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SpaceX Starship gets FAA nod for ninth test flight

The FAA has given the green light for Starship’s ninth test flight.

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(Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX has received FAA approval for the ninth test flight of the Starship rocket. The approval was delayed due to the federal agency finishing its comprehensive safety review of the eighth flight earlier this year.

The FAA said in a statement that it has determined that SpaceX has “satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap, and therefore, the Starship vehicle can return to flight.”

The eighth test flight occurred back on March 6. SpaceX completed a successful liftoff of Starship and the Super Heavy Booster, before the two entered stage separation a few minutes after launch.

Starship Flight 8: SpaceX nails Super Heavy booster catch but loses upper stage

The booster returned and was caught by the chopsticks on the launch pad, completing the second successful booster catch in the program’s history. However, SpaceX lost contact with Starship in the upper atmosphere.

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The ship broke up and reentered the atmosphere over Florida and the Bahamas.

The debris situation caused the FAA to initiate a mishap investigation:

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The FAA said it will verify that SpaceX implements all the corrective actions on Flight 9 that it discovered during the mishap investigation.

There is no current confirmed launch window, but the earliest it could take off from Starbase is Tuesday, May 27, at 6:30 p.m. local time.

To prevent any injuries and potentially limit any damage, the FAA has stayed in contact with various countries that could be impacted if another loss of vehicle occurs:

“The FAA is in close contact and collaboration with the United Kingdom, Turks & Caicos Islands, Bahamas, Mexico, and Cuba as the agency continues to monitor SpaceX’s compliance with all public safety and other regulatory requirements.”

The agency has also stated that the Aircraft Hazard Area (AHA) is approximately 1,600 nautical miles and extends eastward from the Starbase, Texas, launch site through the Straits of Florida, including the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos.

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For flight 8, the AHA was just 885 nautical miles.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk teases autobiography following fallout with Isaacson

“I need to tell my story myself and highlight lessons that I learned along the way that would be useful to others.”

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Credit: xAI

Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased the potential for an autobiography following his fallout with author Walter Isaacson, who wrote a book on the serial entrepreneur in the past.

Isaacson met with C-SPAN’s American’s Book Club on November 13, and went into detail as to why he disagreed with Musk’s place in politics, especially with how he handled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE):

“It’s a shame because had he gone into government and focused on what he’s good at…He could have changed the government for good, but instead…he started, you know, let’s get rid of this part of USAID and firing people.”

It’s sort of a shame to see Isaacson cast stones in the direction of Musk, whom he spent a significant amount of time with, aiming to put forth an accurate and realistic depiction of perhaps the greatest entrepreneur in the modern era.

However, Musk did not come back at Isaacson. Instead, he highlighted the need for what could potentially be his autobiography, aiming to “highlight lessons that [he] learned along the way that would be useful to others.”

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Musk’s time in government was met with harsh criticisms from many, but there was a lot of support for the work that he did during his time with DOGE as well. Eventually, Musk’s responsibilities with DOGE started to wind down, and he pledged to step back from government to focus on his companies.

A Musk-written biography would potentially be a great book for those who are interested in his story, but also those who plan to enter entrepreneurism, tech, or the sciences, as there truly could be some excellent lessons within.

However, Musk’s recently approved compensation package and the tranches that could pay him $1 trillion in shares will likely take up most of his time. Tesla also has a lofty goal of launching Robotaxi and expanding the ride-hailing service to other areas of the country in the coming months.

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@teslarati With a pedestrian in the crosswalk, Tesla Full Self-Driving shows off its courtesy. Human drivers? Not so much. #tesla #teslafsd #fullselfdriving ♬ AMERICAN HEART – Maxwell Luke

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk sends final warning to Bill Gates over short position

“If Gates hasn’t fully closed out the crazy short position he has held against Tesla for ~8 years, he had better do so soon,” Musk said.

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bill gates elon musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent a final warning to former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates over his short position, which he confirmed he held to Musk directly several years ago.

Gates has been a skeptic of Tesla for some time, but he has also tried to work with Musk on philanthropic opportunities several years ago, which was coincidentally when he admitted to the company’s frontman that he held a short position.

Musk was, in turn, “super mean” to Gates, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography about the Tesla CEO. Gates had put $500 million against Tesla, shorting the stock and hoping to profit from its failure.

Elon Musk explains Bill Gates beef: He ‘placed a massive bet on Tesla dying’

A short position essentially means Gates is betting Tesla shares will go down, which would make him money. However, shares have gone up over six percent this year and increased nearly 150 percent over the past five years.

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At the recent Annual Shareholder Meeting, Musk made many claims about Tesla’s future projects and how they could manage to disrupt various industries. He also recently had a massive $1 trillion compensation package approved, which will be awarded in twelve tranches, all of which combine a company valuation goal and an individual goal related to a product.

Musk was able to complete his last approved pay package, but it was not awarded due to a ruling by a Delaware Chancery Court. Nevertheless, his track record of proving growth for Tesla shareholders is excellent, and investors are obviously very encouraged by his capabilities as a CEO, considering 76.6 percent of shareholders voted to approve his new compensation.

After it was revealed that the Gates Foundation dumped 65 percent of its Microsoft position for nearly $9 billion, Musk had one final message for him: drop your Tesla short position soon, or else.

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Musk’s rivalry with Gates is mostly founded on the Tesla CEO’s discontent with the former Microsoft frontman’s short position. However, Musk might have a bit of a soft spot for Gates, considering he is giving him a warning of what is potentially to come. If he really wanted to do some damage to Gates, he would not give him any heads-up at all.

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Elon Musk debunks report claiming xAI raised $15 billion in funding round

xAI also responded with what appeared to be an automated reply, stating, “Legacy Media Lies.”

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Credit: xAI

Elon Musk has debunked a report claiming his AI startup xAI had raised $15 billion from a funding round. Reports of the alleged funding round were initially reported by CNBC, which cited sources reportedly familiar with the matter.

CNBC’s report

The CNBC story cited unnamed sources that claimed that the new capital injection would help fund GPUs that xAI needs to train its large language model, Grok. The news outlet noted that following the funding round, xAI was valued at $200 billion. 

Artificial intelligence startups have been raising funds from investors as of late. OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in October, valuing the startup at a staggering $500 billion. Reuters also reported last month that OpenAI was preparing for an IPO with a valuation of $1 trillion. Elon Musk’s xAI is looking to catch up and disrupt OpenAI, as well as its large language model, ChatGPT, which has become ubiquitous.

Elon Musk and xAI’s responses

In his response on X, Elon Musk simply stated that the CNBC story was “false.” He did not, however, explain if the whole premise of the publication’s article was fallacious, or if only parts of it were inaccurate. 

Amusingly enough, xAI also issued a response when asked about the matter by Reuters, which also reported on the story. The artificial intelligence startup responded with what appeared to be an automated reply, which read, “Legacy Media Lies.”

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xAI, founded in July 2023 as an alternative to OpenAI and Anthropic, has aggressively built out infrastructure to support its flagship products, including Grok and its recently launched Grokipedia platform. The company is developing its Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, which is heralded as one of the world’s largest supercomputer clusters.

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