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SpaceX is building Starship’s East Coast launch site at a breakneck pace

Pad 39A is pictured here in February 2019. The upper right quadrant - from the LOX sphere to the hangar - will become a dedicated Starship and Super Heavy launch facility. (USAF - Hope Geiger, February 2019)

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After breaking ground on September 21st, SpaceX and construction contractors are working at a breakneck pace to complete the modifications necessary for the existing Launch Complex 39A pad to support East Coast Starship and Super Heavy launches.

SpaceX is simultaneously preparing two launch sites and two orbital-class Starship prototypes – Mk1 (Boca Chica, Texas) and Mk2 (Cocoa, Florida) – for their inaugural flight tests. Both pads and flight hardware appear to feature unique design choices and clearly have different strategic value, but one thing remains entirely consistent: SpaceX is not wasting time at either site.

Less than five days after SpaceX received its final construction permit and broke ground at Pad 39A, the company and its contractors have made quick work of clear the ground. Major earthmoving is well underway, concrete deliveries have already begun, and piles are being driven in a bid to quickly secure the proposed Starship launch mount’s foundation.

Per descriptions and drawings included in environmental assessments and water management documents published in August and September, SpaceX – already leasing and operating out of Pad 39A – intends to modify the NASA-owned Kennedy Space Center (KSC) facilities. Once complete, Pad 39A will be able to simultaneously support both Falcon 9/Heavy and Starship/Super Heavy launches. Per communications archived as part of St. Johns River Water Management District (SJR) permitting, SpaceX also needed NASA approval to attain the stormwater management permits needed to begin its Pad 39A modifications.

The fact that SpaceX has already broken ground guarantees that NASA and KSC have already given SpaceX full permission to do so, meaning that the path to complete Pad 39A’s Starship launch accommodations is nearly wide open. The only thing SpaceX still needs – assuming the company hasn’t already received approval – is one last major permit in the form of a positive National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessment (EA), the final draft of which was published on August 7th. SpaceX can technically continue construction but it will need to secure NEPA approval before it can begin any sort of Starship operations at the new facilities.

https://twitter.com/therealjonvh/status/1177386419330924545

Meanwhile, although it’s pretty clear that a large portion of SpaceX’s Cocoa, FL Starship crew has been diverted to help with Mk1 in Texas, a skeleton crew continues to do what they can to prepare Starship Mk2 for its next major assembly milestones. Most notably, the prototype’s upper (top) tank dome was rolled out of the facility’s assembly building, a strong indicator that it’s nearly ready for installation atop Starship Mk2’s tank section. This will ‘cap off’ Starship Mk2, a milestone its sister ship reached on September 14th. As such, Mk2 is likely two or so weeks behind Mk1 after suffering delays at the hand of Hurricane Dorian and after CEO Elon Musk likely decided to prioritize Starship Mk1’s pre-presentation preparations.

Most importantly, a few local observers have noted and continued to document the process SpaceX will have to undertake to transport Starship Mk2 from Cocoa to Cape Canaveral – specifically Pad 39A. Several people realized that a nearby railroad bridge’s imminent construction could shortly block the path SpaceX was hoping to use to get Starship to the Indian River, where a barge could carry it the rest of the way to KSC. SpaceX likely has backup routes as options, but they would very likely require far more time and effort.

Time will tell if SpaceX can prepare Starship Mk2 in time to take its original transport route. By all appearances, if the prototype’s transport ends up being delayed, Pad 39A’s newly minted Starship launch facilities will likely be ready and waiting once the rocket arrives.

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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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Tesla’s biggest rival in China reported a big profit decline once again

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(Credit: BYD)

Tesla’s biggest rival in China reported a big decline in its profitability for the second straight quarter, and a loss of one-third compared to the same quarter last year.

BYD overtook Tesla as the best-selling EV maker in China in the fourth quarter of 2023, finally surpassing the company in terms of sales in the region.

Is Tesla really losing to BYD, or just playing a different game?

The Chinese market is one of the most competitive in the world, especially for EVs, as the industry is healthy with young and scrappy companies looking to sell the best possible tech in their vehicles.

BYD reported its earnings on Thursday and said that its profit had slumped by 33 percent compared to the same quarter last year. For this year’s third quarter, BYD reported a net profit of 7.8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), a 32.6 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2024.

Its revenue was 195 billion yuan ($27.4 billion), which was only a 3 percent decrease compared to Q3 2024.

The drop in profits and revenue can mostly be attributed to the ongoing growth of competition in the Chinese market. The increased competition in China has pushed companies to turn to overseas markets in response, according to CnEVPost.

