News
SpaceX putting the finishing touches on Starship’s orbital launch pad
SpaceX appears to have begun tying up a number of loose ends at Starship’s first orbital launch site, potentially setting the stage for major rocket testing CEO Elon Musk has stated could begin next month.
The list of tasks started or completed in just the last week or two is significant and each one is singularly focused on similar goals: pave the way for SpaceX to finish testing the first orbital-class Starship and Super Heavy booster and prepare for the first orbital launch attempt of the largest rocket ever built. While SpaceX’s progress towards those goals over the last several months has been decidedly slow relative to the pace of similar work completed in the very recent past, the nominal timeline Musk recently sketched out suggests that things could once again start to happen at a dizzying rate.
Launch Tower
Kicking off a jam-packed two weeks of minor to major finishing touches, SpaceX rigged Starbase orbital launch tower’s rocket-catching arms to a system of pulleys, and ‘drawworks’ in a process known as “reeving.” Thousands of feet of rope were first threaded from up, down, and through the ~145m (~440 ft) tower to act as a temporary guide for the next step. Once fully rigged, anchored, and attached to the start of the steel cable actually meant to operate the system, the tower’s ‘drawworks’ was activated for the first time to reel in the guide rope – simultaneously installing the steel cable. By November 9th, the process was more or less complete, leaving the steel cable firmly attached to the tower’s giant rocket-catching arms and able to carry their significant weight.
Thanks Ralph and @StarshipGazer! Updated diagram below. pic.twitter.com/lUvcbshKGs— LunarCaveman (@LunarCaveman) November 10, 2021
SpaceX hasn’t quite finished installing those arms and does not appear to have picked up the slack in the cable that will eventually lift them up and down the tower, but the arm assembly’s first real move is likely just a few weeks away. Notably, a bit of scaffolding around the tower’s ‘legs’ still needs to be removed before the catch arms can freely roll up and down rails welded to their exteriors. SpaceX will also need to complete shakedown testing of the arms themselves, ensuring that the massive structures’ hydraulic, electrical, and mechanical systems are all working properly.
In the near future, those arms will be used to grab, lift, and install Super Heavy boosters and stack Starships on top of them, while SpaceX also hopes to eventually use them to catch boosters and ships out of mid-air. At least for the former role, a separate arm visible about halfway up the tower in the photo above will also be crucial. Known as the tower’s Starship quick-disconnect (QD) arm or claw, SpaceX has also made significant progress on the structure, practically completing it in the last few days.
Designed to fuel Starship and stabilize the top of Super Heavy with its claw, the Starship ‘QD arm’ is also able to swing left and right both to quickly back away during launches and to make room for the catch arms during rocket catches and ship/booster stacking operations. Last week, SpaceX technicians finished plumbing the arm, which requires thousands of feet of insulated steel tubes to connect to the pad’s propellant tanks. This week, on November 23rd, SpaceX installed the last major component of the arm – the actual quick disconnect (QD) mechanism that will connect to Starship to supply power, communications, and propellant.
A few small actuators likely still need to be installed and the QD mechanism itself will have to be fully connected to pad systems but the QD arm now appears to be more or less complete and should soon be ready to fuel Starships installed on top of Super Heavy boosters.
Launch Mount
Last but not least, SpaceX performed multiple tests of the pad’s ‘orbital launch mount’ – the giant, steel structure that will support Super Heavy, hold the booster down during testing and before liftoff, and supply it with thousands of tons of propellant. On November 21st, SpaceX completed the first of those tests, seemingly venting an unknown gas out of the mount. More likely than not, it was the first simultaneous test of all 20 of the mounts Raptor Boost engine gas supplies, which – having no need to reignite in flight – will rely on ground gas supplies for ignition. Each of Super Heavy’s 20 outer Raptor engines has a small umbilical and quick disconnect mechanism, resulting in what is likely the most mechanically complex rocket launch mount ever built.
On November 22nd, the orbital launch mount’s booster quick disconnect panel actuated for the first time, showing off the first glimpse of how it will move forward to connect to Super Heavy after a booster is installed on the mount. To prevent its sensitive components from being practically incinerated each launch, the mount’s QD panel will also need to rapidly move away from Super Heavy just before liftoff.
Aside from simply avoiding direct impingement from the several-thousand-degree plume created by 29-33 Raptor engines at full thrust, that movement will also tie into some kind of hood, seamlessly actuating hatches that will close to truly protect the device. That hood was itself spotted for the first time on November 21st and will likely be installed on the launch mount and over the naked QD mechanism in the very near future.
