News
SpaceX’s first batch of Starlink satellites already in Florida for launch debut
According to an official statement, SpaceX’s satellite mass production is “well underway” and the first batch of operational Starlink satellites are already in Florida for their May 2019 launch debut.
Simultaneously, the FCC has granted SpaceX’s request to modify the deployment of its first 1584 Starlink satellites, permitting the company to lower their orbit from approximately 1150 km to 550 km (715 mi to 340 mi). A lower insertion orbit should improve Falcon 9’s maximum Starlink payload, while the lower operational orbit will help to further minimize any risk posed by orbital debris that could be generated by failed SpaceX satellites.
Above all else, SpaceX’s confirmation that the first batch of Starlink satellites are already in Florida drives home the reality that the company’s internet satellite constellation is about to become very real. Said constellation has long been the subject of endless skepticism and criticism, dominated by a general atmosphere of dismissal. There is no doubt that Starlink, as proposed, is an extraordinarily ambitious program that will cost billions of dollars to even begin to realize. SpaceX will have to find ways to affordably manufacture and launch ~11,900 satellites – together weighing something like 500 metric tons (1.1 million lbs) – in as few as nine years, start to finish.
As of November 2018, there are roughly 2000 satellites operating in Earth orbit, meaning that SpaceX’s full Starlink constellation would increase the number of functional satellites in orbit by a factor of almost seven. Just the first phase of Starlink (4409 satellites) would more than triple the number of working satellites in orbit. To meet the contractual requirement that SpaceX launch at least half of Starlink’s licensed satellites within six years of the FCC granting the constellation license, the company will need to launch an average of ~37 satellites per month between now and April 2024. By April 2027, SpaceX will either have to launch all ~2200 remaining Phase 1 satellites or risk forfeiture of its Starlink constellation license. Same goes for the ~7500 very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites making up Starlink’s second phase, albeit with their launch deadlines instead in November of 2024 and 2027.
In fact, if SpaceX wants to preserve the separate FCC license for its VLEO Starlink segment, it will actually need to build and launch an average of 100 satellites per month – 20+ per week – for the next five years. In no way, shape, or form is the monthly production of 100 complex pieces of machinery unprecedented. It is, however, entirely unprecedented – and by a factor of no less than 10 – in the spaceflight and satellite industries. Accomplishing that feat will require numerous paradigm shifts in satellite design, manufacturing, and operations. It’s hard to think of anyone more up to the challenge than SpaceX but it will still be an immensely difficult and expensive undertaking.
“Baby” steps
According to SpaceX, the first 75 operational Starlink satellites will be significantly less refined than those that will follow. Most notably, they will eschew dual-band (Ku and Ka) phased array antennas, instead relying solely on Ka-band communications. The second main difference between relates to “demisability”, referring to characteristics exhibited during reentry. The first 75 spacecraft will be less refined and thus feature a handful of components that are expected to survive the rigors of reentering Earth’s atmosphere, creating a truly miniscule risk of property damage and/or human injuries. Subsequent Starlink vehicles will incorporate design changes to ensure that 100% of each satellite is incinerated during reentry, thus posing a ~0% risk on the ground.
In a sense, the first 75 Starlink satellites will be an in-depth demonstration of SpaceX’s proposed constellation. Depending on how the satellites are deployed in orbit, SpaceX’s development team could potentially have uninterrupted access to the orbiting mini-constellation. There will also be constant opportunities to thoroughly test SpaceX’s network architecture for real, including general downlink/uplink traffic, surge management, satellite handoffs, and the laser interlinks meant to join all Starlink satellites into one giant mesh network.
SpaceX has yet to announce the precise number of Starlink satellites that will be aboard Falcon 9 on the rocket’s first dedicated internal launch. More likely than not, the constraining factor will be the usable volume of SpaceX’s payload fairing, measuring 5.2m (17 ft) in diameter. For Flight 1, 10-20 satellites is a reasonable estimate. Likely to weigh around 10,000 kg (22,000 lb) total, the first Starlink payload will be delivered to a parking orbit of ~350 km (220 mi), easily allowing Falcon 9 to return to SpaceX’s Florida Landing Zone or perform a gentle landing aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY). The satellites will use their own electric Hall thrusters to reach their final destination (550 km).
According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the first Falcon 9 fairing reuse may also happen during an internal Starlink launch, although it’s unclear if he was referring to Starlink Launch 1 (Starlink-1) or a follow-up mission later this year.
For now, SpaceX is targeting a mid-May for its first dedicated Starlink mission, set to launch from Launch Complex 40 (LC-40). Up next for LC-40 is SpaceX’s 17th operational Cargo Dragon launch (CRS-17), delayed from April 26th and April 30th to May 3rd.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX just combined Grok, Cursor, and X into one mega plan
SpaceXSI merges Grok, Cursor, and X Premium into one plan, raising questions for Tesla owners.
