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SpaceX Starship rolls to Texas launch pad ahead of next big test campaign
SpaceX’s first flightworthy Starship prototype has rolled to its South Texas launch pad just hours after it was welded together and is now preparing for several critical tests it must pass before it can be deemed ready for liftoff.
Fabricated and assembled with incredible speed at SpaceX’s growing Boca Chica, Texas Starship factory and test facilities, the vehicle SpaceX moved to the launch pad earlier today (Feb 25) is meant to become the first full-scale Starship prototype to take flight. Following in the footsteps of the Starship Mk1 prototype, deemed too shoddy to launch and pressurized to destruction in November 2019, the first serial build (SN01) of an improved line of Starship prototypes appears to have taken less than a month to go from first weld to the launch pad.
CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter earlier today to confirm the Starship SN01 tank section’s move to the launch pad, further noting that the tank assembly is now preparing for Raptor engine installation ahead of a static fire test. According to NASASpaceflight.com, SpaceX wants to complete that static fire and launch Starship SN01 as early as next month – a seemingly improbable target that just got much more likely with the rocket’s tank section already at the launch pad. Most importantly, however, the speed with which SpaceX has been able to assemble and prepare Starship SN01 suggests that even if things go wrong or plans change, another completed prototype could be ready to head to the pad just a few weeks from now.
On February 25th, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a screenshot taken from a livestream created by SPadre earlier that day, noting that Starship will soon have engines installed in preparation for a critical static fire test.
Under the cover of an incredibly thick fog bank, Starship SN01 was lifted onto a Roll Lift transporter and carefully moved from its factory facilities to SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch pad at 4:30 am PST. Around 7:30 am PST, the giant rocket tank was lifted onto the pad’s Starship mount and technicians have been working to connect SN01 to the ground systems ever since.
Built out of stainless steel, Starship SN01’s tank section – referring to the combined liquid oxygen tank, liquid methane tank, and engine section – stands about 30m (100 ft) tall and likely weighs at least 30-45 metric tons (~70,000-100,000 lb) as it stands. While SN01 is clearly missing its pointed nose section (‘nosecone’) and flaps, among other parts, its tank section has been moved to the launch pad to perform tests that don’t involve the ship’s aerodynamic properties.
Starship Mk1 – SpaceX’s first attempt at a full-scale prototype – was fabricated and stacked piece by piece over the course of nine months before its tank section – looking almost identical to SN01 – first rolled to SpaceX’s launch pad on October 30th, 2019. Three weeks later, it was intentionally pressurized until it popped after engineers concluded that its production quality was too low for a flight test attempt to be worth the effort. On the other hand, the first of Starship SN01’s steel rings was definitively completed in the last week of January 2020, quite possibly just four weeks before the completed tank section was rolled to the same launch pad.
With that kind of speed, it’s no surprise that Musk says SpaceX will start stacking Starship SN02’s tank section this week. Intriguingly, Musk also stated that Starship SN02 would have three Raptors installed, avoiding the original question’s focus (SN01). As such, it appears that Starship SN01 may only have one Raptor installed for a static fire test and would be unlikely to ever fly if that were the case. It’s possible that after two highly successful (and explosive) pressure tests of smaller Starship test tanks that were completed last month, SpaceX still wants to perform a similar pressure test with a fully-integrated, full-scale Starship tank section to confirm that the smaller tank results carry over.
Whether SN01 is still destined for flight, it’s safe to say that Starship SN01 tank testing could begin in a matter of days — SpaceX currently has early-morning roadblocks indicative of such testing scheduled from February 29th to March 2nd. SpaceX is likely to kick off by filling SN01 with water to check its tanks for leaks, followed by liquid nitrogen – chemically neutral but still incredibly cold. After that, SN01 would likely graduate to Raptor engine installation and a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) with liquid oxygen and methane before moving on to a static fire attempt, if all goes well.
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Tesla has expanded the operational geofence for its driverless Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, marking the first such increase in some time. The updated Service Area for Robotaxi in Austin now spans about 288 square miles and is roughly 9 percent larger than the previous boundary.
This incremental growth adds approximately 24 square miles of coverage, bringing the prior zone of roughly 264 square miles into a broader footprint that better serves northern suburbs.
The expansion extends the geofence northward toward Pflugerville along the US 183 corridor, incorporating additional neighborhoods north of the Domain and areas such as Mesa Park. These additions include higher-end residential and commercial districts that previously sat just outside the allowed operating zone.
Riders can now request unsupervised trips that begin or end in these newly included locations, provided the entire route remains inside the digital boundary:
Tesla has just expanded its Robotaxi service area in Austin, Texas for the first time in 10 months.
