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SpaceX shifts South Texas focus to Starship’s orbital launch pad
Highlighted by a Wednesday jam-packed with important milestones, SpaceX appears to be shifting its focus in South Texas to the completion of Starship’s first orbital launch pad.
Boca Chica will be the first time in its history that SpaceX has faced the challenge of (or had the opportunity to) build an orbital launch complex from scratch after gaining a great deal of expertise modifying, reactivating, and rebuilding two existing pads in Florida and one in California. SpaceX’s Boca Chica facilities must also support what will be the most powerful rocket ever built (or tested) and a planned flight rate and turnaround capability that drastically exceeds anything the company (or anyone else, really) has attempted.
As a result, the site looks almost nothing like SpaceX’s other launch facilities. On top of the already significant hurdles faced, SpaceX is also attempting to complete its from-scratch facility in record time and work on Starship’s orbital launch site (OLS) really only began in earnest around the start of 2021. That aggressive work schedule has begun to clearly bear fruit in the last few months and arguably reached a bit of a local peak on Wednesday, July 28th.
A Tower Is Born
Kicking off the day after an aborted attempt on Tuesday, SpaceX began what would turn out to be an extremely busy Wednesday around 5am CDT (UTC-5) with the installation of the Starship launch tower’s ninth and final prefabricated section, effectively completing the structure’s skeleton. Unlike all other SpaceX pads, save for Pad 39A’s single-purpose Dragon and Crew Access Arm, Starship’s first orbital launch pad will lean heavily on a massive steel tower.
By all appearances, Starship’s launch tower will host an elevator-like carriage outfitted with several large arms on its exterior and will use those arms to stabilize, stack, fuel, and maybe even catch Starships and Super Heavy boosters. The tower will be integral to routine Starship launch operations, in other words.
With the installation of one last steel segment, that tower grew to a height of ~145m (~440 ft) and isn’t expected to get any taller after a 10m/30ft lightning rod is eventually added. SpaceX’s pad team can now begin the process of finalizing tower construction, ranging from adding cladding on its rectangular exterior and welding all nine steel sections together to filling its four legs with concrete.
Tank and Table
Just a few hours after the start of Tower Section #9 installation, a fleet of SpaceX’s self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) left the build site with two major pieces of orbital pad hardware in tow. For the first time in three months, one of those payloads was an OLS propellant storage tank built by SpaceX itself out of parts almost identical to those found on Starship. Since the first two ground support equipment (GSE) tanks were rapidly installed in April, activity on that front has been curiously stagnant.
Since modifications of those tanks began in-situ over the last month or so, the general consensus has been that a fairly minor design flaw or oversight was discovered well after production began, requiring a significant pause to rework and redesign the crucial pad components. In the meantime, work on contractor-built GSE tank shells meant to eventually insulate SpaceX’s thin cryogenic storage tanks continued unabated and one water tank and six shells have already been more or less completed. With any luck, GSE tank #5’s delivery to the OLS means that SpaceX has removed the roadblock(s) and is ready to move into plumbing and tank farm activation.
Simultaneously, a far more significant part known as the Starship ‘launch table’ also left SpaceX’s Boca Chica build site after nearly six months of around-the-clock assembly and outfitting. Designed to secure, fuel, and launch orbital Starships, the launch table has to be able to withstand the ~5000 metric ton (~11 million lb) weight of a fully-fueled Starship, hold Super Heavy in place during static fires and prelaunch ignitions that could produce ~7500 metric tons of thrust, and survive the unspeakable fury of 33 Raptor engines operating simultaneously.
Unlike all other major orbital Starship launch pad parts, the custom launch mount and table’s successful and near-total completion is an absolute necessity for any kind of orbital test flight or full-up Super Heavy static fire. Only part of the tank farm is truly necessary and the vast majority of the tower’s intended tasks can be completed with workarounds if neither are fully ready. Without the launch mount, however, testing much beyond what SpaceX has already accomplished is mostly impossible in the near term.
Raptor Invasion
Finally, while less pressing, SpaceX also accepted delivery of four Raptor engines on top of three more that were delivered to Boca Chica on Tuesday. According to CEO Elon Musk, Starship’s first orbital test flight(s) will happen with a full complement of engines installed, meaning that SpaceX will need to build, qualify, and ship at least 35 new Raptors for a single flight.
SpaceX recently completed assembly of the 100th full-scale Raptor engine at its Hawthorne factory and HQ – an encouraging sign that the engines needed for Starship’s orbital launch debut will be ready for flight sooner than later.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has provided an updated estimate for the training data needed to achieve truly safe unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD).