Finally, over the last week or so, SpaceX has begun installing a number of new pipes on and around the launch mount, likely assembling a water deluge system that will help manage the extreme thermal and acoustic environment created by the most powerful rocket in history shortly before and after liftoff. When activated, a spray bar circling the mount’s full interior circumference will likely unleash several tons of water per second in a giant artificial waterfall, hopefully preventing Super Heavy from damaging itself with the sheer sound produced by its Raptor engines or violently eroding the surrounding pad or launch mount legs with its plume.
Ultimately, once all the tower, arm, and mount work described above is completed, the only obvious thing standing between the orbital launch pad and the first Super Heavy booster testing and first orbital Starship launch will be the delivery of liquid methane fuel, which could easily begin any day now.
Energy
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can now do what only Cybertruck could
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can power your home with Powerwall 3 during outages.
Tesla has turned its two top sellers into backup batteries for the house.
Tesla Energy announced on Tuesday that Powershare Home Backup is now available for new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles paired with a Powerwall 3, saying the car can “extend your home backup by over 2 days.” Minutes later, Tesla’s main account quoted the post with a broader pitch: “With Powerwall 3, every Tesla can now serve as your home’s backup battery.”
Until this week, the Cybertruck was the only Tesla that could send power back into a home, and that capability only began working alongside Powerwall 3 last month, after years of ambitious targets.
Tesla’s updated Powershare page says every Model 3 and Model Y ordered in the U.S. or Puerto Rico on or after October 1, 2026 can use the feature. Some, but not all, earlier cars also qualify. Owners can check on the touchscreen under Software, then Additional Vehicle Information, where a capable car shows “Powershare Support: Enabled.” As Electrek reported, bidirectional power on the two cars runs through an inverter Tesla calls PCS2 Lite, and the company has not said when that part entered production on each trim.
The home side is simpler. A house that already has a Powerwall 3 and either a Wall Connector 3 or Universal Wall Connector needs no additional equipment, and Tesla says compatibility is enabled through a software update. When the grid drops, the Powerwall and the car work together, with up to 11.52 kW of continuous power available. Tesla’s “over two days” estimate assumes a home using 30 kWh per day and a car starting at a 90 percent charge. Standard trims are rated for up to two days, while the Cybertruck adds more than three.
There are limits. Powerwall 2 and Powerwall+ support is listed as “coming soon.” Model S and Model X are not included, and Grid Support, the program that lets Cybertruck owners in Texas send power back to the grid during demand spikes for bill credits, is not available for Model 3 or Model Y.
The rollout also lines up with something Elon Musk said more than three years ago. At Tesla’s March 2023 Investor Day, Musk said, “I don’t think very many people are going to want to use bidirectional charging, unless you have a Powerwall.” Tesla has now shipped the feature for its volume cars with exactly that requirement attached.
The Powerwall pairing was the hard part on Cybertruck. Tesla told owners in December 2025 that Powershare with Powerwall had been pushed to mid 2026, and lead engineer Wes Morrill explained that two devices capable of forming a home’s grid have to negotiate which one leads during an outage, across multiple generations of hardware. With that work done for the truck, Tesla was able to extend it to the Model 3 and Model Y within a month.
Ford and GM have offered home backup from their EVs for several years, but both require a separate inverter and backup hardware. Tesla’s version leans on equipment many Powerwall 3 owners already have on the wall. Powershare for the two cars also ships as part of software update 2026.38.3, the same release that began delivering Halloween Mode on Tuesday.
Tesla is now starting to ship a “Halloween Mode” that is filled with some creepy and fun features; the company says, “This spooky update turns your Tesla into a haunted house on wheels.”
The update is just the latest in a series of updates that Tesla typically ships out in a seasonal fashion. The Spring and Summer Updates provided some fun novelty items while also packing some cool features that are actually useful for the ownership experience.
This one seems to be more fun-forward, and there are not any updates to the Full Self-Driving suite or overall operation of the vehicle. Instead, these novelty features are geared toward getting you in the mood for the Fall and Halloween.
