News
SpaceX scrubs Starhopper’s final Raptor-powered flight as Elon Musk talks “finicky” igniters
For unknown reasons, SpaceX’s Starhopper prototype suffered a hold just 0.8 seconds prior to its second planned flight test, a hold that was eventually followed by a decision to scrub the August 26th attempt and try again tomorrow, August 27th.
Starhopper is a full-scale, partial-height testbed for SpaceX’s next-generation Starship launch vehicle, serving more as a semi-mobile test stand for steel rockets and Raptor engines than an actual Starship prototype. The unusual vehicle took flight for the first time ever on July 25th, reaching an altitude of roughly 20m (65 ft) under the power of a single Raptor engine, capable of producing up to 200 tons (450,000 lbf) of thrust. That test also suffered a minor scrub on the 24th, followed by a successful flight one day later, a chapter that Starhopper may now mirror on its second attempted flight, a 150m (500 ft) hop.
Notably, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter just seconds after the rocket’s scheduled liftoff suffered a last-second hold to indicate that Raptor’s torch igniters were proving somewhat finicky relative to the chemical alternative used by SpaceX’s proven Merlin engines.
The CEO later confirmed that that comment was directly related to the 26th’s scrub, indicating that Raptor serial number 06 (SN06) needed to have its igniters inspected prior to a second hop test attempt, now scheduled to occur no earlier than 6pm EDT (22:00 UTC) on August 27th. The gist of the difficulties with Raptor’s igniter starts with the reason that SpaceX is attempting to integrate an entirely new form of ignition into the engine, replacing the methods successfully used over tens or even hundreds of thousands of seconds of firing with the company’s Merlin 1 and Merlin Vacuum engines.
Merlin 1D and MVacD both rely on a relatively simple, reliable, cheap, and easy method of chemical ignition, using a duo of pyrophoric materials known as triethylaluminum-triethylborane (TEA-TEB). When mixed, these materials immediately combust, generating an iconic green flash visible during Falcon 9 and Heavy launches, and thus producing the ‘spark’ needed to start Merlin engines.
Generally speaking, TEA-TEB is an excellent method of igniting rockets, even if it is more of a brute-force, inelegant solution than alternatives. It does, however, bring limitations: every single ignition requires a new ‘cartridge’ be expended, fundamentally limiting the number of times Merlin 1D (and Merlin Vacuum) engines can be ignited before and after liftoff.
This doesn’t even consider the fact that TEA-TEB are extremely complex chemical products that would be next to impossible to produce off of Earth, at least for the indefinite future.
To combat these downsides, SpaceX has designed Raptor with an entirely different method of ignition, known as torch ignition. Technically speaking, Raptor’s power, design, and methalox propellant combine to demand more than a relatively common solution, in which spark plugs are used to ignite an engine. Instead, Raptor uses those spark plugs to ignite its ignition sources, what CEO Elon Musk has described as full-up blow torches. Once ignited, those blow torches – likely miniature rocket engines using the same methane and oxygen fuel as Raptor – then ignite the engine’s methane and oxygen preburners before finally igniting those mixed, high-pressure gases in the combustion chamber.
In simple terms, the fact that Raptor is a full-flow staged-combustion (FFSC) engine means that the pressures it must operate under are extreme, verging on unprecedented in large-scale rocketry. Extremely high-pressure gases (on the order of 3,000-10,000+ psi or 200-700+ bar) are just as difficult to reliably ignite, especially if hypergolic solutions (i.e. TEA-TEB) are off the table.
To get an even ignition – critical to avoid burn-through, minor explosions, and even catastrophic engine failures – Raptor’s torch ignition may actually involve a 360-degree ring of spark plug-lit torches around the point of ignition, an undeniably complex solution.
However, as Musk notes, these significant, “finicky” challenges brought on by Raptor’s exotic ignition method are motivated by the potential benefits such a solution might bring. Relative to Merlin 1D’s TEA-TEB ignition, torch ignition – once optimized and matured into a reliable solution – will permit an almost unlimited number of Raptor ignitions before, during, and after flight.
