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SpaceX rolls out Starship, stacks world’s largest rocket, and aces Starlink launch hours apart
In 15 hours, SpaceX has rolled a new Starship to its South Texas launch and test facilities, reassembled the world’s largest rocket, launched Starlink satellites to orbit, and recovered a reused Falcon 9 booster in port.
The burst of activity began around sunset at SpaceX’s Starbase rocket factory in Boca Chica, Texas when a new orbital-class Starship prototype left its ‘nest’ for the first time. SpaceX rolled the Starship – known as Ship 25 – a few miles down the highway to its nearby launch and test facilities, where workers connected it to a large crane and waited for daylight.
Around 9 am CDT the following day, October 20th, SpaceX lifted Ship 25 onto one of two Starship test stands, where it will eventually attempt to complete several qualification tests. While Ship 25 was still suspended in mid-air, the Starbase launch pad’s orbital launch tower began lifting a different prototype, Ship 24, into the air with a pair of giant ‘chopsticks’ – mechanical arms designed by SpaceX to replace one of the largest mobile cranes in the world.
Then, while it was stacking Ship 24 on top of Super Heavy Booster 7 and installing Ship 25 on a test stand, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 54 new Starlink satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Minutes prior, SpaceX finished craning a reused Falcon 9 booster off one of its drone ship landing platforms in a port ten miles south.
Starlink 4-36 was SpaceX’s 48th launch of 2022 and 56th launch in less than 12 months, so its Falcon launch program simply doesn’t have time to waste. Drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) returned to port with Falcon 9 booster B1069 about 12 hours before the rocket was transferred from the ship’s deck to a stand on SpaceX’s Port Canaveral dock space. The company will now be able to retract B1069’s legs and complete any necessary booster and drone ship refurbishment, ensuring that both will be ready for their next missions in the near future.
Back in Texas, SpaceX is scheduled to begin thoroughly testing a fully-stacked Starship rocket for the first time as early as Monday, October 24th. Ship 24 was reinstalled on Booster 7 for that purpose after SpaceX disassembled the pair for several days, possibly due to forecasts of high winds. The test campaign is expected to begin with the first full wet dress rehearsal (WDR) of a two-stage Starship, meaning that the rocket will be fully loaded with thousands of tons of liquid methane and oxygen propellant and run through a simulated launch countdown that ends just before engine ignition.
If successful, SpaceX will likely restart Booster 7 static fire testing and continue to work its way up to the first simultaneous ignition of all 33 of its Raptor 2 engines. If the pair survive WDR and static fire testing, SpaceX could begin preparing the same rocket for Starship’s orbital launch debut.
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If significant issues arise during testing, SpaceX could choose to retire Ship 24 and/or Booster 7 and move on to a new and improved pair: likely Ship 25 and Booster 8 or 9. Already complete, Super Heavy Booster 8 has been sitting untouched at Starbase’s launch site for weeks, making it uncertain whether SpaceX actually intends to test or use the prototype. Booster 9 is just one stack away from completion, at which point it will be ready to begin proof testing. According to CEO Elon Musk, B9 features significant improvements that will make it more resilient to mid-flight Raptor engine failures. It could also be the first Super Heavy booster with no hydraulic system, thanks to a new version of Raptor that replaces hydraulic thrust vectoring with a battery-powered alternative.
Starship S25 could kick off its own proof testing as early as next week. Unlike Ship 24, Ship 25 went straight from the factory to a test stand that has been modified with six hydraulic rams. Those rams will simulate the thrust of six Raptor 2 engines (up to ~1400 tons or 3.1M lbf) while the Starship is simultaneously loaded with cryogenic liquid oxygen and/or nitrogen, combining peak mechanical and thermal stresses into one test. Once Ship 25 is done, it will be rolled back to the factory for Raptor engine installation and will eventually return to the pad for static fire testing.
Tesla flexed the new features of the Model Y L with a dedicated media event at the company’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The Model Y L is the extended-wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover, which has been voted the best-selling car in the world on three occasions. The vehicle is already rolling off production lines at Gigafactory Texas, and first deliveries are slated to take place later this year.
Tesla brings Model Y L ‘Launch Series’ to the U.S. at $61,990
Teslarati was invited to the event, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we could not make it to Los Angeles. Instead, we will have our hands on a media unit sometime in August, so we’ll be able to spend some more extended time with the Model Y L.
However, plenty of those who made it to LA shared some cool features that set the Model Y L apart from the Model Y.
Multi-Row Climate Control
Tesla fitted the Model Y L with full climate control on all three rows on the front screen. It can be adjusted by selecting which row you’d like to modify on the right-hand side of the touch screen:
The Model Y L has a little row of icons on the right side of the climate screen so the front passenger can more quickly jump to whatever row they want to control. pic.twitter.com/uJS44mgCvk
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 30, 2026
Better Rear Window Visibility
One of the strangest things about the Model Y, especially the Juniper iteration, is the rear window has extremely limited visibility when looking into the rearview mirror.