Halloween Mode now rolling out 🎃
This spooky update turns your Tesla into a haunted house on wheels
– Ghost costume on your car’s avatar
– Enable Trick or Treat to play spooky sounds & flicker the lights when visitors approach
– New haunting light show, wraps & lock sound
– A rather chilling Photobooth
– Frighten people remotely by speaking through the app…your car will say it in a voice of its own
Side effects may include neighborhood notoriety
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 6, 2026
New Ghost Costume on Car Avatar
Driver Visualization will now show your vehicle as a ghost, as an all-white sheet is draped over the vehicle. Pedestrians are turned into mummies or skeletons, and other vehicles are all a spooky green:
Credit: Tesla
Additionally, the Park Scene with your Tesla now displays that ghost costume draped over your vehicle in the foreground of a scary backdrop with Jack-o-Lanterns and a haunted house:
Credit: Tesla
Trick or Treat Mode
Trick or Treat Mode will enable the vehicle to play spooky sounds and flicker the lights as visitors approach. This might be a nice touch for when you’re handing out candy to kids on Halloween Night.
Other Features
Tesla is also adding a new Light Show, new Wrap Options, and a new Lock Sound with this update.
Credit: Tesla
Additionally, Photobooth has a new Halloween option:
Credit: Tesla
You will also be able to speak remotely through the app and transmit your voice to people outside, which is not a new feature, but the car will say it in a voice of its own, which is a new feature with that bullhorn-like feature.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX reveals how its 1 Million AI satellite network will work and prevent space collisions
SpaceX reveals plans for one million Starmind AI satellites and calls out operators hiding maneuvers.
SpaceX has put the largest satellite count it has ever published into writing, and it says that plan only works if every other operator in orbit starts sharing what it knows.
In a new Space Safety page highlighted Tuesday morning by Sawyer Merritt on X, SpaceX said it “plans to operate up to 100,000 Starlink satellites and up to 1 million Starmind AI satellites to meet the growing demand for broadband and supercompute.” Starlink has a little over 11,000 satellites in orbit today, so the target alone implies roughly a ninefold expansion of the broadband network.
Starmind is SpaceX’s orbital AI compute constellation. Elon Musk confirmed the Starmind name in June after an xAI trademark filing surfaced, and in August SpaceX said it was working with Nvidia on the compute payload. The FCC accepted the filing for up to one million satellites back in February.
FCC accepts SpaceX filing for 1 million orbital data center plan
SpaceX also released a new render of what a full Starmind constellation could look like. Alongside it, SpaceX VP Michael Nicolls explained why the satellites will not operate on their own. “We need to operate clusters of satellites in tight formation to get enough coherent compute to run AI models efficiently,” Nicolls said. “A cluster will be 10-ish satellites connected with 10 terabits or so of bandwidth between them, and interconnected to the broader constellation.”
That is the most specific detail SpaceX has given on how Starmind will be built. Instead of a million independent servers, the network would work as tightly packed groups of about 10 satellites acting as one compute unit, with Starlink’s laser links carrying results back to Earth.
There is a bright and exciting future for humanity ahead – and space is fundamental to that future.
To achieve this, space safety must be done right. We encourage every operator to not only share ephemeris data proactively the same way Starlink already does, but to also adopt the high standards of space safety that SpaceX and Starlink use every day → https://t.co/QizAkQZvEm
— Starlink (@Starlink) October 6, 2026
Packing satellites that close together, at that scale, makes collision avoidance the central problem, and most of the Space Safety page is aimed at other operators. SpaceX said Starlink encountered collision risks with about 650 unique maneuvering third party satellites in 2026, and only about half of them shared data. Over six months, Starlink recorded roughly 164,000 more collision risks where the closest approach came within four hours of an unannounced maneuver.
Some operators keep maneuver plans private over proprietary concerns, while others cannot get government permission to share them. SpaceX called those policies “counterproductive,” saying they “largely only serve to create preventable collision risk between satellites.” Starlink is also offering a free ephemeris sharing and screening platform that returns risk results within a minute, backed by its Stargaze network of 30,000 optical sensors.
The push comes as the Starmind application draws opposition from astronomers and environmental groups. In a September filing with the FCC, SpaceX said each Starmind satellite could weigh up to 4,000 kg, nearly seven times the mass of a Starlink V2 Mini. Musk has brushed off crowding concerns before, telling viewers in June that “space is enormous” and that SpaceX already knows how to run very large constellations safely.
SpaceX’s Starmind page says its Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, is designed to produce AI satellites at scale, with deployment of thousands of units starting as soon as late 2027.
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can now do what only Cybertruck could
Tesla ships ‘spooky’ Halloween Mode with creepy and fun features
