Connect with us

News

SpaceX’s Starship prototype proceeds at breakneck pace towards hop tests

An apparent Starship nosecone is lifted atop one of the prototype's barrel-style hull sections on December 28th. (NASASpaceflight /u/bocachicagal)

Published

on

Well illustrated by recent drone photos of SpaceX’s up-and-coming Boca Chica, Texas facilities, dozens of SpaceXers and local contractors have congregated at the company’s Starship prototype work site over the last few weeks, progressing it from an empty tent and a collection of parts to a handful of large assemblies for what appears to be the first full-scale Starship hopper.

Much like Falcon 9’s Grasshopper and F9R (Reusable) hop test articles, this ungainly Starship hopper – standing an impressive 9m (29.5 ft) wide and ~40m (131 ft) tall – appears all but guaranteed to become the first integrated BFR hardware to take flight, hopefully supporting a productive series of low-altitude hop tests from a roughly-prepared South Texas pad.

https://twitter.com/austinbarnard45/status/1079402956603248641

Since SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to provide a number of updates on and photos of the company’s dramatically refigured approach to BFR (now Starship and Super Heavy), employees and local contractors have been working almost around the clock to keep building the first full-scale, integrated Starship test article. To be dedicated to low-speed, low-altitude hop tests, Starhopper has been a spectacle and scandal from the start thanks to an unshakable visual aesthetic reminiscent of 1950s science fiction or an elaborate and slow-burning April Fool’s prank.

Advertisement
SpaceX’s Starship hopper is rapidly taking form in Boca Chica, Texas. (NASASpaceflight /u/bocachicagal)

As of now, several dozen tweets and tweet replies from Musk in just the last week offer extensive support for the unorthodox new design – replacing carbon composites and an ablative heat shield for a new stainless steel alloy and liquid cooling –  while also firmly indicating that the object taking shape in South Texas really is a Starship hopper that will eventually take to the skies on a pillar of Raptor engine exhaust. Those inaugural hop tests could apparently begin as early as March or April 2019. Given Musk’s statements, it seems that this highly unusual Starship hop test program simply cannot be judged accurately by its cover, at least not easily.

Even for SpaceX, building an aerospace-grade prototype of a massive orbital spaceship outdoors – adjacent to soggy Texan marshland and Gulf of Mexico sea spray, no less – is utterly and completely unexpected, especially in an industry where rocket hardware is routinely fabricated indoors, if not in medical-grade clean rooms. The most likely explanation here is that we are seeing something more akin to the aeroshell or cocoon of a Starship hopper, with a huge amount of thought and debate ultimately landing on this oddity as the fastest, most affordable, and most data-rich path forward for full-scale BFR testing.

 

In this speculative instance, the sensitive liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellant tanks – as well as Starhopper’s triple-Raptor thrust structure and spaghetti plumbing – would be fabricated in SpaceX’s Hawthorne, CA factory or McGregor, TX test facilities before being shipped to Boca Chica for integration with the large structures already in work there. Those Raptors, propellant tanks, and a general program of fit-and-finish optimizations are next on the list of significant Starhopper-related events expected to occur within the next several months.

The latter task has already begun, showing up in the form of sheet metal refinement by way of essentially stitching together loose panel gaps between and within sheet-covered sections of Starhopper’s shiny silver nose. SpaceX workers also conducted the first move of the fully-integrated hopper’s base section, previously built and then sat atop a ready-made concrete stand that may or may not have come from a water tank design. While the move was slight, the base and nose sections are now roughly side-by-side along the apron of SpaceX’s temporary tent, where a third Starhopper hull segment is being built up.

Advertisement

2019 is going to be wild and March/April simply cannot come soon enough.


For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!

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.

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Tesla owners explore potential FSD pricing options as uncertainty looms

We asked Tesla owners what the company should price Full Self-Driving moving forward, as now it’s going to be subscription-based. There were some interesting proposals.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla is starting the process of removing the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright, as it pulled the purchase option in the United States over the weekend.

However, there has been some indication by CEO Elon Musk that the price of the subscription will increase as the suite becomes more robust. But Tesla finds itself in an interesting situation with this: the take rate for Full Self-Driving at $99 per month is about 12 percent, and Musk needs a significant increase in this rate to reach a tranche in his new compensation package.

This leaves Tesla and owners in their own respective limbos: Tesla needs to find a price that will incentivize consumers to use FSD, while owners need Tesla to offer something that is attractive price-wise.

We asked Tesla owners what the company should price Full Self-Driving moving forward, as now it’s going to be subscription-based. There were some interesting proposals.

Advertisement

Price Reduction

Although people are willing to pay the $99 per month for the FSD suite, it certainly is too high for some owners. Many suggested that if Tesla would back down the price to $49, or somewhere around that region, many owners would immediately subscribe.

Others suggested $69, which would make a lot of sense considering Musk’s obsession with that number.

