News
SpaceX’s fleet of rocket recovery ships is about to get even bigger
Four months after SpaceX gave up on catching Falcon fairings and stripped and returned a pair of leased ships it had modified for that purpose, the company’s permanent fairing recovery solution has just come into focus.
The April 2021 departure of GO Ms Tree (formerly Mr. Steven) and GO Ms Chief from SpaceX’s East Coast fleet made it unambiguously clear that the company was abandoning fairing catching in favor of simply scooping the several million dollar nose cone halves off of the surface of the ocean. By the time that decision was made, SpaceX had reused fairing halves more than two dozen times on more than 15 Falcon 9 launches – practically none of which had actually been caught by Ms Tree or Ms Chief.
In fact, SpaceX had already begun to reuse ‘scooped’ fairing halves on commercial Falcon 9 launches, including two Transporter rideshare missions with dozens of different customers and SiriusXM’s SXM-7 multimillion-dollar geostationary communications satellite. Perhaps even more importantly, SpaceX was routinely flying splashdown fairing halves three or even four times and flew one particular half twice in just 49 days.
Put simply, thanks to the heroic and somewhat unexpected success of a small subset of SpaceX’s fairing recovery, waterproofing, design improvements, and refurbishment upgrades got so good even fairings that splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean could be rapidly reused and flown multiple (now 5+) times apiece. Onto its third consecutive year of only marginal success and a distinct lack of reliability, that meant that SpaceX’s long-struggling effort to catch Falcon fairings had effectively been made redundant.
While it’s likely that scooped fairing halves would never be certified to fly high-value US military or NASA payloads, SpaceX appears to have matured the technology to the point that it’s good enough for Starlink and many (if not most) of its private-sector launch customers. Along those lines, with Ms Tree and Ms Chief out of the picture by early April, SpaceX had to briefly shoehorn Dragon recovery ships GO Navigator and GO Searcher into scooping roles to continue recovering fairings and eventually decided to lease or rent two far larger ships with built-in deck cranes.
For whatever reason, those leases or rentals only lasted a handful of weeks apiece and the latest ship – Hos Briarwood – departed SpaceX’s fleet in early July. In an extremely rare impromptu hiatus, SpaceX hasn’t launched once since late June, likely explaining why Briarwood – with a 100% fairing recovery success rate over two missions – departed when it did.
Now, first reported by SpaceExplored.com, the first signs of SpaceX’s long-expected permanent fairing recovery solution have appeared at an obscure Louisiana drydock. By all appearances, for the first time in its history, SpaceX has outright purchased two decade-old offshore supply ships formerly known as Ingrid and Ella G. Thankfully, SpaceX wiped clean any hint of ambiguity with the installation of a classic SpaceX “X” and by renaming the ships “Bob” and “Doug” after the pair that became the first NASA astronauts to ride a Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft to orbit in May 2020.
Relative to any of SpaceX’s more permanent fleet, including ex-members Tree and Chief, Bob and Doug are massive ships, measuring more than 80m (260 feet) long. They’re also five or six times heavier than the likes of GO Searcher or Ms Tree. Aside from an obvious potential role as fairing ‘scoopers’ thanks to the installation of large deck cranes, Bob and Doug also appear to have had heavy-duty winches installed, implying that they could also double as drone ship towboats.
Potentially, that means that SpaceX could shrink the fleet of ships needed to support each drone ship booster landing from two to one, using Bog and Doug to both tow and service the landing platforms at sea.
Tesla has officially put the Cybercab up for sale, revealing a bargain price and a $299 per month “Autonomy Subscription” that could hit customer hands as soon as December.
The offer requires a $299 monthly Autonomy Subscription, with the first month included in the purchase price, along with a $1,000 non-refundable order deposit. Tesla’s ordering interface shows deliveries targeted for Austin, Texas.
Tesla says that the Cybercab is making transportation more efficient, affordable and accessible than ever before, and that buyers can order their own Cybercab for personal use.
🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING: Tesla Cybercab is officially on sale for $29,990 with a $299/mo “Autonomy Subscription”
Delivery slotted for December! HUGE!
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 13, 2026
The Cybercab is Tesla’s dedicated robotaxi, a gold-finished, two-passenger vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, designed from the outset for unsupervised autonomous operation. It has been in limited Robotaxi service in Austin since September 2026, operating alongside Tesla’s larger fleet of Model Y vehicles.
Production takes place at Gigafactory Texas, which launched earlier this year. Tesla has stated for some time that it planned to put Cybercabs on sale by the end of the year, and it looks like they will come through on that promise if everything goes according to plan.
The Autonomy Subscription is mandatory for the vehicle to operate because it is void of a steering wheel and pedals. Tesla notes that the subscription and regular vehicle maintenance are required, indicating that personal owners will depend on the company’s software and service infrastructure rather than traditional ownership models.
One month of the subscription is included with purchase and subsequent months are billed separately until canceled.
This limited personal-sales opening marks a shift from Tesla’s earlier emphasis on fleet and transport-as-a-service operations. During the Q3 2026 Earnings Call, executives indicated that the vast majority of Cybercabs would remain Tesla-owned and used for rideshare service, while still aiming to place some vehicles with customers by year-end.
