SpaceX
SpaceX job posts hint at building satellite constellations for US military
Published within the last week, unusual SpaceX job postings have begun to combine a range of topics unusual for the company, indicating some level of internal interest in entering into an entirely new industry and mode of operations.
Judging from the job descriptions, SpaceX is looking to hire engineers familiar with integrating third-party payloads onto in-house satellite buses, and they are primarily interested in engineers with Top Secret security clearances.
https://twitter.com/collinkrum/status/1002425606401736704
Given the subtlety of the relevant job postings and the apparent need for high-level security clearances to become involved, it’s extremely difficult to figure out what exactly SpaceX’s goals are. Still, they contain just enough detail to point in the direction of several obvious explanations. These revolve around one industry in particular: satellite operations and sales to or for third parties.
To some extent, these job listings are to be expected: SpaceX has extensive experience building spacecraft (Falcon 9 upper stages and Dragon) explicitly intended for internal use and operations only. Instead, what is surprising about these job listings is the presence of repeated references to “customer payload[s]” in the context of “satellite mission design”, “SpaceX-developed satellite constellations and payload missions”, the “simulation of remote sensing payloads and constellations”, and a need for “on-orbit commissioning” or “activation”.
Put simply, there is no obvious explanation for why SpaceX would need any of those things, at least in the context of the company’s publicly-known activities and business interests. Taken individually, they might be explained by – as described in the same listings – “[SpaceX’s expanding] classified mission manifest”, as it’s well-known that SpaceX is in the process of certifying Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy to launch all practicable Air Force (USAF) and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) payloads. Those payloads often need to be placed in high-energy orbits that rely on extended upper stage coasts between orbit-raising maneuvers, essentially requiring modifications to Falcon 9’s upper stage such that it becomes a sort of ad-hoc, short-lived satellite.
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- SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch also happened to be a strategic and successful test of Falcon upper stage coast capabilities. (SpaceX)
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- SpaceX’s first two Starlink prototype satellites are pictured here before their inaugural launch, showing off a thoroughly utilitarian bus and several advanced components. (SpaceX)
Starlink spinoffs
However, in all (conceivable) cases where SpaceX might launch a highly-classified payload for a government customer, the dynamic is still precisely that – launch provider (SpaceX) and customer (NRO/USAF/etc). Just like FedEx or UPS have no ownership of or relationship with the goods they transport, satellite launch providers are simply delivering a (very expensive, fragile, and irreplaceable) payload from Point A (the ground) to Point B (orbit). When UPS ships a new smartphone from the manufacturer to the customer, they most certainly do not perform an “in-house commissioning” – if the customer needs help setting up their new phone, they go to the manufacturer or service provider (cell carrier).
In the same way, satellite commissioning is a generally necessary process where the satellite manufacturer – rarely the actual operator or service provider – raises or fine-tunes the expensive spacecraft’s orbit and verifies that all systems and payloads are functioning as intended – only after that process is complete does the manufacturer finally ‘hand off’ the satellite to the customer that paid for it. In some cases, the manufacturer continues to maintain or at least monitor the satellite in the background as the owner serves its own customers, much like how military airplane manufacturers are typically contracted to maintain or support those planes even after final delivery.
Judging from the need for top-secret security clearance in nearly all of these new job postings, SpaceX clearly has a very particular sort of customer in mind. Be it DARPA, NRO, the USAF, or some totally unknown government actor, one or several of the above entities have expressed explicit interest in coopting SpaceX’s newfound status as a prospective dirt-cheap-satellite manufacturer. If that were not the case, SpaceX would not be keen to publish 5+ engineering job postings with top-secret clearance as an explicit prerequisite.
Project Blackjack
Ultimately, it’s undeniable that the prospect of a completed vertically-integrated launch and satellite service provider could be so alluring that entities like the NRO, USAF, or DARPA simply could not pass up the opportunity to at least give it a try. From a purely speculative perspective, the services and processes SpaceX seems to be in the middle of developing are an almost perfect fit with DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) brand new Blackjack program. Perfectly summarized in September by Space News reporter Sandra Erwin,
“[DARPA] wants to buy small satellites from commercial vendors, equip them with military sensor payloads and deploy a small constellation in low-Earth orbit to see how they perform in real military operations.”
