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SpaceX’s Starship prototype is looking increasingly rocket-like as hop test pad expands

SpaceX workers began welding Starhopper's upper tank dome cap, perhaps the most rocket-like structure yet installed on the craft. (NASASpaceflight - bocachicagal, 02/05/19)

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As SpaceX’s South Texas operations continue full steam ahead in pursuit of the first integrated hop tests of a full-scale Starship prototype, the company’s Starhopper and its complementary launch/hop pad are dramatically and visibly evolving on a daily basis.

This week’s progress has been signified by the installation of familiar rocket hardware on the Ship and a burst of construction – centered around pipelaying, plumbing, foundation work, and berm-building – at its pad. Just a few hundred miles north of Boca Chica, SpaceX’s team of propulsion engineers and technicians reached their own dramatic milestone, conducting the first static fire of a finalized version of the Raptor engine set to power Starship and Super Heavy (formerly BFR).

A pad fit for a Starhopper

In the last ~10 days alone (Jan 24-Feb 4), SpaceX pad construction workers and contractors transformed the former dirt mound from a generally flat, planed surface with a spattering of shipping containers and building materials into a hive of welding rigs, propellant and water tanks, major plumbing progress, shaped earth, and the beginnings of new concrete foundations. Thanks to local student Austin Barnard’s reliable drone photography, that pad-specific progress can be more properly visualized.

 

Taken on January 24th and February 4th respectively, the devil is definitely in the details when it comes to SpaceX’s prospective Starhopper pad development. Most notable is the progress made with the rapidly developing propellant plant and ground systems infrastructure in the left half of the images, marked by hundreds of feet of freshly-installed piping meant to support the process of fueling Starhopper with liquid methane and oxygen. For a rocket as powerful as Starhopper (even with just three Raptor engines), cooling both the propellant and the concrete launch and landing pad is no less important, visible in the shape of three large water tanks (lefthand foreground) and a smaller radiator stack (just to the right of two taller, skinnier white tanks.

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Aside from the rapid rise of the first BFR propellant farm and its supporting equipment, SpaceX has progressed into the installation of a trio of concrete foundations just to the right of the dirt berm and propellant tank area. Standing as close as it is to said propellant tanks, it seems unlikely that the new foundation-laying is related to the pad (or a stand) meant to support early Starhopper hop tests, although SpaceX’s Falcon 9-era Grasshopper and F9R hop test vehicles operated about the same distance from its propellant infrastructure. SpaceX’s South Texas site also features a sort of satellite pad at its east end (the right side in attached photos) that could have a future as an integration hangar or a secondary landing zone to allow for Starhopper to perform divert tests.

 

Depending on whether SpaceX actually intends to develop the land shown above into an actual full-scale launch facility for BFR (Super Heavy and Starship), it could also remain generally unchanged until Starhopper’s hop test program has been run to completion, at which point everything seen above would likely be rebuilt from scratch to accommodate for any drastic changes in function. SpaceX’s Boca Chica might simply be too small to support a pad capable of launching Super Heavy (nearly twice as powerful as Saturn V at full thrust), measuring in at considerably less than ~10 acres of usable area compared to LC-40’s ~20 acres and Pad 39A’s ~50+ acres. CEO Elon Musk has also hinted at using a giant floating platform for early orbital BFR launches, although that might prove even harder (and more costly) than building a traditional land-based pad.

Becoming a rocket

Meanwhile, the aft engine/fin/tank section of SpaceX’s Starship prototype (unofficially nicknamed Starhopper) has experienced a stream of hardware additions and improvements, modifying its relatively awkward and unfinished steel base with what appear to be Falcon 9-sized quick-disconnect umbilical panels, a functional propellant tank header, and mounting hardware for carbon-overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs). By using hardware that is proven and easy to manufacture, SpaceX can save a huge amount of time that would otherwise need to be spent engineering subassemblies that (at risk of undervaluing the challenge) are generally known-quantities – more a matter of time and effort than an actual technical hurdle.

 

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While they are clearly still in a rough, unfinished form, Starhopper’s umbilical panels are already easy to recognize when compared alongside Falcon 9’s iconic red and blue panel pairs. In essence, whereas Starhopper has been a largely unknown quantity with no familiar aspects since it began to come together late last year, the Starship prototype has recently had hardware installed that is finally revealing subtle SpaceX signatures in its design and assembly.

Check out Teslarati’s newsletters for prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket launch and recovery processes!

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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.

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SpaceX Starship Flight 15: How to watch the double catch attempt

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November 13, 2026

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Credit: SpaceX

UPDATE: The FAA has granted the license for Starship Flight 15.

SpaceX is set to attempt its 15th test flight of Starship this evening from Starbase, Texas.

SpaceX is targeting Starship Flight 15 for a launch as soon as today, Friday, November 13, pending an FAA Flight License, during a 75-minute window that opens at 4:45 p.m. CT (5:45 p.m. ET) from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. The flight remains pending final regulatory approval.

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The mission, using Booster 22 and Ship 42, aims to achieve the first full recovery of an orbital launch system. Primary objectives include a tower catch of the Super Heavy booster roughly six and a half minutes after liftoff and the first-ever tower catch of a Starship upper stage after more than 22 hours in space.

SpaceX will perform Starship double catch attempt with Flight 15

Between those catches, Ship 42 is planned to enter a low Earth orbit of about 275 km, complete roughly 14 orbits, and deploy 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites (Starlink Group 31-2). Three of those satellites carry cameras to inspect the ship’s heat shield in orbit and help controllers decide whether the vehicle is healthy enough for a return to the tower.

