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SpaceX wants to attempt Starship booster catch during first orbital launch
An updated document submitted by SpaceX to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed details about the company’s plan for the first Starship booster ‘catch’ attempt.
The document follows a different batch submitted by SpaceX in June 2021, when the company detailed its plans for Starship’s orbital launch debut as background while requesting permission from the FCC to use Starlink dishes for in-flight telemetry. A month earlier, a different request focused on more standard telemetry antennas had already revealed that even if the mission went perfectly, Starship would not fully reach orbit on its first attempted spaceflight. It also confirmed that SpaceX had no intention of recovering the upper stage or Super Heavy booster assigned to Starship’s launch debut – a sort of implicit acknowledgment that success was (then) not expected on the first try.
Twelve months later, SpaceX has submitted an updated overview of Starship’s orbital launch debut in a new request for permission to use multiple Starlink dishes on both stages. While most of the document is the same, a few particular details have changed about Super Heavy’s role in the mission.
This time around, SpaceX says that the Super Heavy booster will “will separate[,] perform a partial return[,] and land in the Gulf of Mexico or return to Starbase and be caught by the launch tower.” Prior to this document, SpaceX’s best-case plans for the first Super Heavy booster to launch never strayed from a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico – potentially demonstrating that it would be safe to attempt booster recovery on the next launch but all but guaranteeing that the first booster would be lost at sea.
A year later, SpaceX appears to be a bit more confident and wants to leave itself the option to attempt to recover the first Super Heavy booster that launches. However, the company has dramatically complicated the process of testing early Super Heavy and Starship recovery (and thus reuse) by fully removing traditional and predictable landing legs and designing its latest prototypes such that the only way they can be recovered in one piece is with a giant mechanized ‘launch tower’ nicknamed Mechazilla.
The launch tower and its three mobile arms will play a crucial role in all aspects of orbital Starship launches. The first arm swings out to brace Super Heavy for Starship installation and connect the upper stage to power, propellant supplies, and other launch pad utilities. A more exotic pair of arms nicknamed ‘chopsticks’ has a more complex job. On top of using the chopsticks to lift, stack, and demate Starships and Super Heavy boosters and almost any weather and wind conditions, SpaceX wants to use the arms as an incredibly complex and precarious rocket recovery system.
For a booster or Starship “catch,” the rocket will approach the tower, enter the gap between the splayed arms, hover in place while the arms close around it, and eventually come to rest on hardpoints that appear to offer about as much surface area as a coffee table. Based on a simulation of the process shown by Elon Musk, calling it a “catch” is a misnomer, as the arms will mainly move in one dimension (open/close) and can’t actually ‘grab’ the rocket in any real sense. As built and shown, they are closer to a tiny fixed landing platform capable of minor last-second positional adjustments.
Eventually, the chopsticks could shave a small amount of time off of post-recovery processing, removing the need for a crane (or the same arms) to attach to a landed booster or ship. They could also shave off the dry mass required for landing legs, though all interplanetary ships will still need legs. However, they will also inherently make proving their own efficacy a nightmare. By all appearances, the current recovery mechanisms on the arms and the landing hardpoints on ships and boosters mean that a ‘catch’ could fail if either stage is more than a foot or two from a perfect bullseye or rotated a few degrees in the wrong direction. With the method SpaceX has devised, even the tiniest error could easily end with a massive, pressurized, partially-fueled rocket destroying the chopsticks and plummeting a few hundred feet to the ground, guaranteeing an explosion that could damage surrounding infrastructure or start fires that might.
In the event of larger anomalies during a landing attempt, Starship or Super Heavy could accidentally impact the launch tower, damaging or even outright destroying the skyscraper-sized structure. Ultimately, the immense risk posed by any catch attempt means that unless SpaceX has miraculously gotten the design of everything involved nearly perfect on its first try, the company will have to be extraordinarily cautious and expend a large number of ships and boosters to avoid rendering its only Starship launch tower unusable.
At least to some extent, SpaceX likely knows this and Super Heavy would likely need to be in excellent health and perform perfectly during the ascent and boostback portions of its launch debut to be cleared for a catch attempt. Ultimately, Starship’s first orbital launch could end up being even more of a spectacle than it’s already guaranteed to be.
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Tesla FSD successfully completes full coast-to-coast drive with zero interventions
Tesla community members celebrated the milestone on X, and the feat earned praise from some of the electric vehicle maker’s executives.
A Tesla owner has successfully completed a full coast-to-coast drive across the United States on Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised. The trip was accomplished with zero interventions.
Tesla community members celebrated the milestone on X, and the feat earned praise from some of the electric vehicle maker’s executives.
FSD Coast-to-Coast
The coast-to-coast feat was accomplished by Tesla owner Davis Moss, who drives a stealth gray Model 3 with AI4 hardware. Based on data from the FSD database and a community tracker, the last 10,638.8 miles Moss drove in his Model 3 were completed using FSD 100% of the time. His vehicle is equipped with FSD v14.2.1.25, which was installed 12 days ago.
As per Moss in a celebratory post on X, his Model 3 was able to complete a full coast-to-coast drive across the United States in 2 days and 20 hours. His trip started at the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles, CA, and it ended in Myrtle Beach, SC. Overall, his trip spanned 2,732.4 miles.