DARPA awarded a $1.5M contract to smallsat manufacturer and operator Blue Canyon on in October 2018, small relative to the program’s roughly $118M budget. DARPA has made clear that it plans to finalize multiple contracts with different prospective satellite designers and operators in order to ensure a competitive environment, fuel growth in a fairly new industry, and pave the way for the final procurement of an experimental constellation of 20 satellites by 2021. If successful, it could completely change the way the entire US government procures national security-related satellites, offering a far faster, cheaper, and more flexible route to set up unique capabilities.
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Elon Musk
The Starship V3 static fire everyone was waiting for just happened
SpaceX completed a full duration of Starship V3 today clearing the path for Flight 12.
SpaceX is that much closer to launching their next-gen Starship after completing today’s full duration static fire out of Starbase, Texas. This marks a direct signal that Flight 12, the maiden voyage of Starship V3, is imminent. SpaceX confirmed the test on X, posting that the full duration firing was completed ahead of the vehicle’s next flight test.
The road to today started on March 16, when Booster 19 completed a shorter 10-engine static fire, also at the newly constructed Pad 2. That test ended early due to a ground systems issue but confirmed all installed Raptor 3 engines started cleanly. Booster 19 returned to the Mega Bay, received its remaining 23 engines for a full complement of 33, and rolled back out this week for the complete test campaign. Musk confirmed earlier this month that Flight 12 is now 4 to 6 weeks away.
Countdown: America is going back to the Moon and SpaceX holds the key to what comes after
The numbers behind the world’s most powerful rocket are genuinely hard to put in context. Each Raptor 3 engine produces roughly 280 tons of thrust, and with all 33 firing simultaneously from the super heavy booster, this generates approximately 9,240 tons of combined thrust, more than any rocket in history. For context, that’s enough thrust to lift the entire Empire State Building, and then some. V3 stands 408 feet tall and can carry over 100 tons to low Earth orbit in a fully reusable configuration. The V2 generation topped out at around 35 tons.
Historically, a successful full-duration static fire is the last major ground milestone before launch. SpaceX has followed this pattern with every Starship iteration since the program began in 2023. Musk has been direct about the ambition behind all of it. “I am highly confident that the V3 design will achieve full reusability,” he wrote on X earlier this year. Full reusability of both stages is the foundation of SpaceX’s plan to make regular flights to the Moon and Mars economically viable. Today’s test brings that goal one significant step closer.
Starship V3 delivers on two most critical promises of full reusability and in-orbit refueling. The reusability case is straightforward, and one we have seen with Falcon 9 wherein the rocket can fly again within a day rather than building a new one for every mission. It’s the only economic model that makes frequent lunar cargo runs viable. The in-orbit refueling piece is less obvious but equally essential. To reach the Moon with enough payload, Starship requires roughly ten dedicated tanker flights to fuel up a propellant depot in low Earth orbit before it can even begin its journey to the lunar surface. That capability has never been demonstrated at scale, and Flight 12 is the first step toward proving it works. As Teslarati reported, NASA’s Artemis II crew completed a historic lunar flyby earlier this month, the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, but getting astronauts to actually land and eventually supply a permanent Moon base requires a cargo pipeline that only a fully reusable, refuelable Starship V3 can deliver at the volume and cost NASA’s plans demand.
SpaceX Starship full duration static fire on April 14, 2026 from Starbase, Texas (Credit: SpaceX)
Elon Musk
SpaceX is keeping the Space Station alive again this weekend
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus NG-24 to the ISS with 11,000 pounds of cargo Saturday.
SpaceX is targeting April 11 for the launch of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station, carrying over 11,000 pounds of supplies, science hardware, and equipment for the Expedition 73 crew aboard. Liftoff is set for 7:41 a.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with a backup window available April 12 at 7:18 a.m. ET.
The mission, officially designated NG-24 under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program, names its spacecraft the S.S. Steven R. Nagel in honor of the NASA astronaut who flew four Space Shuttle missions and logged over 723 hours in space before his death in 2014. Unlike SpaceX’s own Dragon capsule, which docks autonomously, Cygnus relies on NASA astronauts to capture it using a robotic arm before it is berthed to the space station’s module for unloading. When the mission wraps up around October, the Cygnus will depart loaded with station trash and burn up on reentry.
