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SpaceX recovered fairing appears at future Mars rocket factory in LA
In an unexpected turn of events, the first fairing half recovered by SpaceX – just after the Feb. 22 launch of PAZ – appeared at the company’s just-leased facilities at LA’s Port of San Pedro, also known as Berth 240 or SpaceX’s preferred location for the first BFR (Mars rocket) factory.
If there was any doubt before that SpaceX was not serious about the Port proposal released in March, or that individuals with SpaceX shirts at 240 were a mere coincidence, the arrival of an entire fairing half and two fairly large cranes ought to confirm the reality of the company’s active presence at the facility. After heading down to the port at dawn to capture Mr Steven’s arrival post-launch (providing a fairing surprise of its own), Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin made a quick detour to Berth 240 to check up on any potential activity at the SpaceX-leased site.
SpaceX’s first recovered fairing spotted at the BFR factory (Pauline Acalin)
Lo and behold, she found a lone recovered fairing half sitting just off the side of the public Port access road, behind the plot’s fenced enclosure. A giant Z (a la PAZ) on the fairing’s face identified it beyond any doubt to be the half that soft-landed intact just over a month ago. For such a unique pathfinder as the first apparently intact fairing half to be recovered, its uncovered storage out in the open dockside air tells us a fair bit about the reality of its condition: while it’s still surprising that this half did not spend more time (perhaps no time at all) in SpaceX’s Hawthorne facilities, this almost guarantees that the fairing suffered some form of catastrophic and irreparable damage at some point during its recovery.
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- PAZ’ fairing half in all its sooty, damaged glory. (Pauline Acalin)
RIP fairing half
If this fairing were in a flightworthy state, it would undoubtedly be safely stowed inside SpaceX’s Hawthorne facilities for many weeks or even months of careful testing and analysis to properly characterize the condition of the first fairing to be recovered in one piece.
Another possibility: perhaps SpaceX has already managed that characterization and refinement through the many different fairing fragments recovered during past (unsuccessful) attempts. Ultimately, it should come as little surprise that the fairing wound up damaged – the range of conditions it was subjected to boggle the mind. Its damage may have come from post-recovery handling, perhaps something as simple as the surface tension of seawater or some water intrusion inflating its density and overloading the fairing’s structure while it was craned or dragged aboard Mr. Steven. Its loss would appear to confirm that Mr. Steven’s seemingly elaborate net system exists for very specific and technical reasons, instead of, say, a group of engineers realizing that they could convince their managers to let them build a giant claw-boat. Sometimes the crazy solution can be the right solution!
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- A closeup of the landed fairing. This particularly fairing is the first flight of Fairing 2.0, a recent upgrade. (Elon Musk)
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- The first fairing to ever return to land intact proudly sails into Port of San Pedro aboard Mr Steven. (Pauline Acalin)
Either way, SpaceX technicians have unequivocally begun to tear down the PAZ half’s many interior components, ranging from baffles and soundproofing panels to parafoil connectors and cold-gas maneuvering thrusters. It’s conceivable that some of those parts can be reused on future missions, partly thanks to the fact that this half remained intact after landing, keeping its interior mostly dry. Given the sheer size of the cranes brought on-site on Saturday (March 31), it seems implausible that they are there just for PAZ’ fairing – more likely, they have been rented or purchased by SpaceX and will be used for a variety of tasks related to the demolition and construction outlined in the Port’s Berth 240 lease and use-case approval.
This is almost certainly the first time that SpaceX’s Berth 240 has hosted real rocket hardware, and hopefully foreshadows a bright and busy future of reusable rocket recovery, refurbishment, and manufacturing (hopefully with BFR!).
NBD, just scrapping a fairing in an abandoned shipyard. (Pauline Acalin)
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Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Version 3 booster crumples in early testing
Photos of the incident’s aftermath suggest that Booster 18 will likely be retired.
SpaceX’s new Starship first-stage booster, Booster 18, suffered major damage early Friday during its first round of testing in Starbase, Texas, just one day after rolling out of the factory.
Based on videos of the incident, the lower section of the rocket booster appeared to crumple during a pressurization test. Photos of the incident’s aftermath suggest that Booster 18 will likely be retired.
Booster test failure
SpaceX began structural and propellant-system verification tests on Booster 18 Thursday night at the Massey’s Test Site, only a few miles from Starbase’s production facilities, as noted in an Ars Technica report. At 4:04 a.m. CT on Friday, a livestream from LabPadre Space captured the booster’s lower half experiencing a sudden destructive event around its liquid oxygen tank section. Post-incident images, shared on X by @StarshipGazer, showed notable deformation in the booster’s lower structure.
Neither SpaceX nor Elon Musk had commented as of Friday morning, but the vehicle’s condition suggests it is likely a complete loss. This is quite unfortunate, as Booster 18 is already part of the Starship V3 program, which includes design fixes and upgrades intended to improve reliability. While SpaceX maintains a rather rapid Starship production line in Starbase, Booster 18 was generally expected to validate the improvements implemented in the V3 program.