“This was accomplished with Tesla FSD V14.2 with absolutely 0 disengagements of any kind even for all parking including at Tesla Superchargers,” Moss stated in his post. He also added in later comments that there were zero close calls during the trip.
Tesla community celebrates
The FSD milestone trip was widely lauded by members of the Tesla community, especially since a coast-to-coast drive with zero interventions has been cited by Elon Musk as a target since October 2016, when Autopilot 2.0 was unveiled. At the time, Musk initially estimated that a coast-to-coast drive across the United States should be possible by the end of 2017. Considering Moss’ feat in his Model 3, it appears that Elon Musk’s estimate was not impossible at all. It was just late.
Musk himself celebrated the milestone on X, and so did Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy, who wrote “World’s first fully autonomous coast-to-coast drive, done with Tesla self-driving v14. Congrats and thank you @DavidMoss!” in a post on X. The official Tesla North America account also celebrated the feat, writing “First Tesla to drive itself from coast to coast w/ FSD Supervised. 0 interventions, all FSD” on X.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk: Tesla Model Y is world’s best-selling car for 3rd year in a row
The Model Y has now established an impressive streak that would otherwise have been impossible before Tesla.
Elon Musk has announced that the Tesla Model Y has become the world’s best-selling car by volume for the third consecutive year, capping 2025 with another dominant performance.
The Model Y has now established an impressive streak that would otherwise have been impossible before Tesla.
Three years in a row
Musk posted on X: “Tesla Model Y is now officially the world’s best-selling car for the third year in a row!” The CEO’s comment echoed an update that Tesla included in its 2025 recap, which highlighted, among other things, the Model Y’s incredible streak.
The Model Y has held the title since 2023, outperforming traditional leaders like the Toyota RAV4 and Corolla thanks to its bang-for-the-buck nature and its stellar combination of practicality, performance, and tech. The Model Y is also lauded as one of the safest vehicles on the road, making it an ideal choice for families in key markets such as China.
An impressive 2025
The Model Y’s sales feat in 2025 is especially impressive considering the introduction of the vehicle’s new variant. Tesla’s changeover to the new Model Y across its global factories resulted in sales being paused for some time in the first quarter. As per Tesla’s Q1 2025 vehicle delivery and production report, “the changeover of Model Y lines across all four of our factories led to the loss of several weeks of production in Q1.”
This suggests that the Model Y’s sales remained strong in 2025 to the point where it could still claim the title of the world’s best-selling vehicle by volume, even with its sales being throttled during the first quarter of the year. It would then be interesting to see just how far the Model Y can go in 2026, especially considering the rollout of new variants like the six-seat extended wheelbase Model Y L, the affordable Model Y Standard, and the top-tier Model Y Performance.
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Tesla shares epic 2025 recap video, confirms start of Cybercab production
The cinematic montage, posted by the official Tesla account on X, celebrated the company’s progress in EVs, energy, and Robotaxi development.
Tesla has released an epic year-in-review video for 2025, recapping some of its major achievements from refreshed models to autonomy breakthroughs and production ramps.
The cinematic montage, posted by the official Tesla account on X, celebrated the company’s progress in EVs, energy, and Robotaxi development while looking ahead to an even bigger 2026.
Tesla’s 2025 highlights recap
Tesla has had a busy 2025, as highlighted in the recap video. The video opened with Elon Musk explaining the company’s pursuit of sustainable abundance. A number of milestones were then highlighted, such as the rollout of FSD v14, Optimus’ numerous demos, the opening of the Tesla Diner in Hollywood, LA, the completion of the world’s first autonomous car delivery, and the launch of the Robotaxi network in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Tesla also highlighted several of its accomplishments over the year. As per the company, the Model Y was the year’s best-selling vehicle globally again, and Teslas became more affordable than ever thanks to the Model 3 and Model Y Standard. Other key models were also rolled out, such as the refreshed Model S and X, as well as the new Model Y, the new Model Y Performance, and the six-seat, extended wheelbase Model Y L.
The Megablock was also unveiled during the year, and the Supercharger Network grew by 18%. Over 1 million Powerwalls were also installed during the year, and the Cybertruck became the first EV truck to get both an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award and an NHTSA 5-Star safety rating.
Cybercab production confirmed
Interestingly enough, Tesla also confirmed in its 2025 recap video that the production of the Cybercab has started. This bodes well for the vehicle, as it could result in the vehicle really being mass-produced in the first half of 2026. Elon Musk confirmed during the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting that Cybercab production should earnestly start around April 2026.
Musk has also noted that the Cybercab will be Tesla’s highest-volume vehicle yet, with the company aiming for an annual production rate of about 2 million units. “If you’ve seen the design of the Cybercab line, it doesn’t look like a normal car manufacturing line,” Musk said earlier this year. “It looks like a really high-speed consumer electronics line. In fact, the line will move so fast that actually people can’t even get close to it.”
Tesla FSD successfully completes full coast-to-coast drive with zero interventions
Elon Musk: Tesla Model Y is world’s best-selling car for 3rd year in a row