BYD is one of those companies, and it is attempting to push sales upward by entering new markets, especially in Europe, where the company sold more than 13,000 units in EU countries in September alone.

This was a 272 percent increase year over year, a major piece of evidence that it has a lot of potential in foreign markets.

The drop in financial figures is likely a short-term issue for BYD, as it has already established itself as a formidable competitor to many companies in many markets. In Q1, it reported an increase in profit by 100 percent compared to the same time span the year prior.

As it works to expand to even more markets in the world, it will continue to build upon its already-solid reputation.

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GM takes latest step to avoid disaster as EV efforts get derailed

There was an even larger step taken this morning, as the Detroit Free Press reported that GM was idling its Factory Zero plant in Michigan until late November, placing about 1,200 workers on indefinite layoff status.

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Credit: GM

General Motors has taken its latest step to avoid financial disaster as its electric vehicle efforts have been widely derailed.

GM’s electric vehicle manufacturing efforts started off hot, and CEO Mary Barra seemed to have a real hold on how the industry and consumers were starting to evolve toward sustainable powertrains. Even former President Joe Biden commended her as being a major force in the global transition to EVs.

However, the company’s plans have not gone as they’ve drawn them up. GM has reported some underwhelming delivery figures in recent quarters, and with the loss of the $7,500 tax credit, the company is planning for what is likely a substantial setback in its entire EV division.

Earlier this month, the company reported it would include a $1.6 billion charge in its quarterly earnings results from EV investments. It was the first true sign that things with GM’s EV projects were going to slow down.

There was an even larger step taken this morning, as the Detroit Free Press reported that GM was idling its Factory Zero plant in Michigan until late November, placing about 1,200 workers on indefinite layoff status.

This is in addition to the 280 employees it has already laid off after production cuts that happened earlier this year at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

After November 24, GM will bring back 3,200 people to work until January 5 to operate both shifts. On January 5, GM is expected to keep 1,200 workers on indefinite layoff.

GM is not the only legacy automaker to make a move like this, as Ford has also started to make a move that reflects a cautious tone regarding how far and how committed it can be to its EV efforts.

After the tax credit was lost, it seemed to be a game of who would be able to float their efforts longest without the government’s help. Tesla CEO Elon Musk long said that the loss of these subsidies would help the company and hurt its competitors, and so far, that is what we are seeing.

Elon Musk was right all along about Tesla’s rivals and EV subsidies

However, Tesla still has some things to figure out, including how its delivery numbers will be without the tax credit. Its best quarter came in Q3 as the credit was expiring, but Tesla did roll out some more affordable models after the turn of the quarter.

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Tesla expands Robotaxi geofence, but not the garage

This has broadened its geofence to nearly three times the size of Waymo’s current service area, which is great from a comparative standpoint. However, there seems to be something that also needs to be expanded as the geofence gets larger: the size of the Robotaxi fleet.

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Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | X

Tesla has expanded its Robotaxi geofence four times, once as recently as this week.

However, the company has seemingly kept its fleet size relatively small compared to the size of the service area, making some people — even pro-Tesla influencers — ask for more transparency and an expansion of the number of vehicles it has operating.

Over the past four months, Tesla has done an excellent job of maintaining growth with its service area in Austin as it continues to roll out the early stages of what is the Robotaxi platform.

The most recent expansion brought its size from 170 square miles (440.298 sq. km) to 243 square miles (629.367 sq. km).

Tesla sends clear message to Waymo with latest Austin Robotaxi move

This has broadened its geofence to nearly three times the size of Waymo’s current service area, which is great from a comparative standpoint. However, there seems to be something that also needs to be expanded as the geofence gets larger: the size of the Robotaxi fleet.

Tesla has never revealed exactly how many Model Y vehicles it is using in Austin for its partially driverless ride-hailing service (We say partial because the Safety Monitor moves to the driver’s seat for freeway routes).

When it first launched Robotaxi, Tesla said it would be a small fleet size, between 10 and 20 vehicles. In late August, after its second expansion of the service area, it then said it “also increased the number of cars available by 50 percent.”

Tesla reveals it has expanded its Robotaxi fleet in Austin

The problem is, nobody knows how many cars were in the fleet to begin with, so there’s no real concrete figure on how many Robotaxis were available.

This has caused some frustration for users, who have talked about the inability to get rides smoothly. As the geofence has gotten larger, there has only been one mentioned increase in the fleet.

Tesla did not reveal any new figures or expansion plans in terms of fleet size in the recent Q3 Earnings Call, but there is still a true frustration among many because the company will not reveal an exact figure.

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