Tight deadlines
SpaceX needs Starship boosters and upper stages to begin demonstrating rapid reuse, tower catches, and early operational Starlink missions over the next two years. More critically, NASA’s Artemis program depends on an on-orbit refueling test in the second half of 2026, a requirement for the vehicle’s expected crewed lunar landing around 2028.
While SpaceX is known for diagnosing failures quickly and returning to testing at unmatched speed, losing the newest-generation booster at the very start of its campaign highlights the immense challenge involved in scaling Starship into a reliable, high-cadence launch system. SpaceX, however, is known for getting things done quickly, so it would not be a surprise if the company manages to figure out what happened to Booster 18 in the near future.
News
Tesla FSD (Supervised) is about to go on “widespread” release
In a comment last October, Elon Musk stated that FSD V14.2 is “for widespread use.”
Tesla has begun rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) V14.2, and with this, the wide release of the system could very well begin.
The update introduces a new high-resolution vision encoder, expanded emergency-vehicle handling, smarter routing, new parking options, and more refined driving behavior, among other improvements.
FSD V14.2 improvements
FSD (Supervised) V14.2’s release notes highlight a fully upgraded neural-network vision encoder capable of reading higher-resolution features, giving the system improved awareness of emergency vehicles, road obstacles, and even human gestures. Tesla also expanded its emergency-vehicle protocols, adding controlled pull-overs and yielding behavior for police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances, among others.
A deeper integration of navigation and routing into the vision network now allows the system to respond to blocked roads or detours in real time. The update also enhances decision-making in several complex scenarios, including unprotected turns, lane changes, vehicle cut-ins, and interactions with school buses. All in all, these improvements should help FSD (Supervised) V14.2 perform in a very smooth and comfortable manner.
Elon Musk’s predicted wide release
The significance of V14.2 grows when paired with Elon Musk’s comments from October. While responding to FSD tester AI DRIVR, who praised V14.1.2 for fixing “95% of indecisive lane changes and braking” and who noted that it was time for FSD to go on wide release, Musk stated that “14.2 for widespread use.”
FSD V14 has so far received a substantial amount of positive reviews from Tesla owners, many of whom have stated that the system now drives better than some human drivers as it is confident, cautious, and considerate at the same time. With V14.2 now rolling out, it remains to be seen if the update also makes it to the company’s wide FSD fleet, which is still populated by a large number of HW3 vehicles.
News
Tesla FSD V14.2 starts rolling out to initial batch of vehicles
It would likely only be a matter of time before FSD V14.2 videos are posted and shared on social media.
Tesla has begun pushing Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2 to its initial batch of vehicles. The update was initially observed by Tesla owners and veteran FSD users on social media platform X on Friday.
So far, reports of the update have been shared by Model Y owners in California whose vehicles are equipped with the company’s AI4 hardware, though it would not be surprising if more Tesla owners across the country receive the update as well.
Based on the release notes of the update, key improvements in FSD V14.2 include a revamped neural network for better detection of emergency vehicles, obstacles, and human gestures, as well as options to select arrival spots.
It would likely only be a matter of time before FSD V14.2 videos are posted and shared on social media.
Following are the release notes of FSD (Supervised) V14.2, as shared on X by longtime FSD tester Whole Mars Catalog.
Release Notes
2025.38.9.5
Currently Installed
FSD (Supervised) v14.2
Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2 includes:
- Upgraded the neural network vision encoder, leveraging higher resolution features to further improve scenarios like handling emergency vehicles, obstacles on the road, and human gestures.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, in a Parking Garage, or at the Curbside.
- Added handling to pull over or yield for emergency vehicles (e.g. police cars, fire trucks, ambulances.
- Added navigation and routing into the vision-based neural network for real-time handling of blocked roads and detours.
- Added additional Speed Profile to further customize driving style preference.
- Improved handling for static and dynamic gates.
- Improved offsetting for road debris (e.g. tires, tree branches, boxes).
- Improve handling of several scenarios including: unprotected turns, lane changes, vehicle cut-ins, and school busses.
- Improved FSD’s ability to manage system faults and improve scenarios like handling emergency vehicles, obstacles on the road, and human gestures.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, in a Parking Garage, or at the Curbside.
- Added handling to pull over or yield for emergency vehicles (e.g. police cars, fire trucks, ambulances).
- Added navigation and routing into the vision-based neural network for real-time handling of blocked roads and detours.
- Added additional Speed Profile to further customize driving style preference.
- Improved handling for static and dynamic gates.
- Improved offsetting for road debris (e.g. tires, tree branches, boxes).
- Improve handling of several scenarios, including unprotected turns, lane changes, vehicle cut-ins, and school buses.
- Improved FSD’s ability to manage system faults and recover smoothly from degraded operation for enhanced reliability.
- Added alerting for residue build-up on interior windshield that may impact front camera visibility. If affected, visit Service for cleaning!
Upcoming Improvements:
- Overall smoothness and sentience
- Parking spot selection and parking quality
SpaceX Starship Version 3 booster crumples in early testing
Tesla FSD (Supervised) is about to go on “widespread” release
