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SpaceX Starship event expected this September, says Elon Musk
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has implied that he will continue the tradition of annual Starship update events later this year, likely presenting on the progress the company has made over the last 12 months at its South Texas rocket factory.
Beginning in Guadalajara, Mexico at the September 2016 International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Musk has presented a detailed annual update on the status of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship launch vehicle in September or October for the last four years. Formerly known as the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) and Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), Starship is effectively a continuation of the unprecedented progress SpaceX has made with Falcon 9 and Heavy reusability.
SpaceX has managed to reliably reuse Falcon boosters 5+ times and is on the way to replicating that with payload fairings, but Musk has concluded that the Falcon family – despite being some of the largest operational rockets in existence – is just too small to feasibly recover and reuse the orbital second stage. With Starship, SpaceX wants to take a slightly different approach.
While also a two-stage rocket, Starship will have a magnitude more thrust than Falcon 9 and twice the thrust of Saturn V, the largest liquid rocket ever successfully launched. More importantly, both Starship stages are designed to be easily and rapidly reusable, while also entirely getting rid of deployable payload fairings. In theory, once fully optimized, Starship and the Super Heavy booster should be capable of placing 150 metric tons (~330,000 lb) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO) in a single launch.
Of course, that is going to be an immense challenge – arguably the single most ambitious project in the history of commercial spaceflight – and SpaceX has quite a ways to go before it can even come close. Aside from the huge publicity and excitement it generates, offering detailed explanations of how exactly SpaceX is progressing towards those goals and how Starship’s design is evolving is likely the primary reason Musk has chosen to continue doing annual presentations.
SpaceX may likely be years away from routine, fully-reusable Starship launches but that doesn’t mean that no progress has been made. In the last ~10 months, SpaceX has successfully flown Starhopper to 150 meters (500 ft), destroyed Starship Mk1; built, tested, and destroyed Starships SN1, SN3, SN4, and four standalone test tanks; and expanded its South Texas presence from almost nothing to a large, semi-permanent factory.
Aside from Starship production and testing, SpaceX has evolved the cutting-edge Raptor engine from a relatively rough prototype to an engine capable of operating at the fringes of what thermodynamics will allow. Per Musk, a vacuum-optimized variant of the existing Raptor engine may already be preparing for its first test fires in McGregor, Texas. Meanwhile, SpaceX won its first Starship contract from NASA a matter of weeks ago, solidifying the ambitious rocket’s stature relative to other more traditional next-generation rockets from Blue Origin and the United Launch Alliance (ULA).
All things considered, there is an extraordinary amount of tangible progress on tap for the Starship update Musk says is planned for September. With a little luck, the 2020 presentation will align with Starship’s test program much like the 2019 event did with Starhopper, coming just a few months after ambitious flight tests.
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SpaceX reached an incredible milestone with its Starlink program with a launch last night, as the 3,000th satellite of the year was launched into low Earth orbit.
On Monday, SpaceX also achieved its 32nd flight with a single Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The mission was Starlink 6-92, and it utilized the Falcon 9 B1067 for the 32nd time this year, the most-used Falcon booster. The flight delivered SpaceX’s 3000th Starlink satellite of the year, a massive achievement.
There were 29 Starlink satellites launched and deployed into LEO during this particular mission:
Falcon 9 launches 29 @Starlink satellites from Florida pic.twitter.com/utKrXjHzPN
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 9, 2025
SpaceX has a current goal of certifying its Falcon boosters for 40 missions apiece, according to Spaceflight Now.
The flight was the 350th orbital launch from the nearby SLC-40, and the 3,000 satellites that have been successfully launched this year continue to contribute to the company’s goal of having 12,000 satellites contributing to global internet coverage.
There are over five million users of Starlink, the latest data shows.
Following the launch and stage separation, the Falcon 9 booster completed its mission with a perfect landing on the ‘Just Read the Instructions’ droneship.
The mission was the 575th overall Falcon 9 launch, highlighting SpaceX’s operational tempo, which continues to be accelerated. The company averages two missions per week, and underscores CEO Elon Musk’s vision of a multi-planetary future, where reliable connectivity is crucial for remote work, education, and emergency response.
As Starlink expands and works toward that elusive and crucial 12,000 satellite goal, missions like 6-92 pave the way for innovations in telecommunications and enable more internet access to people across the globe.
With regulatory approvals in over 100 countries and millions of current subscribers, SpaceX continues to democratize space, proving that reusability is not just feasible, but it’s also revolutionary.
