News
SpaceX rolls Raptor Vacuum engines to launch pad for Starship’s next tests
For the second time, SpaceX is gearing up to install a full six Raptor engines on the first orbital-class Starship prototype.
This time around, though, there’s reason to believe that the preparations SpaceX is making aren’t a false start and could culminate in one or several record-breaking Starship static fires as early as next week.
SpaceX installed Raptors on Starship S20 for the first time in early August, outfitting the 50m (165 ft) tall prototype with a full six engines as part of a fit test that ultimately saw it installed on top of a Super Heavy booster. Ship 20 only spent an hour on top of Booster 4, though, and was quickly returned to Starbase build site for Raptor removal and final outfitting. Ship 20 was then rolled back to the launch site and installed on one of two suborbital launch mounts and test stands in mid-August, where it has sat ever since.
Between September 4th and 10th, SpaceX then appeared to install three sea-level-optimized Raptor Center (RC) engines and one Raptor Vacuum (RVac) engine on Starship S20 before the prototype had completed any proof testing. Whether that set of installs was a fit test or an aborted attempt at full installation, SpaceX seemingly paused at three or four Raptors and ultimately removed the lone RVac and one or more of S20’s sea-level engines. Another sea-level Raptor was (re)installed on September 15th.
After a frenetic month of back and forth with no obvious rhyme or reason, all of Ship 20’s Raptors were removed and a series of hydraulic rams used to simulate engine thrust – removed, unused, back in August – were reinstalled. Starship then completed pneumatic and cryogenic proof tests in the last few days of September.
After another ten or so days of unusual downtime, SpaceX began reinstalling Raptors on Ship 20 – one sea-level and one vacuum – around October 10th for a static fire test campaign that began about a week later. Finally, on October 21st, SpaceX fired up the orbital-class prototype for the first time, also completing the first test of a Raptor Vacuum engine installed on a Starship. Barely an hour later, Starship S20 performed a second test, simultaneously firing up both RVac and RC engine in another first.
Barely a full day after that successful back-to-back static fire test, SpaceX rolled two more sea-level Raptors to the suborbital pad and installed them on Ship 20. Another unusual week of downtime later and, on October 28th, SpaceX has rolled two more Raptor Vacuum engines from the build site to the launch pad and staged them beside Starship. Once installed, Starship S20 will, for the second time, be fully outfitted with six Raptors. Having already fired up two of those engines without needing either replaced, though, there’s a decent chance that all six will actually be used before Ship 20’s next bout of engine removal/installation deja vu.
SpaceX has never fired more than three engines at a time on a Starship prototype or at its suborbital test site, so a number of firsts potentially lay before Ship 20 as it nears a second round of static fire testing. There is some uncertainty as to whether the suborbital test stands can actually handle the stress from static fires with more than three Raptors, but if they can, then S20 will likely be the first prototype to ignite more 4+ engines and could become the first Starship to fire all six engines at once.
SpaceX currently has one possible test window scheduled from 10am to 6pm CDT on Monday, November 1st, though it could be another week or more before Starship S20’s next static fire attempt if past trends continue.
Tesla is starting to truly tease and hype its groundbreaking Cybercab event, which takes place tomorrow in Austin, Texas. It will be the first time members of the public will be able to ride in a Cybercab, a vehicle without any manual controls, on public roads.
Tesla has been dropping some hype on X over the past several days, but this morning, the excitement has truly started to build up for the event. Although Cybercab has been unveiled before, this is truly Tesla’s announcement that it is ready to start offering autonomous rides for public passengers in its new ride-hailing-geared vehicle for the first time.
The hype has started with a variety of different social media posts that are a true indication that Tesla is preparing for something big. Teasing so much of the potential of Cybercab, including its ability to truly revolutionize how people hail rides for local travel, is what the big idea for the event entails. The time that many Tesla owners, fans, and investors have been waiting for is potentially here:
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 2, 2026
The event has remained slim on details. Even invitees are still awaiting true details about what the event will entail, where they’ll go, and what is in store for the evening. This is pretty typical for an event run by Tesla; they keep things under wraps for the most part until the very last minute.
However, there is no secret about what the real intention of Tesla is for this event: it is going to be a huge reveal party for a vehicle that has no steering wheel and no pedals. It is a truly massive step for the company moving forward.
No steering wheel, no pedals
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) September 2, 2026
Speculation persists as to whether this is going to be an event that simply announces that rides will begin with the Cybercab, or it will be something more substantial. Tesla has said in the past that they plan to sell the Cybercab to the general public in what could become a great way to earn passive income by adding it to a more global fleet of Robotaxi-geared vehicles.