Avoiding TEA-TEB and other complex chemical igniters also means that Starship will technically be able to launch to Mars or the Moon, perform injection and landing burns, maybe even hop around the surface, and still be able to return to Earth – all without resupply. Such a return voyage would still be predicated on the ability to generate the methane and oxygen propellant needed to fuel Starships, but – assuming that challenge can be solved – torch-lit Raptors would be ready for such a mission. In the event that, say, something like August 26th’s scrub happens to a Starship on Mars, the crew would also be able to get out, inspect Starship’s Raptors, and even replace faulty spark plugs if necessary.
Technically, one could bring lots of spare TEA-TEB cartridges and install those in space or after landing, but those cartridges are quite literally firebombs waiting to ignite, whereas spare spark plugs are entirely inert.
For now, we’ll have to wait for SpaceX technicians to get their eyes and hands-on Starhopper’s lone Raptor engine to verify that its ignition hardware is in good health. If all goes well, Starhopper will attempt its final flight test as early as August 27th.
Update (August 27th): Starhopper is reportedly set for a second attempted 150m (500 ft) flight test today, scheduled to occur no earlier than 5pm EDT (21:00 UTC) on August 27th. Stay tuned for SpaceX’s official Livestream!
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s next Uranium in Uranus merch is Boring Company’s weirdest tease yet
Elon Musk teased a glowing new Boring Company merch idea, complete with a Geiger counter.
Elon Musk teased the next piece of Boring Company merchandise on X Saturday, and it is exactly as unserious as fans of the company’s product history have come to expect. “The next @boringcompany merch will put Uranium in Uranus,” Musk wrote in a thread posted early Saturday morning. He followed up by explaining that the item would glow in the dark, “because otherwise how could you find it,” and that a Geiger counter would be sold separately as “an optional strap-on.”
Musk closed the thread with a line that doubles as a mission statement for the tunneling company’s merchandise arm: “It’s not easy coming up with something that is both outrageously unsellable and yet extremely popular.”
The Boring Company has built a small but consistent side business out of novelty items that start as jokes and end up selling out. The company’s Not-a-Flamethrower raised roughly $10 million in a few days back in 2018, moving all 20,000 units it produced. Its Burnt Hair perfume, priced around $100 a bottle, sold out fast enough that scalpers were flipping units on eBay for ten times the retail price. Boring Bricks, made from tunneling spoil, followed the same playbook of teasing a product on X months before it became real.
Musk has not said what the actual item will be, only that it involves uranium and glows in the dark. Given the pattern, that vagueness is probably intentional. Past merch announcements have started as one-line jokes and taken weeks or months to turn into an actual product listing on the company’s site, and there is no guarantee this one follows through at all.
The timing lines up with a period of real momentum for the Boring Company outside of the joke merchandise. The company said last week it plans to double the number of operational stations on its Vegas Loop by the end of the year, a target tied to a hiring push for drivers and operations managers. Prufrock-5, one of the company’s tunnel boring machines, also just wrapped a test tunnel in Bastrop, Texas, and is expected to relaunch on its next assignment in November.
Whether the uranium joke turns into an actual product remains to be seen. Musk’s post did not include a price, a shipping date, or even a name for the item, which has historically meant a Boring Company website page goes up quietly, password protected, sometime before an announcement.
News
NASA taps SpaceX for more astronaut missions as Boeing Starliner remains grounded
NASA just gave SpaceX a $946 million contract for three more astronaut missions through 2030.
NASA has awarded SpaceX a $946 million contract modification covering three more astronaut missions to the International Space Station, according to an announcement the agency published Friday. The award adds Crew-15, Crew-16, and Crew-17 to SpaceX’s existing Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, bringing the agreement’s total value to $5.92 billion across 17 flights.
SpaceX confirmed the award on X, writing that it was excited for Falcon 9 and Dragon to launch NASA’s Crew-15, 16, and 17 missions to the Space Station from Florida. The new missions cover ground, launch, in orbit, and return operations, along with cargo transport and a lifeboat capability while docked at the station, and the period of performance runs through 2030.