Tesla expanded its new Full Self-Driving program, which gives people the opportunity to experience the company’s suite, in Europe.
Tesla recently launched an opportunity for Europeans to experience Full Self-Driving, not in their personal vehicles, but through a new ride-along program that initially launched in Italy, France, and Germany back in late November.
People could experience it by booking a reservation with a local Tesla showroom, but timeslots quickly filled up, making it difficult to keep up with demand. Tesla expanded the program and offered some additional times, but it also had its sights set on getting the program out to new markets.
It finally achieved that on December 9, as it launched rides in Denmark and Switzerland, adding the fourth and fifth countries to the program.
Tesla confirmed the arrival of the program to Denmark and Switzerland on X:
Now available in Denmark & Switzerland
🇩🇰 https://t.co/IpCSwHO566 https://t.co/V2N5EarLNX
— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) December 9, 2025
The program, while a major contributor to Tesla’s butts in seats strategy, is truly another way for the company to leverage its fans in an effort to work through the regulatory hurdles it is facing in Europe.
Tesla has faced significant red tape in the region, and although it has tested the FSD suite and been able to launch this ride-along program, it is still having some tremendous issues convincing regulatory agencies to allow it to give it to customers.
CEO Elon Musk has worked with regulators, but admitted the process has been “insanely painful.”
The most recent development with FSD and its potential use in Europe dealt with the Dutch approval authority, known as the RDW.
Tesla says Europe could finally get FSD in 2026, and Dutch regulator RDW is key
Tesla said it believes some regulations are “outdated and rules-based,” which makes the suite ineligible for use in the European jurisdiction.
The RDW is working with Tesla to gain approval sometime early next year, but there are no guarantees. However, Tesla’s angle with the ride-along program seems to be that if it can push consumers to experience it and have a positive time, it should be easier for it to gain its footing across Europe with regulatory agencies.
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Tesla ramps hiring for Roadster as latest unveiling approaches
Tesla published three new positions for the Roadster this week, relating to Battery Manufacturing, General Manufacturing, and Vision Engineering.
Tesla is ramping up hiring for positions related to the Roadster program, the company’s ultra-fast supercar that has been teased to potentially hover by CEO Elon Musk.
The company seems to be crossing off its last handful of things before it plans to unveil the vehicle on April Fool’s Day, just about four months away.
Tesla published three new positions for the Roadster this week, relating to Battery Manufacturing, General Manufacturing, and Vision Engineering. All three are located in Northern California, with two being at the Fremont Factory and the other at the company’s Engineering HQ in Palo Alto.
Technical Program Manager, Battery Manufacturing
Located in Fremont, this role specifically caters to the design of the Roadster to factory operations. It appears this role will mostly have to do with developing and engineering the Roadster’s battery pack and establishing the production processes for it:
“You will foster collaboration across design engineering, manufacturing, quality, facilities, and production to align with company priorities. Additionally, you will understand project opportunities, challenges, and dependencies; translate scattered information into concise, complete messages; and communicate them to every team member. As the business process development lead, you will develop, maintain, and implement tools and processes to accelerate battery manufacturing execution, achieve cross-functional alignment, and deliver highly efficient systems.”
Manufacturing Engineer, Roadster
Also located in Fremont, this role also has to deal with the concept development and launch of battery manufacturing equipment. Tesla says:
“In this role, you will take large-scale manufacturing systems for new battery products and architectures from the early concept development stage through equipment launch, optimization, and handover to local operations teams.”
Manufacturing Vision Engineer, Battery Vision
This position is in Palo Alto at Tesla’s Engineering Headquarters, and requires the design and scale of advanced inspection and control systems to next-generation battery products:
“You’ll work on automation processes that directly improve battery performance, quality, and cost, collaborating with world-class engineers in a fast-paced, hands-on environment.”
Developing and deploying 2D and 3D vision and measurement systems from proof-of-concept to deployment on high-volume battery manufacturing lines is part of the job description.
Roadster Unveiling
Tesla plans to unveil the Roadster on April 1, and although it was planned for late this year, it is nice to see the company put out a definitive date.
Musk said on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast in late October:
“Whether it’s good or bad, it will be unforgettable. My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars. I think if Peter wants a flying car, he should be able to buy one…I think it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever.”
Production should begin between 12 to 18 months after unveiling, so we could see it sometime in 2027.
SpaceX reaches incredible milestone with Starlink program
Tesla expands new Full Self-Driving program in Europe
