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SpaceX stacks Starship and Super Heavy booster for “wet dress rehearsal” test

SpaceX has fully stacked Ship 24 and Booster 7 for the third (and hopefully second to last) time. (SpaceX)

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3 years ago

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For the third time in three months, SpaceX has fully assembled Starship 24 and Super Heavy Booster 7 after another period of separate tests, repairs, and modifications.

Measuring around 120 meters (~390 ft) tall from ship tip to booster tail, the fully-stacked rocket is again the largest ever assembled. Compared to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets SpaceX currently operates, Starship is far larger. It’s also meant to be fully reusable, while the Falcon family – which expends its orbital upper stage – is roughly 80% reusable. If SpaceX can meet its technical goals, Starship could eventually cost around a magnitude less to launch than Falcon while carrying roughly 5-20 times more payload per launch. In short, it could revolutionize the cost of access to orbit.

Combined with orbital refilling, the ability to transfer propellant between Starships, reusable Starships could also radically exceed Falcon 9 or even Falcon Heavy’s expendable performance. But first, SpaceX needs to make sure that Starship can reach orbit at all.

Compared to Ship 20 and Booster 4, earlier prototypes that were also fully stacked a few times in 2021 and early 2022 before their retirement, Ship 24 and Booster 7 are closer to supporting Starship’s first orbital launch attempt. After their latest full-stack milestone, they could be just a few major tests away from being cleared for flight.

“According to CEO Elon Musk and a NASA official, the last major standalone test between Booster 7 and flight readiness is a full 33-engine static fire. Together, B7’s 33 Raptor 2 engines could produce up to 7600 tons (16.7 million lbf) of thrust at sea level, likely making Starship the most powerful rocket stage in the history of spaceflight.

A wet dress rehearsal is a routine test conducted before a rocket launch and is generally designed to simulate every aspect of a launch save for engine ignition and liftoff. Most importantly, that involves fully filling the rocket with propellant and passing all of the checks the same rocket would need to pass to be cleared for launch. The first full-stack WDR will test Starbase’s launch facilities just as much as Booster 7 and Ship 24.”

Teslarati.com – January 9th, 2023

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The January 9th assembly of B7 and S24 confirms that the WDR will likely occur first, as conducting the first 33-Raptor Super Heavy static fire while fully stacked would unnecessarily risk the Starship. Ship 24 could fly on a future booster if B7 does not pass (or survive) proof testing. More likely than not, Ship 24 will be removed from Booster 7 after WDR testing, freeing Super Heavy for one last round of standalone static fire testing. If that testing clears Booster 7, Ship 24 will be reinstalled – possibly for the last time.

While hardware challenges continue to trump paperwork, an FAA launch license is another significant hurdle standing between SpaceX and Starship’s orbital launch debut. SpaceX and the FAA are in the middle of hammering out the details of such a license, which is partially contingent upon the completion of dozens of “mitigation” measures. Because Starship’s unprecedented size elevates the risk it could pose to local residents, it’s likely that that license is also contingent upon results from ground tests and will be one of the last gates to be lifted.

SpaceX has three windows that could be used for B7/S24 full-stack testing this week: two from 8am to 8pm CST on January 11th and 12th and one from 8am to 4pm on January 13th. CEO Elon Musk says that Starship could be ready for its first orbital launch attempt as early as late February or March 2023.

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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 all but confirms that affordable Model Y is coming Tuesday

It does appear that October 7 would be the date when the world sees Tesla’s actual idea of what an affordable vehicle would be like.

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6 hours ago

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October 6, 2025

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Tesla has released a cryptic teaser of a product that would be announced on Tuesday, October 7, 2025. Based on the company’s hint, it does appear that the product would be the affordable Model Y that has been spotted doing road tests across the country over the past months.

Affordable Model Y sightings

Last week, news emerged that a number of key Tesla influencers visited Gigafactory Texas for a private event. These included veteran Tesla YouTubers, car reviewers, influencers on X, and even a teardown expert who provided the initial insights on how to improve the original Model 3 sedan. At the same time, an uncovered unit of the apparent affordable Model Y was posted online. The vehicle was reportedly sighted close to Giga Texas. 

The new Model Y variant had some notable changes from the standard Model Y. Its fascia seemed inspired by the Model 3 sedan instead of the Cybertruck, and its roof seemed blacked out. Overall, it looked like a simpler Model Y designed to be offered at an affordable price. 