Tesla has improved upon this with the Model Y L:
This is a drastic difference. https://t.co/wTdhitD5aA pic.twitter.com/z6hFs0Jkss
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2026
PowerShare will be included
Model Y L will come with PowerShare in North America, with an 11.5kW output to your home. Tesla said it would require Powerwall 3 for operation.
Wireless Charging Pad
There has been some speculation that Tesla would upgrade the wireless charging pads in the United States, but this is not the case.
Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit
Tesla confirmed that it does not come with the cooled pads as the Y L in China does. This is because North America has not adopted Qi charging yet.
Thermal Management Improvements
These improvements in the Model Y L were seen with thermal management:
- Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
- +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather, 7 miles of real-world range gained
- 8x more solar energy reflection off of glass roof
- 30% reduction in solar energy entering the cabin
Some of the thermal management improvements in the new Model Y L Premium:
• Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
• Up to 15 min faster cabin cooling in sunny conditions
• +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather +7 miles of real-world range gained
• +10 miles recovered after… pic.twitter.com/jZirFWFdtO— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 31, 2026
Demand
Tesla said the Model Y L is almost sold out in the U.S. It comes with
- 1 year of FSD Supervised
- 1 year of Supercharging
- 1 year of Premium Connectivity
- Free exterior paint color, interior, and wheel option at no additional cost
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to his social media platform X on Thursday night to deny a ridiculous rumor regarding the sale of the company’s Chinese vehicle production plant, Gigafactory Shanghai.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, claimed in a scathing new report that Tesla was exploring a potential sale of the entire China business in an effort to help bolster a potential merger between SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk immediately denied the rumor not once but twice, initially calling it “fake news,” and then calling it “absurdly fake news” in a separate post just a few moments later:
This is fake news
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026
The original poster of the Wall Street Journal article that Musk saw deleted the initial post sharing the headline and the rumored sale of Tesla’s China business.
This has never even come up in a discussion ever.
Absurdly fake news.
People should assume news is fake until proven otherwise.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026
The report seemed absolutely and unequivocally false to begin with; Tesla’s business in China is among the most important pieces of the company’s business. Not only does the factory supply vehicles for the domestic market, but also for various other markets in Asia and Europe.
China is also one of the largest automotive markets in the world, and Tesla has performed well there despite the robust competition.
The speculation regarding a Tesla and SpaceX merger has started to gain steam this year as the space exploration company went public just a month ago. There has been speculation that Musk will bridge all of his companies under one “umbrella company,” and analysts believe this could happen before the end of the decade.
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
This is the latest iteration of Musk’s very evident war on mainstream media. Reports regarding any of Musk’s companies are quick to get the dreaded “false” or “fake news” response from the CEO when they are unfounded.
Elon Musk
Tesla AI boss reveals how big Optimus is going to get
Tesla’s Optimus chief corrected himself on X, confirming a staggering 10 million robot production target.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus program has a new number attached to it, after Ashok Elluswamy, the executive who has run the humanoid robot program since June 2025, posted a three word correction on X Thursday, “Correction, 10 million robots.”
The line clarifies the long term annual capacity Tesla is building toward its planned second Optimus production line at Gigafactory Texas, a figure Musk has cited repeatedly since last year’s shareholder meeting.
The scale is worth noting, because ten million robots a year would mean Tesla building more units annually than most countries sell in new cars. Tesla has framed this as a second line, not the first. The buildout is happening in two phases: a roughly one million unit per year line inside Tesla’s Fremont factory, installed on the floor space vacated when Model S and Model X production ended earlier this year, and a much larger dedicated facility under construction at Giga Texas that broke ground on its first steel structure in May. That Texas facility is the one Elluswamy’s correction refers to, and is expected to reach volume production sometime in 2027.
Correction, 10 million robots https://t.co/0z4nyQNTzp
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) July 30, 2026
Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress
Elluswamy took over Optimus from Milan Kovac last summer and has spent the months since talking up the program’s trajectory. Elon Musk has also floated the ten million figure at Tesla’s 2025 shareholder meeting.
Ending Model S and Model X production to make room for the first Optimus line was one of the more consequential manufacturing decisions in the company’s recent history, retiring two flagship vehicles in favor of a robot that has yet to enter mass production. Musk has previously estimated per unit production costs at $20,000 to $25,000 once Tesla reaches a million units a year, though he hasn’t said what that cost looks like at ten times the volume.
Tesla Model Y L’s new features flexed at unveiling event at Diner
Tesla CEO Elon Musk denies ridiculous Gigafactory Shanghai rumor
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner-80x80.jpg)