We’re excited for Falcon 9 and Dragon to launch @NASA’s Crew-15, 16, and 17 missions to the @Space_Station from Florida https://t.co/Qm16vVK9F3 pic.twitter.com/drg3s7GtuM
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 18, 2026
The award follows a notice of intent NASA issued in May, when the agency first signaled it would purchase up to six additional post certification missions from SpaceX. Teslarati covered that filing at the time, noting NASA cited technical issues and schedule delays encountered by Boeing as a driving factor. Friday’s contract modification locks in three of those six missions, with the remaining three left open for NASA to award later, potentially to Boeing if Starliner clears certification.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has still not flown an operational crew rotation mission for NASA. The spacecraft’s most recent crewed test flight in 2024 ended without the astronauts returning aboard Starliner, and the company has spent the time since working through thruster problems. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said this week that SpaceX is not retiring Crew Dragon today, for sure, while stopping short of committing to fly it past 2030.
Crew-12 is currently docked at the space station, and NASA has said Crew-13 is targeting a launch in the coming weeks. The newly awarded Crew-15 through Crew-17 missions extend SpaceX’s role as NASA’s primary way of getting astronauts to and from orbit well into the back half of the decade, regardless of what happens with Starliner or Starship in the meantime.
Investor's Corner
New drone video shows Tesla’s Optimus Factory reaching a turning point
New drone footage shows Tesla’s dedicated Optimus factory steel frame nearing completion at Giga Texas.
Tesla’s dedicated Optimus factory at Gigafactory Texas is closing in on a finished steel frame, according to drone footage posted Thursday afternoon by longtime site observer Joe Tegtmeyer. In the video, Tegtmeyer said structural steel assembly is now about five column grids away from reaching the building’s north perimeter beam, putting the primary skeleton in its final stretch roughly six months after Tesla broke ground on the North Campus site in late March.
The Giga Texas Optimus Factory latest update … construction keeps moving fast!
Steel assembly is now only about 5 column grids from the north perimeter beam. Concrete is going in on the three upper floors, rebar is still being laid for more pours, and footing / grade-beam work… pic.twitter.com/qvFPvwnYzW
— Joe Tegtmeyer 🚀 🤠🛸😎 (@JoeTegtmeyer) September 17, 2026
Tegtmeyer’s footage shows concrete already going in on three upper floors while crews continue laying rebar and pouring grade beam footings at ground level. That kind of parallel work, steel rising at one end of the site while concrete sets at the other, is a scheduling approach Tesla used at the original Giga Texas building and appears to be repeating here to save time before the plant’s targeted 2027 production start.
Teslarati has tracked the building’s progress since Tesla confirmed construction was officially underway in May, when the first steel structure went up on what was then bare, reclaimed land. The facility is part of a more than 5.2 million square foot expansion of Giga Texas’s North Campus that Tesla has said will eventually run nearly the length of the existing vehicle factory, over 4,000 feet, while sitting somewhat narrower. Musk has pegged the long term output target at 10 million Optimus units a year once the line is running at full capacity, a volume that would dwarf the one million unit pilot line Tesla is standing up separately at its Fremont, California factory.
Tesla Giga Texas to feature massive Optimus V4 production line
The Texas facility sits alongside another major buildout on the same campus. Terafab, the joint Tesla and SpaceX chip fabrication plant that will eventually supply the silicon running Optimus units in the field. Housing robot assembly and chip production on the same grounds is a deliberate supply chain decision, cutting down on the shipping and lead time that would otherwise sit between the two.
Tesla has not given an updated timeline beyond its previously stated goal of bringing high volume Optimus production online at the site in the summer of 2027. Fremont’s smaller pilot line began mass producing the current Gen 3 robot in January, with that plant expected to build tens of thousands of units this year primarily to generate the real world data Tesla needs to refine the robot’s software before Giga Texas ramps up. Six months of visible construction progress, tracked almost entirely through Tegtmeyer’s recurring drone flights, gives the clearest outside look yet at how seriously Tesla is treating that 2027 deadline.
Elon Musk’s next Uranium in Uranus merch is Boring Company’s weirdest tease yet
NASA taps SpaceX for more astronaut missions as Boeing Starliner remains grounded