Elon Musk has previously targeted a price below $30,000, which was a huge point of emphasis for the Cybercab being the central point of Tesla’s “transportation-as-a-service” model.
Availability remains restricted to invited customers rather than a public order page, and the initial deliveries are expected only in the Austin area where unsupervised Robotaxi operations are already active. Buyers will need to accept the geographic and operational constraints of current autonomous deployment, as the vehicle cannot be driven manually outside supported zones.
The move gives a small number of early buyers the chance to own Tesla’s dedicated autonomous vehicle at the long-discussed sub-$30,000 price point, while the bulk of production continues to support the company’s expanding Robotaxi network.
UPDATE: The FAA has granted the license for Starship Flight 15.
Starship Flight 15 License has been granted by the FAA!
Let’s go! https://t.co/DugsgjvYAe
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 13, 2026
SpaceX is set to attempt its 15th test flight of Starship this evening from Starbase, Texas.
SpaceX is targeting Starship Flight 15 for a launch as soon as today, Friday, November 13, pending an FAA Flight License, during a 75-minute window that opens at 4:45 p.m. CT (5:45 p.m. ET) from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. The flight remains pending final regulatory approval.
WATCH Starship Flight 15 here:
https://t.co/C6GnCHyF8p
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 13, 2026
The mission, using Booster 22 and Ship 42, aims to achieve the first full recovery of an orbital launch system. Primary objectives include a tower catch of the Super Heavy booster roughly six and a half minutes after liftoff and the first-ever tower catch of a Starship upper stage after more than 22 hours in space.
SpaceX will perform Starship double catch attempt with Flight 15
Between those catches, Ship 42 is planned to enter a low Earth orbit of about 275 km, complete roughly 14 orbits, and deploy 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites (Starlink Group 31-2). Three of those satellites carry cameras to inspect the ship’s heat shield in orbit and help controllers decide whether the vehicle is healthy enough for a return to the tower.
Contingency ocean splashdown options exist if either stage is not cleared for catch.
To watch the attempt, check the link to the broadcast in both X posts in this article. The live webcast is scheduled to begin about 30 minutes before liftoff and is planned to continue through the ship catch the next day, with the possibility of extended onboard views during the orbital coast via Starlink.
Because the schedule is dynamic, check back here or on our social media channels for the latest updates on window timing and regulatory status. A successful dual catch would mark a major milestone toward making Starship a rapidly reusable rocket capable of frequent flights.
WATCH Starship Flight 15 here:
https://t.co/C6GnCHyF8p
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 13, 2026
Tesla has trimmed its Model Y offerings as its Standard All-Wheel-Drive configuration has been removed from the online configurator after roughly nine months on sale. The move follows the removal of the Cybertruck, as its trims have also been minimized as that vehicle heads for total discontinuation at the end of Summer 2027.
Launched in February 2026 as a mid-tier dual-motor option between the Rear-Wheel-Drive model and the Premium trims, the Standard All-Wheel-Drive Model Y offered 294 miles of range and a 4.6-second 0-60 mph time in a stripped-down package.
🚨 Tesla has pulled the $41,990 Model Y AWD from its U.S. configurator after nine months on sale.
The cheapest AWD Model Y you can order is now the $49,990 Premium AWD, with Premium deliveries quoted for Jan–Mar 2027.
The $39,990 RWD stays, and AWD units remain in inventory. https://t.co/uROJp2lVpx
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 13, 2026
With it gone, the cheapest new AWD Model Y buyers can configure is now the Premium AWD at $49,990, with estimated deliveries pushed into January–March 2027. The $39,990 rear-wheel-drive Model Y remains available for custom orders, and some AWD units are still listed in inventory.
The move arrives days after Tesla sharply narrowed its Cybertruck lineup. New orders for the Dual Motor AWD and Premium AWD versions have been disabled, leaving only the high-performance Cyberbeast—priced around $109,990 before fees—as the sole configurable option.
Elon Musk has stated that Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas will wind down around the middle to late summer of 2027 to free manufacturing space for greater Cybercab output. Tesla has raised prices on remaining trims and is prioritizing higher-margin builds while working through an existing order backlog that exceeds what the line can complete before conversion.
These parallel decisions reflect a broader effort to simplify Tesla’s retail customer lineup. Lower-volume or lower-margin variants are being phased out or deprioritized in favor of core, higher-spec models that generate stronger profitability and clearer production planning.
For the Model Y, this concentrates volume on the remaining RWD and Premium configurations while Premium deliveries already stretch into 2027. For the Cybertruck, it accelerates the transition away from a stainless-steel pickup that underperformed relative to initial volume expectations.
Tesla Model Y Standard Full Review: Is it worth the lower price?
The freed capacity and reduced complexity directly support Cybercab scaling. Tesla began pilot Cybercab production at Giga Texas in early 2026, launched paid autonomous rides in Austin in September, and is preparing for substantial volume growth.
By streamlining the existing vehicle portfolio, the company is reallocating factory space, engineering attention, and supply-chain resources toward its purpose-built Robotaxi, which lacks a steering wheel or pedals and is designed exclusively for unsupervised autonomy.
The result is a leaner retail lineup today and a clearer path to high-volume Cybercab deployment tomorrow.
Tesla Cybercab goes on sale for $29,990, slated for December deliveries
SpaceX Starship Flight 15: How to watch the double catch attempt