Tomorrow, the show begins in Austin, and the Cybercab goes live at some capacity; we just don’t know exactly how quite yet.
News
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
SpaceX filed with the FCC for Starship Flight 14, its first true orbital launch attempt.
SpaceX has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to fly Starlink terminals during Starship’s fourteenth flight test, and the filing lays out a genuine trip to orbit, something the program has never attempted.
Every Starship flight so far, including Flight 13’s successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean on July 24, has flown a suborbital arc that ends with the ship reentering the atmosphere within the same hour it launches. The FCC paperwork describes a mission profile built around an actual orbital insertion instead.
The payload is the other half of the story. Flight 13 carried 20 production Starlink V3 satellites, but because that mission never reached orbit, the satellites reentered along with the ship rather than joining the constellation, something Teslarati covered in detail after SpaceX released footage shot from one of those satellites as it drifted away from Starship in space. Flight 14 is designed to close that gap. If the orbital insertion holds, the roughly 20 V3 satellites onboard would separate into an operational orbit and could eventually go into service, each one rated for about 1 terabit per second of downlink capacity by SpaceX’s own account.
SpaceX announces new Starbase for ‘thousands of Starship launches annually’
Elon Musk first flagged the orbital attempt during SpaceX’s August 4 earnings call, the company’s first as a public entity following its June IPO under the ticker SPCX. He also floated catching the ship with the Starbase tower on the same flight, an idea he walked back on August 20, saying the catch attempt would more likely come “in a few months,” as Teslarati reported at the time. Flight 14 will instead target a splashdown for the ship in the Indian Ocean, the same recovery method used since Flight 12.
Hardware has been catching up to the ambition. Booster 21 completed a full 33-engine static fire on August 28, and Ship 41 finished its own six-engine test the week before. An airspace briefing circulated to pilots on August 20 listed September 15 as the target date, later than the end of August window Musk mentioned on the earnings call, though SpaceX has not confirmed a launch date publicly and Starship schedules routinely slip while hardware and FAA paperwork line up.
The FCC filing itself does not guarantee a launch date. It covers communications authority, and not flight readiness, considering SpaceX still needs Ship 41 fully stacked and cleared by the FAA before Flight 14 can fly. But the filing is a real marker of intent and it puts a specific regulatory process behind what had so far only been Musk’s word on the earnings call.
Tesla is set to launch Cybercab on Thursday at an event in Austin, Texas, which will officially bring the company’s first steering wheel-less and pedal-less vehicle to a limited number of consumers for the first time.
The event, which is invite-only, is still thin on details: we’ll be there, and it seems the event will be held at Gigafactory Texas, but the launch of this vehicle truly relies on it being operational outside of the factory and on public roads.
🚨 Close-Up look at Tesla Cybercab without steering wheel: pic.twitter.com/9TXCDeDCz7
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 3, 2026
Nevertheless, there are some big things to expect, and other things to temper expectations on. For what it’s worth, we believe this event could be perhaps the biggest indication that Tesla is ready to truly enter a new phase and chapter in its historic story.
Tesla Cybercab’s First Foray into the Public with Real-World Riders
Cybercab will likely hit the streets of Austin and the surrounding areas, likely in the established geofence that Tesla has expanded on for the past 14 months. Just yesterday, Tesla expanded it once again by 9 percent.
Tesla will put, for the first time, a vehicle without any manual controls on public roads, likely without any help from teleoperators. This is a truly groundbreaking development if it comes through in this fashion: it would be groundbreaking for Tesla to roll out a truly driverless ride-hailing vehicle.
Cybercab Has Already Been Unveiled
This is not an unveiling event. Cybercab has been released for nearly two years, as Tesla first showed it to the public on October 10, 2024.
FIRST LOOK: Tesla ‘Cybercab’ Robotaxi makes its global debut
While there is some small speculation that Tesla could release the Roadster at the event as a surprise, it seems more likely the focus will be on the Cybercab and the huge accomplishment that will come with releasing a vehicle with no manual controls.
There Will Be a Lot of Hype
What’s important to remember about the Cybercab event is that Tesla will continue to prioritize safety and the rollout will likely be slow, just as it has been with Robotaxi.
One of the biggest complaints about Robotaxi is vehicle population, and the fact that the wait for a ride, at least in some instances, has been longer than most want to admit.
It will take time for this project to truly scale. It will take time for Tesla to roll this out in a large fashion. The important thing to note is that they are doing it, and they’re doing it with a vehicle that is completely engineered and built internally. That’s something no other ride-hailing service can say.
Tesla starts teasing and hyping groundbreaking Cybercab event
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