Countdown: America is going back to the Moon and SpaceX holds the key to what comes after
This is the second flight of the Cygnus XL configuration, which debuted on NG-23 in September 2025 and offers a roughly 20% increase in cargo capacity over the previous design. Northrop Grumman switched to Falcon 9 launches after its own Antares 230+ rocket was retired in 2023 following supply chain disruptions from the war in Ukraine.
The upcoming cargo includes a new module to advance quantum research, and an investigation studying blood stem cell production in microgravity with potential therapeutic applications on Earth.
The NG-24 mission is one piece of a much larger picture for SpaceX and the U.S. government. As Teslarati reported, SpaceX has become an indispensable launch provider for U.S. national security missions, picking up a $178.5 million Space Force contract in April 2026 to launch missile tracking satellites, while also holding roughly $4 billion in NASA contracts tied to the Artemis lunar program.
At a time when no other American rocket can match the Falcon 9’s combination of reliability, cost, and launch cadence, Saturday’s mission is a straightforward reminder of how much the U.S. government now depends on a single commercial provider to keep its astronauts supplied and its satellites flying.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s Terafab project locks up massive new partner
Terafab, first revealed by Musk in March, is a massive joint-venture semiconductor complex planned for the North Campus of Giga Texas in Austin.
Elon Musk’s Terafab project just locked up a massive new partner, just weeks after the new project was announced by Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, the three companies that will be direct benefactors from it.
In a landmark announcement on April 7, Intel joined Elon Musk’s Terafab project as a key partner alongside Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. The collaboration focuses on refactoring silicon fabrication technology to deliver ultra-high-performance chips at unprecedented scale.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan hosted Musk at Intel facilities the prior weekend, underscoring the partnership’s momentum with a public handshake.
Intel is proud to join the Terafab project with @SpaceX, @xAI, and @Tesla to help refactor silicon fab technology.
Our ability to design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale will help accelerate Terafab’s aim to produce 1 TW/year of compute to power… pic.twitter.com/2vUmXn0YhH
— Intel (@intel) April 7, 2026
Terafab, first revealed by Musk in March, is a massive joint-venture semiconductor complex planned for the North Campus of Giga Texas in Austin. Valued at $20–25 billion, it aims to consolidate the entire chip-making pipeline, design, fabrication, memory production, and advanced packaging in a single location. It should eliminate a majority of Tesla’s dependence on third-party chip fab companies.
The facility will manufacture two primary chip types: energy-efficient edge-inference processors optimized for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems, Cybercab and Robotaxi, and Optimus humanoid robots, and high-power, radiation-hardened variants for SpaceX satellites and xAI’s orbital data centers.
Elon Musk launches TERAFAB: The $25B Tesla-SpaceXAI chip factory that will rewire the AI industry
The project’s audacious goal is to produce 1 terawatt (TW) of annual compute capacity, roughly 50 times current global AI chip output.
Production is expected to begin modestly and scale rapidly, addressing Musk’s warning that chip supply could soon become the biggest constraint on Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI growth. By vertically integrating manufacturing tailored to their exact needs, Terafab eliminates supply-chain bottlenecks and accelerates iteration for AI training, inference at the edge, and space-based computing.
Intel’s participation is strategically vital. The company will contribute expertise in advanced process technology, high-volume fabrication, and packaging to help Terafab achieve its aggressive targets. For Intel, the deal strengthens its foundry business and positions it as a critical U.S. player in the AI hardware race.
For Musk’s ecosystem, it secures domestic, purpose-built silicon at a time when global capacity meets only a fraction of projected demand for hundreds of millions of robots and orbital AI infrastructure.
This is the latest chapter in Intel-Tesla ties. In November 2025, Musk publicly stated at Tesla’s shareholder meeting that partnering with Intel on AI5 chips was “worth having discussions,” amid concerns about TSMC and Samsung capacity.
Exploratory talks followed, with Intel eyeing custom-AI opportunities. The Terafab integration transforms those conversations into concrete collaboration.
The Intel-Terafab alliance carries broader implications. It bolsters U.S. semiconductor sovereignty, drives innovation in cost- and power-efficient AI silicon, and supports Musk’s vision of exponential progress in autonomy, robotics, and space.
As AI compute demand surges, this partnership could reshape the industry, delivering the silicon backbone for a new era of intelligent machines on Earth and beyond.
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