SpaceX Super Intelligence has rolled out The X Subscription, a single plan that combines Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor, and X Premium.
There are five levels, including a free plan that includes daily Grok access and a starter allowance for Cursor’s coding agents. Plus is $8 per month, Premium is $30, Super is $100, and Ultra is $200. Usage scales as you move up, with Premium offering four times the Plus allowance, Super 15 times, and Ultra 50 times. Annual billing brings the prices down a bit further, with Premium at $300 per year.
We’ve unified plans across Grok, Cursor, and X Premium.
Introducing The X Subscription. https://t.co/SvkrVvBa0p
— SpaceX Super Intelligence (@SpaceXSI) October 12, 2026
The $30 Premium tier is where SpaceXSI says it packs the benefits of SuperGrok, Cursor Pro, and X Premium+, which previously added up to $90 per month. Grok Bot, the agent that handles tasks like ordering food or managing a calendar, is included from Premium upward but not on Plus. Paid plans share one weekly usage pool across Grok and Cursor, and each plan includes at least twice the coding usage of the comparable Cursor plan. Third party models in Cursor remain available on Premium and above, but they are billed separately at API list prices.
That last detail matters because of what has happened around Cursor this year. SpaceX exercised its option to buy the company for $60 billion in June, and the deal closed in August. Weeks later, OpenAI said it will cut Cursor’s access to its models on November 12. Bundling Cursor with Grok usage gives SpaceXSI a reason to steer developers toward its own models.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
For Tesla owners, the connection is Grok Bot. Tesla brought it into its vehicles last month, and at that point access inside the car was limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers. Grok Bot is now enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet. Neither SpaceXSI nor Tesla has said how the new plans change inside the car access for owners, or whether a $30 Premium subscription now covers Grok Bot in a personal Tesla. That is the question owners will want answered first.
The company is also changing its name along the way. The rollout follows the rebrand Musk announced on October 4, when he said SpaceXAI would become SpaceXSI, and the plan page now carries that branding.
The X Subscription is available to new customers starting now, and SpaceXSI says it will reach everyone globally over the next few days. Existing SuperGrok, Cursor, and X Premium subscribers do not have to switch. The option to move will appear gradually in billing settings, with a prorated refund for the unused time on the old plan. Switching is permanent once the accounts are unified, and old plans are closed to new sign ups.
Energy
Taiwan power firm bets big on Tesla Megapacks as AI data center thirst grows
Taiwan’s Apollo Power orders 260 Tesla Megapacks, betting AI data centers will need more electricity.
A Taiwanese power company has ordered 260 Tesla Megapack 2XL units, roughly 1GWh of storage, betting that electricity rather than chips will decide how fast AI data centers come online. Apollo Power signed the contract with Tesla’s Taiwan energy arm on October 8, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan stock exchange.
The filing says the units are meant for behind the meter storage and resilient grid projects, with delivery in batches from the end of 2027 and sites operating in 2028. Apollo and Tesla did not disclose a price, citing a confidentiality agreement. Apollo plans to pay for the equipment through a cash capital increase and bank financing, and it noted the purchase is not revenue and does not mean it holds firm orders from its partners.
Biggo reported that only about 33 units are under signed customer contracts, with roughly 150 more in negotiation. The same report put total project investment near NT$130 billion, but that figure includes installation work, with the equipment itself making up about 40 to 50 percent. In other words, a large share of this order is Apollo reserving supply ahead of demand. Apollo’s chairman told local media global large storage supply is tight, which is why the company locked in the units early, according to Yahoo Taiwan Finance.
Apollo also launched an AI data center and grid resilience alliance with Phison, Gigabyte and Shihlin Electric. The pitch rests on a pilot at Phison’s Zhunan plant, where Apollo and Tesla Energy Taiwan installed grid forming Megapack 2XLs in June. Tesla Energy Taiwan general manager Sun Hsiao-Han said the project went from demo to 1GWh in four months, and that Tesla Energy has deployed more than 50GWh worldwide.
Taiwan’s cabinet has approved amendments that would require large energy users to install their own generation and storage, which gives enterprise storage a regulatory tailwind.
The deal fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked. Tesla’s Megablock targets 1GWh commissioned in 20 business days, a pitch aimed squarely at fast moving data center builds. Megapacks already back xAI’s Colossus in Memphis and a 400MW AI campus in Brazil. Sun Media adds that Megapack 2XL was named among the first products in Nvidia’s DSX Ready qualification for battery storage in AI factories.
Deliveries are more than a year away, so the real test is how much of that 260 unit order turns into signed customer contracts.
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
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