% safety margin. As Musk himself noted on Monday, he is now confident that SpaceX can immediately start building the first Starship destined for spaceflight and further revealed that two of that particular Starship’s three tank domes are already nearing completion.
Known as Starship SN01 (serial number 01), there’s a strong possibility that the massive spacecraft will never reach higher than a 20 km (12.5 mi) flight test SpaceX intends to perform. The company’s rapidly changing strategy may very well mean that SN01 – now ‘go’ for production – could also support suborbital spaceflight testing and maybe even the first orbital Starship launch, although orbital launches will require a Super Heavy booster. Elon Musk, for one, has already christened Starship SN01 an “orbital vehicle”.
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Tesla has joined the Australian Energy Council
Tesla Energy will join a top energy council in Australia, as it continues to deploy a wide range of battery projects in the country.
Tesla has been announced as the most recent member to join an industry group of electricity and energy businesses in Australia, coming amidst a wave of grid- and home-scale battery deployments in the country from the U.S. manufacturer.
Last week, Tesla Australia officially joined the Australian Energy Council (AEC) as the group’s newest member, contributing to a group of companies that administers gas and electricity to over 10 million homes. The news, announced in a post on LinkedIn, comes as Tesla continues to expand the presence of its grid-scale Megapacks and home-scale Powerwalls in Australia and elsewhere,
The council wrote the following announcement message in the post:
AEC membership provides an opportunity to collaborate to develop the solutions necessary to drive Australia’s energy transition. Together, we aim to create positive outcomes for consumers across the nation as the energy system decarbonises.
We look forward to working closely with Tesla Australia to help shape the future of Australia’s energy landscape.
The announcement also garnered a response from Tesla Energy’s Regional Director for the Asia-Pacific region Josef Tadich, who shared a few words about the news in another post:
A big thank you to Louisa Kinnear and the Australian Energy Council, Tesla are very much looking forward to working together in this space, in what is turning out to be an exciting 2025.
Wholesale and retail electricity markets are rapidly adapting and changing to new technologies, with more renewables and storage on the supply side, and more generation and flexible loads on the Customer demand side with VPPs, and controllable EV charging loads to name a few. Great time to be in this dynamic space!
READ MORE ON TESLA ENERGY IN AUSTRALIA: Tesla building battery repair facility near Collie Megapack project
The announcement comes as Tesla has shipped Megapacks to a handful of energy storage sites in Australia, including a 1,600MWh Tesla Megapack facility in Plumpton, Victoria that’s expected to turn on sometime this year. Tesla is also working on expanding the Western Australia “Collie” battery, which will feature 2,240 MWh of Megapack storage upon completion of phase two.
While the U.S. company currently builds its Megapacks at a so-called “Megafactory” in Lathrop, California, the company began production last month at a second Megafactory in Shanghai, China that’s expected to supply future energy projects in Australia. The company has also teased plans for a third Megafactory, though it isn’t yet clear where that could be built.
In addition to Tesla’s grid-scale Megapack batteries, the company also builds the Powerwall home-scale battery, which can be used for households or commercial buildings to store energy, along with being able to deploy energy back to the grid. Tesla also launched its next-generation Powerwall 3 in the Australian market last year.
The company utilizes its network of Powerwall owners to create giant, distributed batteries, called Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), effectively letting owners sell electricity back to the electrical grid during periods of peak demand. These programs are being utilized across much of Australia and several other markets throughout the world, and Tesla said in October that it had reached over 100,000 Powerwalls participating in VPPs worldwide.
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Tesla arsonist set himself on fire after throwing Molotov cocktail: authorities
Witnesses reported that the suspect caught fire mid-act, with one device scorching his back as he fled.
An arson attempt targeting a Tesla charging station in South Carolina left the suspect engulfed in flames and facing up to 20 years in prison, authorities have stated.
The suspect allegedly torched three chargers in a protest against President Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, scrawling anti-Trump graffiti before accidentally setting himself ablaze with his own Molotov cocktails, as noted in a New York Post report.
Arsonist Burns Self in Tesla Protest
Federal prosecutors stated that 24-year-old Daniel Clarke-Pounder hurled five Molotov cocktails at a Tesla charging station in North Charleston, igniting three chargers while leaving messages like “f–k Trump” and “long live the Ukraine” in the area. Witnesses reported that Clarke-Pounder caught fire mid-act, with one device scorching his back as he fled, according to a police report cited by WCBD.
