News
SpaceX receives first major Starship Moon lander funding from NASA
SpaceX has received its first major funding from NASA for the development of a crewed Starship Moon lander meant to return humans to the surface of Earth’s nearest neighbor as early as 2024.
Ordinarily, funding disbursement is just a routine, mundane part of government contracting. However, soon after NASA revealed that it had selected SpaceX – both the most technically sound proposal and cheapest option by half – alone to return humanity to the Moon, former competitors Dynetics and Blue Origin both filed protests complaining about the space agency’s conclusions. As a direct result, NASA was forced to freeze work on SpaceX’s brand new Human Landing System (HLS) contract and collaboration between both partners was strictly limited until both protests could be evaluated.
Technically, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) tasked with those reviews had 100 days from the date the protests were filed (April 26th) to complete the process. On July 30th, 95 days later, GAO announced that it had firmly denied both Dynetics’ and Blue Origin’s protests. As it turns out, likely just hours after GAO released its decision, NASA sent SpaceX its first major HLS Starship milestone payment.
As part of the $2.9 billion contract SpaceX won to develop a crewed Starship lander and perform at least two major test flights of the vehicle, one uncrewed and one crewed, NASA wasted no time at all sending SpaceX its first milestone payment of $300 million. In one fell swoop, NASA has thus doubled the amount of money it’s invested to date in SpaceX’s next-generation, fully-reusable Starship launch vehicle.
Per GAO’s July 30th decision document, NASA reportedly only had ~$350 million left to fund its FY2021 HLS Option A awardee(s) – almost all of which has now been sent to SpaceX. Despite the fact that the Dynetics and Blue Origin protests all but completely prevented NASA from making progress on HLS, they didn’t prevent SpaceX from continuing work at a breakneck pace. Notably, even with that $300M payment and a ~$140M HLS requirements contract Starship received in 2020, NASA has still disbursed less HLS funding to SpaceX than Blue Origin’s National Team, which received almost $480M to develop its own lander before SpaceX was crowned.
In fact, SpaceX simply continued as if those protests and their associated obstructions didn’t exist. In early May, for the first time ever, SpaceX successfully launched a full-scale Starship prototype to 10 km (~6.2 mi) and gently landed the massive rocket in one piece. The Starship tankers SpaceX’s HLS lander missions will require will ultimately rely on the exact same exotic recovery approach – an approach that SpaceX has now unequivocally proven works.
Around the same time, SpaceX began assembling a skyscraper-sized ‘launch tower’ that will be tasked with fueling Starship and eventually catching Super Heavy boosters. A few days before GAO denied the HLS Option A protests and allowed NASA to get back to work, SpaceX stacked that launch tower to its final ~145m (~475 ft) height, completing the basic structure. Plenty of outfitting remains, including the installation of the giant arms that will hopefully one day catch and fuel Starship stages, but that work is also progressing quickly.
In the three months NASA’s HLS program has been frozen in place, SpaceX also built, proof tested, and static fired a ~69m tall (~227 ft) Super Heavy booster (B3) for the first time, more or less completed the first orbital-class Starship prototype (S20), nearly finished another full-scale Super Heavy (B4), collectively installed 35 Raptors on both vehicles in about two days, and briefly stacked Ship 20 atop Booster 4 – creating the largest, tallest rocket ever assembled.
-
In short, even with no guarantee that it would ever receive any of the $2.9 billion NASA awarded it, SpaceX continued Starship development at a breakneck pace and – according to Elon Musk – could technically be ready for the rocket’s first orbital launch attempt “in a few weeks.” In the background, SpaceX also almost certainly completed a great deal of paperwork and deliverables that NASA was finally able to accept and review once unshackled. Ever the optimist, despite the hurdles, CEO Elon Musk still believes that SpaceX will not only deliver its Starship Moon lander – and thus NASA astronauts to the lunar surface – on time, but “probably sooner” than the 2024 target.
Tesla has launched a new Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) Outlet Adapter for Premium Model Y vehicles in the United States, meaning you can now power devices like laptops or light strings with your vehicle’s battery.
It appears the capability will be available for any Model Y Premium trim, including those that were purchased prior to the Adapter being launched. It will also only impact Juniper Model Y vehicles, so the first-gen owners will unfortunately not have access to this capability.
If your Model Y was purchased before Tesla renamed the trim levels to “Premium” and “Standard,” it does not seem to be compatible. My Model Y is technically a Premium build, as it is the Long Range All-Wheel-Drive. However, Tesla says it is not compatible with my vehicle.
🚨 Tesla has launched the Outlet Adapter for Model Y Premium in the U.S., enabling V2L capability for all Premium trims (that’s what it appears to be as it is available for purchase with all Premium trims)
It’s available for $80. 2.4kW max power and rated for 120v, 20A pic.twitter.com/lDxlVIk5s8
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 14, 2026
For $80, you can now utilize your car as a portable charger for small appliances or devices. This is perfect for things like tailgates, concerts, or camping, as you can now plug in devices that you might use. Those string lights for camping? That laptop for the other games that are on at the tailgate?
