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SpaceX Starship passed “cryo proof” test for the first time and here’s what’s next

A SpaceX Starship rocket just passed a critical "cryo proof" test for the first time. (NASASpaceflight - bocachicagal)

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6 years ago

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Elon Musk says a SpaceX Starship prototype has passed a critical “cryo proof” test for the first time, opening the door for the rocket to move on to even bigger tests.

Late on April 26th, SpaceX’s South Texas team (and possibly a console team in California) readied the fourth full-scale Starship prototype (SN4) for its second major test. Known as a cryogenic proof test, it began less than 24 hours after the rocket completed a room-temperature gas pressure test to check for leaks and verify that the pressure vessel was sound. Musk quickly confirmed that Starship SN4 passed through that “ambient proof test” without issue.

For the cryo proof test, room-temperature nitrogen gas was replaced with ultra-cold liquid nitrogen, serving as a chemically neutral (i.e. non-explosive) simulant for Starship’s liquid oxygen and methane propellant. After a few hours of partial loading and offloading cycles meant to ensure that Starship’s valves and propellant supply hardware was working as intended, SpaceX controllers fully filled the rocket with some ~1000 metric tons (2.2 million lb) of liquid nitrogen. Once full, a hydraulic ram setup was activated to exert forces akin to Raptor engines operating at full thrust. After several prior failures, Starship SN4 thus became the first to survive the ordeal and graduate into the next stage of testing.

According to CEO Elon Musk, that next step will be a static fire test with a lone Raptor engine installed. Able to produce at least 200 metric tons of thrust (~450,000 lbf) at full throttle, Raptor is an exceptionally efficient methalox (methane/oxygen) rocket engine designed by SpaceX to power Starship and its Super Heavy booster. Methane and oxygen was chosen in large part because of the relative potential ease of its extraction and refinement on Mars.

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Per Musk, that static fire could occur within the next six or so days, meaning that SpaceX will likely install a functional Raptor engine on a full-scale Starship for the first time ever within the next day or two. Before a static fire can be performed, though, another significant test or two will have to be completed.

Known as a wet dress rehearsal (WDR), the first of those tests will be similar to April 26th’s cryo proof but with the neutral liquid nitrogen placed by real liquid oxygen and methane propellant. This is much riskier than the cryo proof in the sense that if a tank failure were to occur or a fire to accidentally start, 1000+ tons of highly-pressurized propellant could easily create a massive explosion and fireball, destroying or damaging much of the surrounding pad equipment. The WDR could potentially be rolled into another Raptor engine test that would verify its preburner performance.

Pictured on April 4th, one of these three Raptors will likely be installed on Starship SN4 just a day or two from now. (Elon Musk)

To operate, Raptors first take liquid oxygen and liquid methane into separate parts of the engine and rapidly heat them to turn them into high temperature gas. Those preburners then send that hot gas to separate turbopumps that spin up and allow the engines to keep supplying themselves with large quantities of propellant, followed by the process of actually igniting the engine itself with a complex series of blowtorches.

If the preburner and turbopump spin-up test is successful, SpaceX can then move on to the actual static fire. Featuring a single Raptor engine, Starship SN4 will hopefully become the first full-scale rocket to safely operate a flight-grade engine since SpaceX began full-scale tests in November 2019. If successful, that static fire could pave the way for Starship SN4 to perform a Starhopper-style 150m (500 ft) hop test as early as May 2020 – a hop that would be powered by a single Raptor engine according to Musk.

Starship SN5 will reportedly be the first ship to both have a nosecone installed and three Raptor engines installed if SN4 has a very successful few weeks and that new ship is perhaps just 5-10 days from being fully assembled. In short, things are about to get very busy and very exciting at SpaceX’s South Texas Starship factory and launch pad.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk teases Optimus job that’s straight out of Robocop

“If somebody’s committed a crime, we might be able to provide a more humane form of containment of future crime. You now get a free Optimus, and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from doing crime.”

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8 hours ago

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November 11, 2025

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Credit: @heydave7/X

Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased a potential job for the company’s Optimus robot last week that is straight out of the movie “Robocop.”

“Robocop” aimed to show a futuristic look at law enforcement in a Sci-fi thriller that was among the first iterations of how robots could be used for police work.

The 1987 film showcased an injured cop turning into an armed cyborg, and although Tesla’s Optimus won’t be a human-robot hybrid, Musk’s idea for the humanoid project is similar.

Musk said last week at the Annual Shareholder Meeting, where shareholders voted to approve his $1 trillion compensation plan, that Optimus could be the future of law enforcement, nearly revolutionizing the way criminals are prosecuted.

He hinted that Optimus could actually be used as a chaperone of sorts, arguing that it was a “more humane form of containment of future crime.” Musk said:

“If somebody’s committed a crime, we might be able to provide a more humane form of containment of future crime. You now get a free Optimus, and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from doing crime. Other than that, you get to do anything; it’s just going to stop you from committing crime. That’s really it. You don’t have to put people in prisons and stuff. It’s pretty wild to think of all the possibilities, but I think it’s clearly the future.”

Musk’s overall idea for Optimus is to change the way people are able to exist, from those law-abiding citizens to others who have their run-ins with the law. Instead, the Tesla CEO believes there could be a different way to handle everything, including punishment.

It was not the only thing that Musk indicated could be changed significantly by the presence of humanoid robots, as he also said a universal basic income could be established with the help of products like Optimus.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk teases huge merger: ‘Trending towards convergence’

“My companies are, surprisingly in some ways, trending towards convergence.”