“The suspect had accidentally caught their own back on fire while throwing the devices,” an initial police report noted. Clarke-Pounder was arraigned in federal court, though his injuries remained undisclosed.
Backlash Targets Musk’s Tesla Empire
The fiery incident follows a wave of hostility toward Tesla, fueled by Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under U.S. President Donald Trump. Over the past months, Teslas have been subjected to vandalism incidents, and some locations have been shot up. In some cases, Tesla locations have been attacked with Molotov cocktails.
Officials such as President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have issued stern warnings against those who wish to attack Tesla and its customers. Trump, for one, pledged that anyone caught attacking American companies like Tesla will “go through hell.”
“No Place in Our Community”
Acting U.S. Attorney Brook B. Andrews condemned the attack, stating, “While we will defend the public’s right to peaceful protest, we will not hesitate to act when protest crosses the line into violence and mayhem.
“These kinds of attacks have no place in our community… We must remain united in our commitment to safety and respect for all, regardless of political differences.”
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Tesla excluded from incentives in Canada over Trump tariffs
Tesla has been excluded from two Canadian EV incentive programs, as the country’s officials grapple with tariffs from the Trump administration.
Tesla has been excluded from electric vehicle (EV) incentive programs in Canada in recent weeks, as officials attempt to retaliate against CEO Elon Musk and the Trump administration’s recent tariffs.
In a press conference on Monday, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said that the city would no longer provide tax incentives for Tesla vehicles for ride-hailing and taxi purposes, effectively excluding the brand from a program offering reduced fees for going electric. The news also comes after a British Columbia (B.C.) official announced last week that Tesla’s vehicles would no longer get EV rebates for home charging equipment.
“We are giving incentives for people to migrate into electric cars, except we will stop giving incentives, financial incentives to buy Tesla,” Chow said during the media conference. “We have certainly said that if you want to buy Tesla, go ahead, but don’t count on taxpayer money to subsidize it.”
The program is part of a citywide initiative to offer reduced licensing and renewal fees for ride-hailing vehicle purchasers going electric, set to run through 2029 in efforts to electrify the city’s taxi fleet and lower emissions.
The Toronto Mayor also went on to point out that “there are other electric cars around,” which fleet operators would have to consider She also addressed whether the city would re-evaluate carbon emissions goals in light of the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doing so in recent weeks, saying that the city “would like to reduce [its] carbon footprint as quickly as possible,” but that it could always look at “whether or not the deadline makes sense.”
At the time of writing, the Mayor’s office has not yet responded to Teslarati’s request for clarification on how many vehicles have utilized the program. You can watch the full press conference below, with Chow discussing the incentive around 17:30.
READ MORE ON CANADA: Tesla is getting targeted by Canada officials over rocky Trump relations
Canada’s iZEV rebates were officially paused in January, according to Transport Canada’s website, and while the previous program’s funding was depleted, the previous contract’s had an end date of March 31. The web page also says that the “continuation of eligibility remains at the Minister of Transport’s discretion,” along with highlighting that eligibility ended on October 1, 2024 for vehicles from countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with Canada.
Last week, B.C. Premier David Eby also announced plans to remove Tesla from the B.C. Hydro EV charging rebate program, as a provincial response to Musk and his recent involvement with the Trump administration.
“It’s just for Tesla and it’s because of Elon Musk,” Eby said (via CBC).
The Premier also said he felt that if taxpayers knew thousands of dollars would go to Musk’s company through the subsidy program, “they’d want to throw up.”
The B.C. Hydro program offers up to $350 in rebates to residents who purchase and install EV chargers in their homes. As of March 12, Tesla products, such as the company’s Wall Connector, have become ineligible for the rebate.
“I thought [Tesla products] shouldn’t be made available on a public subsidy program right now,” said Adrian Dix, B.C. Energy Minister, in response to a reporter this month after evaluating the province’s rebate programs in recent months. “I don’t think anyone in British Columbia needs to be told why, and I think most people would support their removal from that list.”
The removal of Tesla’s products from the B.C. Hydro program also elicited a response from Musk on X, who reposted the story, simply writing “crazy.”
Tesla says it will be a victim of Trump admin’s tariff strategy
Tesla has joined the Australian Energy Council
Tesla arsonist set himself on fire after throwing Molotov cocktail: authorities
Tesla excluded from incentives in Canada over Trump tariffs
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