They’ll both utilize energy from your Tesla’s battery to be powered. This is the first time Tesla has expanded the capability to vehicles outside of the Model Y Performance and Cybertruck. However, this feature has been highly requested by owners for an extended period of time.
Tesla launched the Outlet Adapter in China last year:
Tesla China rolls out Model Y L V2L adapter, and it’s free for early owners
You will need the Mobile Connector to operate the Outlet Adapter: the Outlet Adapter will plug into the main housing of the Mobile Connector, where the appropriate adapter to charge your vehicle will plug in.
It is rated for 120 volts and 20 amps, and has a max power rating of 2.4kW.
You can buy it here from Tesla for $80.
Tesla is nearing its long-awaited unveiling of the all-electric Tesla Roadster, a new report from The Information claims, as the company has said several times this year that the event would take place “soon.”
Now, it appears there is movement on Tesla’s end regarding when it will happen.
The report says that Tesla will unveil the Roadster as soon as this month with a SpaceX version that will utilize cold-gas thrusters to help the vehicle float for a short period of time. This is something CEO Elon Musk has talked about with the Roadster for years.
🚨 The Information is reporting this morning that Tesla is ready to unveil the “flying” Roadster as soon as this month
It’s almost here, folks. pic.twitter.com/IdL4atsucQ
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 14, 2026
Additionally, due to the delays, Tesla explored “a variety of designs” for the Roadster, potentially planning to abandon the design it showed off for the first time in 2017 and adopting an entirely new aesthetic.
According to The Information, Tesla considered utilizing a repurposed Model S Plaid and even wanted to upgrade the look to something like a Lamborghini Countach.
We’ve heard all of these things before, including teases about the date and how “soon” the Roadster will finally be ready to be shown off to the world (for the second time). Musk said that the event would occur in April, then May, then Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen continued to say it would be coming “soon.”
We do expect to see the Roadster by the end of the year, and now with this new report swirling, it appears it could be sooner rather than later.
The wait has been incredibly long, but there is likely a good reason for it. Tesla’s desire to make the Roadster the craziest vehicle on the road was non-negotiable, and it likely took a lot of time and resources to develop and perfect into something that was safe and suitable for a vehicle like this.
Featured
Tesla finally got its Nevada Robotaxi Permit but with a few catches hard to miss
Nevada granted Tesla’s robotaxi permit, but capped the fleet at just ten vehicles for now.
Tesla has received its robotaxi permit in Nevada, more than two months after regulators closed the public comment period on the company’s application. News of the approval surfaced Wednesday night when Tesla investor and longtime company watcher Sawyer Merritt posted a copy of the interim order, and the Nevada Transportation Authority’s own carrier registry now lists the permit, AVNC Permit 002 under Docket 26-05015, as active for Tesla Robotaxi, LLC.
Tesla asked Nevada in June for authority to run up to 5,000 vehicles in Clark County within a year, however the permit the NTA issued is initially capping Tesla at ten fully autonomous vehicles and confines them to a defined geofence along the Las Vegas Strip corridor. Any expansion of that operating area, or any increase to the fleet size, requires the NTA’s approval first.
Tesla has received its Autonomous Vehicle Network Company permit in Nevada.
The Nevada Transportation Authority says that operations are limited to a maximum fleet of 10 fully autonomous vehicles and shall be conducted only within the Authority-approved Operational Design… https://t.co/Cxfd6GIfDk pic.twitter.com/iOO6wSZkHF
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 13, 2026
The order also sets rules that look more restrictive than what Tesla runs in Austin. Rides are barred on roads with posted speed limits above 45 miles per hour, pickups are off limits within a quarter mile of Harry Reid International Airport without separate authorization, and every vehicle has to carry visible “Robotaxi” markings while notifying riders before each trip that no one is driving. The order also requires “appropriate human supervision”, language that suggests Nevada isn’t ready to let Tesla offer the rides without a safety monitor that it has run in parts of Austin since January. As with standard protocol with robotaxi services, Tesla must report any accident, system failure, or vehicle that becomes stranded on a Nevada road within five business days.
Tesla is entering a market Nevada already knows well. Zoox, the Amazon owned robotaxi company, has run its own autonomous vehicle permit in the state since last year, building up to roughly 100 vehicles and 350,000 rides along the Strip. That history likely explains why the NTA started Tesla at ten cars rather than the fleet size the company asked for. The agency has a template for scaling a permit up once a company proves out its safety record.
Tesla’s Nevada application first surfaced in June, when the company filed for the permit alongside plans for a maintenance hub in southwest Las Vegas. The company has said it won’t meaningfully scale its robotaxi fleet anywhere until FSD v15 ships, expected in late 2026 or early 2027, which makes the ten vehicle cap less of a constraint today than it might look on paper. For now, Tesla has the legal right to start Nevada rides. Whether it starts before FSD v15 arrives is a separate question the permit doesn’t answer.
Tesla launches V2L Outlet Adapter for Premium Model Y in the U.S.
Tesla Roadster unveiling nears, and it will fly: The Information