Different Pricing for Supervised and Unsupervised

With the release of the Unsupervised version of Full Self-Driving, Tesla has a unique opportunity to offer pricing for different attention level requirements.

Unsupervised Full Self-Driving would be significantly more expensive, but not needed by everyone. Many people indicate they would still like to drive their cars manually from time to time, but others said they’d just simply be more than okay with only having Supervised FSD available in their cars.

Time-Based Pricing

Tesla could price FSD on a duration-based pricing model, including Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Annual rates, which would incentivize longer durations with better pricing.

Annually, the rate could be $999 per year, while Monthly would stay at $99. However, a Daily pass of FSD would cost somewhere around $10, while a $30 per week cost seems to be ideal.

Advertisement

These all seem to be in line with what consumers might want. However, Tesla’s attitude with FSD is that it is the future of transportation, and with it offering only a Monthly option currently, it does not seem as if it will look as short-term as a Daily pass.

Tiered Pricing

This is perhaps the most popular option, according to what we’ve seen in comments and replies.

This would be a way to allow owners to pick and choose which FSD features they would like most and pay for them. The more features available to you, the more it costs.

For example, if someone only wanted Supervised driving and Autopark, it could be priced at $50 per month. Add in Summon, it could be $75.

Advertisement

This would allow people to pick only the features they would use daily.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla leaves a single loophole to purchase Full Self-Driving outright

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla has left a single loophole to purchase Full Self-Driving outright. On Sunday, the option officially disappeared from the Online Design Studio in the United States, as Tesla transitioned to a Subscription-only purchasing plan for the FSD suite.

However, there is still one way to get the Full Self-Driving suite in an outright manner, which would not require the vehicle owner to pay monthly for the driver assistance program — but you have to buy a Model S or Model X.

Months ago, Tesla launched a special “Luxe Package” for the Model S and Model X, which included Full Self-Driving for the life of the vehicle, as well as free Supercharging at over 75,000 locations, as well as free Premium Connectivity, and a Four-Year Premium Service package, which includes wheel and tire protection, windshiel protection, and recommended maintenance.

It would also be available through the purchase of a Cyberbeast, the top trim of the Cybertruck lineup.

This small loophole would allow owners to avoid the monthly payment, but there have been some changes in the fine print of the program, as Tesla has added that it will not be transferable to subsequent vehicle owners or to another vehicle.

Advertisement

This goes for the FSD and the Supercharging offers that come with the Luxe Package.

For now, Tesla still has the Full Self-Driving subscription priced at $99 per month. However, that price is expected to increase over the course of some time, especially as its capabilities improve. Tesla seems to be nearing Unsupervised FSD based on Musk’s estimates for the Cybercab program.

There is the potential that Tesla offers both Unsupervised and Supervised FSD for varying prices, but this is not confirmed.

In other countries, Tesla has pushed back the deadline to purchase the suite outright, as in Australia, it has been adjusted to March 31.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Tesla Sweden’s port deal sparks political clash in Trelleborg

The extension of Tesla’s lease has drawn criticism from the local Social Democratic opposition.

Published

on

Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tesla Sweden’s lease agreement at the Port of Trelleborg has triggered a political dispute, with local leaders divided over whether the municipally owned port should continue renting space to the electric vehicle maker amidst its ongoing conflict with the IF Metall union.

Tesla Sweden’s recently extended contract with the Port of Trelleborg has triggered calls for greater political oversight of future agreements.

Tesla has used the Port of Trelleborg to import vehicles into Sweden amid a blockade by the Transport Workers’ Union, as noted in a report from Dagens Arbete (DA). By routing cars via trucks on passenger ferries, the company has maintained deliveries despite the labor dispute. Vehicles have also been stored and prepared in facilities leased from the municipal port company.

The extension of Tesla’s lease has drawn criticism from the local Social Democratic opposition. Initially, the Port of Trelleborg hinted that it would not enter into new agreements with Tesla, but it eventually opted to renew its existing contract with the EV maker anyway.

Advertisement

Lennart Höckert, an opposition councilor, described the port’s decision as a “betrayal of the Swedish model,” arguing that a municipally owned entity should not appear to side with one party in an active labor dispute.

“If you want to protect the Swedish model, you shouldn’t get involved in a conflict and help one of the parties. When you as a company do this, it means that you are actually taking a position and making things worse in an already ongoing conflict,” Höckert said. 

He added that the party now wants politicians to review and approve future rental agreements involving municipal properties at the port.

The proposal has been sharply criticized by Mathias Andersson of the Sweden Democrats, who chairs the municipal board. In comments to local media, Andersson described the Social Democrats’ approach as “Kim Jong Un-style,” arguing that political leaders should not micromanage a company governed by its own board.

Advertisement

“I believe that the port should be run like any other business,” Andersson said. He also noted that operational decisions fall under the authority of the Port of Trelleborg’s board instead of elected officials.

Continue Reading