The new service area is roughly 9% larger than the old one, and is about 288 square miles in total. pic.twitter.com/i4oBM1KfWS
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 31, 2026
Tesla first launched public Robotaxi operations in Austin in mid-2025 with a modest initial zone of about 20 square miles. Subsequent enlargements in 2025 and early 2026 steadily grew the map until it covered much of the metropolitan area.
After the last major update roughly ten months earlier, the company held the boundary steady while it collected additional miles and refined the FSD suite.
The modest nine percent increase still matters for daily utility. Longer trips become possible, more residents gain access, and the fleet can accumulate more diverse real-world data across new road types and traffic patterns. Observers note that the added territory aligns with existing Tesla service infrastructure, which could support more efficient vehicle staging in the North end of Austin.
Although the geofence has grown, Tesla continues to operate a relatively small unsupervised fleet in the city. The company has emphasized safety and software readiness over rapid geographic scaling. This latest map update signals that Tesla remains committed to expanding Robotaxi availability in its home market as it prepares for further software improvements and potential Cybercab deployments.
The 288-square-mile zone now gives Austin riders one of the larger driverless service areas currently available in the United States.
Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update turns Grok from a talking companion into a true in-car controller, with considerably expanded capabilities. Where the assistant once answered questions and handled navigation, it can now operate hardware and software through ordinary speech, including several requests at the same time.
Grok has become incredibly robust over the past few quarters, and this new ability that Tesla has included with its Summer Update is perhaps the clearest sign of just how capable it has become.
You can issue many commands to Grok at once, and each will be taken care of: anything from headlight control to climate adjustments to mirror folding can now all be taken care of with a simple sentence spoken toward Grok:
This is cool, you can now give Grok a ton of commands at once in your Tesla and it’ll do them all together.
The commands I gave:
• Fold mirrors
• Turn on wipers to fastest setting
• Change temp to 65°
• Open self-driving app
• Open gloveboxComes with Tesla’s 2026 Summer… pic.twitter.com/drZxoHrknv
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 26, 2026
Here’s another example I used in my Model Y:
🚨 Using Grok to control the cabin temperature and turn on headlights in 2026 Model Y on FSD v14.3.8 and 2026.26.6.5 pic.twitter.com/7clgQkGABk
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 27, 2026
Tesla’s official Release Notes list the core powers of Grok’s new capabilities: Grok can place phone calls from a paired phone, search a streaming service and queue music, adjust climate, and search the Controls panel. Drivers can also ask it questions about the vehicle or the latest features included in a recent software update.
It can also take care of driving settings, dynamics, and other relevant preferences that deal with how the car operates and handles.
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
It’s also more of a use case than a novelty feature. Grok was great for learning about something that was being pondered while Full Self-Driving was taking care of the major automotive responsibilities, but it did have some useful functionality when it came to navigation.
Another less-noted improvement is the swift transition that Grok has from thinking of its answer to giving you one. In the past, it would take a few seconds for Grok to truly come up with a valuable response. It now seems that it is improving, at least slightly.
Tesla Full Self-Driving is set to get a major fix with pothole avoidance, a feature that CEO Elon Musk said recently was “coming soon.” The feature has been included within the FSD v14 release notes for some time as an upcoming improvement.
Potholes come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing is universal about them, and that is the fact that every driver wants to avoid them. Driving into or over a pothole can cause tire and wheel damage, alignment issues, and even, in some more severe instances, injury to occupants or major damage to a vehicle in despair.
Tesla Cybercab uses a unique strategy for picking up the right rider
Musk said late last night in a post that pothole avoidance while utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite is “coming soon.”
Coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2026
Full Self-Driving, even in its most recent and robust forms, still has its shortcomings. While the suite has performed exceptionally well with avoiding on-road obstacles like cardboard boxes, horse droppings, car parts, and other debris, it still seems to struggle with recognizing certain things.
Potholes and other abrupt changes in a road’s layout are things that FSD still tends to struggle with. Perhaps the suite’s 3D modeling is still in need of some additional data or some sort of script that will help it to avoid a potentially destructive pothole or bump in the road that would be easily recognizable by the human eye.
Musk has mentioned pothole avoidance for some time, with the initial idea coming in April 2019 when an owner first requested the feature. Musk said that Tesla would “definitely” develop pothole avoidance.
In August 2020, Musk said Tesla was in the process of labeling bumps and potholes so cars can either slow down or steer around them altogether.
Tesla to utilize micro maps for pothole-detection in future update
Avoiding major disturbances in the road is a necessary feature for Full Self-Driving to have, especially as Tesla is working toward a fully autonomous program that will eventually allow every occupant in the vehicle to sleep, work, or enjoy leisure time while traveling.
That truly begins this week with the launch of Cybercab on Thursday.
Tesla expands driverless Robotaxi geofence in Austin
Elon Musk’s Grok can basically control anything in your Tesla now