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10 hours ago

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November 11, 2025

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Elon Musk recently amplified the thoughts of Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who had insight into the “Muskonomy” of his potentially interconnected ventures, something that was proposed at the recent Tesla Shareholder Meeting with xAI.

Musk’s words indicate a potential strategic fusion that could serve as a blueprint for future innovation–but it is dependent on a conglomeration between the many entities the CEO serves.

As Tesla grapples with scaling Optimus and preparing for its imminent production and the development of the Full Self-Driving suite, xAI’s computational edge could provide leverage for the millions of miles of data the company accumulates, providing a more stable and accurate development strategy for the autonomous and AI efforts it has put its chips all in on.

After Tesla Shareholders voted to deny Tesla and xAI’s potential financial partnership through an investment, Jonas said it was an issue that would have to be revisited due to its importance.

xAI has the opportunity to provide an incredible strategic and financial bolstering to Tesla, especially with how important a role data plays in the development of the company’s biggest products.

Jonas wrote in a note to investors:

“They’re gonna have to revisit this. We don’t think investors understand just how important xAI is to Tesla and the broader Muskonomy. Tesla’s relationship with xAI (financially and strategically) is deterministic to the long-term success of Tesla due in part to the natural synergies of data, software, hardware, and manufacturing in recursive loops. The values (and value systems) of both Tesla and xAI are endowed by the values of their shared creator. We believe this co-determination becomes more obvious in the next phases of physical AI/ autonomy for Tesla in the year ahead.”

Musk said, in response to Jonas’ note, that his companies are “surprisingly in some ways, trending toward convergence.”

Mergers and shared ecosystems between companies are not new moves out of Musk’s playbook, as it has been done in the past, especially with Tesla acquiring other entities.

It did it with SolarCity in 2016 and with Maxwell Technologies in 2019. Investments between Musk companies have occurred before, too, as SpaceX dumped $2 billion into xAI last July.

He’s also said on several occasions that he could eventually bring everything together into some sort of single entity. In July 2024, he said:

“I’m not opposed to the idea in principle, but I’m not sure there is a pragmatic or legal way to merge them. There is also value in equity incentives of people at the companies being tied to that company’s accomplishments.”

This point is especially relevant now with Musk’s recently approved compensation package.

He also said in June, during an interview with CNBC , that “It’s not out of the question” for xAI to merge with Tesla, but it would have to be approved by shareholders. Just a few days later, he said he would not support xAI merging with Tesla; however, he put it in investors’ hands.

It’s more than just a deal; it’s symbiotic. Musk being at the helm of various companies, all intertwined with one another, helps foster recursive innovation. Despite these advantages, there are still a handful of things to consider, especially from a regulatory perspective.

However, it is not competition; it’s convergence. In Musk’s universe, especially from a business sense, mergers are not endpoints, but instead launchpads for ambitions that aim to take each company from Earth to lands beyond our atmosphere.

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Elon Musk

Tesla makes Elon Musk’s new compensation package official

This is an important thing to note, as much of the media coverage regarding Musk’s pay package seems to indicate that the company and the shareholders are simply giving the CEO the money. He has to come through on each of these tranches to unlock the $1 trillion.

Published

12 hours ago

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November 11, 2025

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Credit: @JoeTegtmeyer/X

Tesla has made CEO Elon Musk’s new compensation package official, as it filed a Form 4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.

The package officially gives Musk the opportunity to acquire over 423 million shares of Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA), dependent on his ability to achieve twelve performance-based tranches that will bring growth to the company and its shareholders.

Tesla (TSLA) shareholders officially approve Elon Musk’s 2025 performance award

Musk’s new compensation package was approved by investors last Thursday at the company’s Annual Shareholder Meeting, as over 75 percent of voters supported the CEO’s new plan, which could be valued at over $1 trillion if he is able to come through on all twelve tranches.

The twelve tranches include growth goals related to vehicle deliveries, the Optimus humanoid robot project, and Tesla’s valuation. If Musk is able to achieve each tranche, he would help Tesla achieve an over $8 trillion market cap.

The 12 tranches include:

  1. $2 trillion market cap + Deliver 20 million Tesla vehicles cumulatively
  2. $2.5 trillion market cap + Reach 10 million active Full Self-Driving (FSD) subscriptions
  3. $3 trillion market cap + Deliver 1 million Optimus humanoid robots
  4. $3.5 trillion market cap + Operate 1 million Robotaxis commercially
  5. $4 trillion market cap + Hit $50 billion in adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, etc.)
  6. $4.5 trillion market cap + Hit $80 billion in adjusted EBITDA
  7. $5 trillion market cap + Hit $130 billion in adjusted EBITDA
  8. $5.5 trillion market cap + Hit $210 billion in adjusted EBITDA
  9. $6 trillion market cap + Hit $300 billion in adjusted EBITDA
  10. $6.5 trillion market cap + Hit $400 billion in adjusted EBITDA
  11. $7.5 trillion market cap + Hit $400 billion in adjusted EBITDA for four straight quarters in a row
  12. $8.5 trillion market cap + Hit $400 billion in adjusted EBITDA for four straight quarters in a row

Achieving the twelve levels of the new compensation package would also give Musk what he’s really after: a larger ownership share in Tesla, which would help him achieve more control, something he feels is necessary for the rollout of the Optimus robot “army.”

Musk does not earn a dime if he does not achieve any of the tranches above.

This is an important thing to note, as much of the media coverage regarding Musk’s pay package seems to indicate that the company and the shareholders are simply giving the CEO the money. He has to come through on each of these tranches to unlock the $1 trillion.

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