The weekend teasers

Teasers about an upcoming product were posted by Tesla’s official account on social media platform X, though the electric vehicle maker made it a point to keep things very vague. Initially, a closeup video of what appeared to be an aero wheel was posted, though it was vague enough that some speculated that it could be Elon Musk’s long-announced HVAC system instead. 

On Sunday, another teaser video was posted featuring the headlights of a new car. This brought speculations that the new Roadster might finally be announced. Inasmuch as a new Roadster unveiling would be exciting, however, it was evident that the headlights in the new teaser were a match to the uncovered affordable Model Y unit that was spotted close to Giga Texas a few days ago. With this in mind, it does appear that October 7 would be the date when the world sees Tesla’s actual idea of what an affordable vehicle would be like.

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Tesla releases cryptic teaser for something massive and it’s coming this week

On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.

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22 hours ago

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October 5, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has released a cryptic teaser for something massive, and it will release details on it this week. With many different projects in the works, there is a lot of speculation going on about what it could potentially be, but we have a few ideas.

On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.

It then ends with “10/7,” meaning it will announce something on October 7, which is this Tuesday:

Given that Tesla has been working on a handful of pretty notable projects that are set for unveiling at the end of this year, and there are some clues that seem to point in their direction with this short teaser video.

There are two projects that come to mind almost immediately: the Tesla Roadster is one, and the “E41” or affordable model is the other. Here’s what we know about both:

Tesla Roadster Demo Event

Tesla said earlier this year that it would have a demo event for the Roadster to unveil some new technologies and show off what it has been working on over the past few years.

There have been a lot of crazy things in the works for the Roadster, including a SpaceX package that would use cold-gas thrusters for an insane 1.1-second 0-60 MPH acceleration rate. This package was also supposed to help it hover, something CEO Elon Musk has teased for the past few years.

The Roadster was ready for release earlier this year, but after Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and VP of Powertrain Lars Moravy showed Musk what they had come up with, he wanted more.

Moravy said on the Ride the Lightning podcast earlier this year:

“What we had come up with exceeded what we originally planned. So, Elon was like, ‘Wow, great. Let’s do more!'”

The Roadster event was coined as “the most epic demo,” and since it was planned for the end of 2025, it is totally feasible to believe this could be it.

Elon Musk teases Tesla’s “most epic demo” by end of year

Tesla ‘E41’ Affordable Model

Some believe the teaser could be the official launch of Tesla’s affordable model, which Musk said earlier this year is simply a stripped down Model Y.

There have been some sightings of this vehicle in the past few weeks, including one on Friday that showed the vehicle completely uncovered for the first time:

The launch of the affordable model makes sense, especially from a timing perspective. With the $7,500 EV tax credit officially coming to a close on September 30, many are wondering how Tesla will spark growth in its deliveries. A more affordable EV would be the perfect response, and it is something that Tesla has been working on for some time.

Other Potential Ideas

There are some pretty interesting ideas as to what the teaser could be apart from the Roadster or affordable model. Some believe it could be a cooling fan for a GPU cluster, which would make sense considering Tesla’s prowess in data.

Grok also made an interesting guess, stating it could be a propeller for a secret air taxi Tesla is developing. This seems sort of our of left field.

We do know Tesla hosted a handful of influencers at Gigafactory Texas this past week, so whatever the company showed them is likely what will be unveiled on Tuesday.

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Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts in new video teasing capabilities

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet.

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2 days ago

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October 4, 2025

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Credit: Elon Musk | X

Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts, a new video released by CEO Elon Musk shows, a crazy development and advancement in the robotics project the company has been working on for a few years.

Optimus has been a major focus of Tesla for the past several years, especially as Musk has said he believes it will be the biggest product of all time and could be the biggest contributor to the company’s valuation.

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet:

The video shows Optimus working with a Kung Fu teacher, known as a Shifu, going through what appears to be some sort of routine of combinations. It’s quite impressive to see the fluidity of the movements and Optimus’s ability to keep up with Shifu.

Tesla has been “working hard” to scale Optimus production, Musk said last week, a project that has obviously confronted both AI and manufacturing teams with a variety of challenges.

The plan is to have an annual production run-rate of one million units by 2030, and there were plans to build 5,000 units this year.

Elon Musk gives update on Tesla Optimus progress

Musk still believes Optimus will make up roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s value. In January, he said it would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”

Tesla plans to launch the Gen 3 version of Optimus soon, and although a video of a new-look prototype was released by Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, the company’s frontman stated that this was not what the next-generation prototype would look like.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla has never shown Optimus V3 design yet

This video seems to show there is still significant progress being made on the Optimus project, and it will be perhaps one of the most impressive humanoid robots available to consumers in the coming years.

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