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Contingency ocean splashdown options exist if either stage is not cleared for catch.

To watch the attempt, check the link to the broadcast in both X posts in this article. The live webcast is scheduled to begin about 30 minutes before liftoff and is planned to continue through the ship catch the next day, with the possibility of extended onboard views during the orbital coast via Starlink.

Because the schedule is dynamic, check back here or on our social media channels for the latest updates on window timing and regulatory status. A successful dual catch would mark a major milestone toward making Starship a rapidly reusable rocket capable of frequent flights.

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Tesla trims Model Y offerings as All-Wheel-Drive gets the axe

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November 13, 2026

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has trimmed its Model Y offerings as its Standard All-Wheel-Drive configuration has been removed from the online configurator after roughly nine months on sale. The move follows the removal of the Cybertruck, as its trims have also been minimized as that vehicle heads for total discontinuation at the end of Summer 2027.

Launched in February 2026 as a mid-tier dual-motor option between the Rear-Wheel-Drive model and the Premium trims, the Standard All-Wheel-Drive Model Y offered 294 miles of range and a 4.6-second 0-60 mph time in a stripped-down package.

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With it gone, the cheapest new AWD Model Y buyers can configure is now the Premium AWD at $49,990, with estimated deliveries pushed into January–March 2027. The $39,990 rear-wheel-drive Model Y remains available for custom orders, and some AWD units are still listed in inventory.

The move arrives days after Tesla sharply narrowed its Cybertruck lineup. New orders for the Dual Motor AWD and Premium AWD versions have been disabled, leaving only the high-performance Cyberbeast—priced around $109,990 before fees—as the sole configurable option.

Elon Musk has stated that Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas will wind down around the middle to late summer of 2027 to free manufacturing space for greater Cybercab output. Tesla has raised prices on remaining trims and is prioritizing higher-margin builds while working through an existing order backlog that exceeds what the line can complete before conversion.

These parallel decisions reflect a broader effort to simplify Tesla’s retail customer lineup. Lower-volume or lower-margin variants are being phased out or deprioritized in favor of core, higher-spec models that generate stronger profitability and clearer production planning.

For the Model Y, this concentrates volume on the remaining RWD and Premium configurations while Premium deliveries already stretch into 2027. For the Cybertruck, it accelerates the transition away from a stainless-steel pickup that underperformed relative to initial volume expectations.

Tesla Model Y Standard Full Review: Is it worth the lower price?

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The freed capacity and reduced complexity directly support Cybercab scaling. Tesla began pilot Cybercab production at Giga Texas in early 2026, launched paid autonomous rides in Austin in September, and is preparing for substantial volume growth.

By streamlining the existing vehicle portfolio, the company is reallocating factory space, engineering attention, and supply-chain resources toward its purpose-built Robotaxi, which lacks a steering wheel or pedals and is designed exclusively for unsupervised autonomy.

The result is a leaner retail lineup today and a clearer path to high-volume Cybercab deployment tomorrow.

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SpaceX Starship is going for a catch that could change spaceflight forever

SpaceX will try to catch both Starship stages today, a first for any orbital rocket.

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November 13, 2026

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SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12

SpaceX is set to launch Starship Flight 15 from Starbase on Friday afternoon, and if both stages make it back to the tower, the mission will go down as the first time an orbital rocket has ever been fully recovered. The 75 minute launch window opens at 4:45 p.m. CT from Pad 2, a day after SpaceX rolled Ship 42 out to the pad and shared photos of the move on X.

The first catch comes quickly. About six and a half minutes after liftoff, Booster 22 is scheduled to fly back to Starbase and settle into the launch tower’s chopstick arms, the first catch attempt for SpaceX’s V3 Super Heavy. SpaceX has caught the booster three times before most recently in March 2025.

The second catch is the one that has never been done. Ship 42 will climb to an orbit about 275 kilometers up, deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites and complete about 14 orbits. Three of those satellites carry cameras to inspect the ship’s heat shield before it commits to coming home. If its reentry, landing burn and tower approach systems pass their checks, the ship will fire its engines to leave orbit, fall through the atmosphere in its belly flop position, flip vertical and drop into the tower about 22 and a half hours after launch, on Saturday afternoon. SpaceX gave a preview of that maneuver in an animation during its third quarter earnings webcast.

Elon Musk described a successful double catch on that call as “the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered” and a “profound technology milestone,” putting the odds of catching the ship at “more likely than not.” SpaceX has called it a potential “breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket,”

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Reuse is where the economics change. Falcon 9 lands its boosters routinely, but its upper stage is thrown away on every flight. Starship is designed so both stages can be refueled and flown again, which is key to cutting launch costs. That matters for Starlink, where each V3 satellite is expected to carry roughly 10 times the download capacity of the V2 Mini satellites flying today, and for Starmind, SpaceX’s planned constellation of AI compute satellites.

It matters for NASA too. Starship is the lunar lander for the Artemis program, and reaching the Moon requires refilling a ship in orbit using several tanker flights. That plan only works if Starships can fly again and again. Musk has said he expects Starship to reach a weekly launch cadence in the first half of 2027.

Investors are paying attention. Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas wrote this week that a catch of both stages would likely be “a material positive” for SpaceX stock.

The last Starship flight in September reached orbit for the first time but ended after about three hours with a splashdown in the Pacific, short of its planned 10 hours, after some engines shut down. Since then, Booster 22 has completed a full 33 engine static fire and Ship 42 a six engine firing, as Teslarati previously reported. As of Friday morning, SpaceX was still waiting on the FAA to approve a license change covering the ship’s return over land.

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