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
10 billion miles of training data
Musk comment came as a reply to Apple and Rivian alum Paul Beisel, who posted an analysis on X about the gap between tech demonstrations and real-world products. In his post, Beisel highlighted Tesla’s data-driven lead in autonomy, and he also argued that it would not be easy for rivals to become a legitimate competitor to FSD quickly.
“The notion that someone can ‘catch up’ to this problem primarily through simulation and limited on-road exposure strikes me as deeply naive. This is not a demo problem. It is a scale, data, and iteration problem— and Tesla is already far, far down that road while others are just getting started,” Beisel wrote.
Musk responded to Beisel’s post, stating that “Roughly 10 billion miles of training data is needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving. Reality has a super long tail of complexity.” This is quite interesting considering that in his Master Plan Part Deux, Elon Musk estimated that worldwide regulatory approval for autonomous driving would require around 6 billion miles.
FSD’s total training miles
As 2025 came to a close, Tesla community members observed that FSD was already nearing 7 billion miles driven, with over 2.5 billion miles being from inner city roads. The 7-billion-mile mark was passed just a few days later. This suggests that Tesla is likely the company today with the most training data for its autonomous driving program.
The difficulties of achieving autonomy were referenced by Elon Musk recently, when he commented on Nvidia’s Alpamayo program. As per Musk, “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.” These sentiments were echoed by Tesla VP for AI software Ashok Elluswamy, who also noted on X that “the long tail is sooo long, that most people can’t grasp it.”
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Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla emerged as one of the most recognized automakers at MotorTrend’s 2026 Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) Innovator Awards.
As could be seen in a press release from the publication, two key Tesla employees were honored for their work on AI, autonomy, and vehicle software. MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla leaders and engineers recognized
The fourth annual SDV Innovator Awards celebrate pioneers and experts who are pushing the automotive industry deeper into software-driven development. Among the most notable honorees for this year was Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Vice President of AI Software, who received a Pioneer Award for his role in advancing artificial intelligence and autonomy across the company’s vehicle lineup.
Tesla also secured recognition in the Expert category, with Lawson Fulton, a staff Autopilot machine learning engineer, honored for his contributions to Tesla’s driver-assistance and autonomous systems.
Tesla’s software-first strategy
While automakers like General Motors, Ford, and Rivian also received recognition, Tesla’s multiple awards stood out given the company’s outsized role in popularizing software-defined vehicles over the past decade. From frequent OTA updates to its data-driven approach to autonomy, Tesla has consistently treated vehicles as evolving software platforms rather than static products.
This has made Tesla’s vehicles very unique in their respective sectors, as they are arguably the only cars that objectively get better over time. This is especially true for vehicles that are loaded with the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which are getting progressively more intelligent and autonomous over time. The majority of Tesla’s updates to its vehicles are free as well, which is very much appreciated by customers worldwide.
Elon Musk
Judge clears path for Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit to go before a jury
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder.
A U.S. judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding nonprofit mission can proceed to a jury trial.
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder. These claims are directly opposed by OpenAI.
Judge says disputed facts warrant a trial
At a hearing in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that there was “plenty of evidence” suggesting that OpenAI leaders had promised that the organization’s original nonprofit structure would be maintained. She ruled that those disputed facts should be evaluated by a jury at a trial in March rather than decided by the court at this stage, as noted in a Reuters report.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 but left the organization in 2018. In his lawsuit, he argued that he contributed roughly $38 million, or about 60% of OpenAI’s early funding, based on assurances that the company would remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages tied to what he describes as “ill-gotten gains.”
OpenAI, however, has repeatedly rejected Musk’s allegations. The company has stated that Musk’s claims were baseless and part of a pattern of harassment.
Rivalries and Microsoft ties
The case unfolds against the backdrop of intensifying competition in generative artificial intelligence. Musk now runs xAI, whose Grok chatbot competes directly with OpenAI’s flagship ChatGPT. OpenAI has argued that Musk is a frustrated commercial rival who is simply attempting to slow down a market leader.
The lawsuit also names Microsoft as a defendant, citing its multibillion-dollar partnerships with OpenAI. Microsoft has urged the court to dismiss the claims against it, arguing there is no evidence it aided or abetted any alleged misconduct. Lawyers for OpenAI have also pushed for the case to be thrown out, claiming that Musk failed to show sufficient factual basis for claims such as fraud and breach of contract.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers, however, declined to end the case at this stage, noting that a jury would also need to consider whether Musk filed the lawsuit within the applicable statute of limitations. Still, the dispute between Elon Musk and OpenAI is now headed for a high-profile jury trial in the coming months.
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
