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SpaceX fires up Starship rocket twice in 30 hours ahead of next big tests
SpaceX has successfully fired up a full-scale Starship rocket for the second time in barely 30 hours and removed the ship’s Raptor engine to perform an additional suite of “cryo testing”.
Around 7pm CDT on May 6th, SpaceX technicians began loading the fourth full-scale Starship with liquid oxygen and methane, filling up a large portion of its massive propellant tanks. Just the latest in a line of several tests involving wet dress rehearsals (WDR) completed in the days prior, this test would soon become exceptional. About an hour and a half after work began, Starship SN4’s lone Raptor engine ignited and burned for ~3 seconds, marking the first time in history a next-generation SpaceX rocket truly came alive with one of the engines designed to take it all the way to orbit.
In line with tests performed with Starhopper – a low-fidelity, subscale tested that flew twice with Raptor – last year, it would have been business as usual if SpaceX had called it a day and moved on to something else with Starship SN4. Instead, Starship performed another WDR and fired up its Raptor engine for a second time in just 30 hours after SpaceX teams inspected the rocket and cleared it for another round. It’s unknown why two back-to-back static fires were performed but, to be clear, every step Starship SN4 takes forward is a step into uncharted territory. Already, the ship’s next steps could come as soon as Friday, May 8th.
According to CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX’s second Starship SN4 static fire test was completed successfully and actually marked the operational debut of a critical aspect of the next-generation launch vehicle and spacecraft. Known as header tanks, Starship needs two smaller secondary propellant tanks to complement its main tanks, a need driven mainly by the challenges of landing such a large and mobile spacecraft. Smaller header tanks will also make it dramatically easier for SpaceX to insulate cryogenic propellant and ensure it remains liquid over long-duration cruises in space, but safe and reliable landings are a more pressing concern for these early prototypes.
During landing operations, the main benefits smaller header tanks offer are relative ease of pressurization (needed to safely feed Raptor engines) and a much lower risk of issues from sloshing, which can introduce bubbles and voids that can obliterate rocket engines if ingested. Impressively, per Musk, Starship SN4 completed its second static fire test using its internal liquid methane header tank – a sort of bubble attached to the bottom of the main methane tank dome.
Starship’s liquid oxygen header tank is situated at the tip of the conical nose section, a part that all full-scale ships have been tested without thus far. However, the use of the fuel header tank on May 7th means that Starship SN4 already has a functional, plumbed header tank installed, verifying the partial functionality of a critical part of the next-generation launch vehicle. A second static fire will have also provided SpaceX a wealth of extra data about Raptor’s performance while installed on Starship, invaluable at such an early stage of integrated testing.
Two Starship static fires now under its belt, SpaceX removed SN4’s Raptor engine around 12 hours after its second test and returned it to storage at the company’s nearby factory facilities. According to public notices provided by Cameron County, Texas officials, SpaceX’s next Starship SN4 activity is expected to occur on May 8th with backup windows on the 9th and 10th and will involve “cryo testing”.
The most obvious conclusion is that SpaceX – having completed enough static fire testing to verify Starship SN4’s performance – now wants to really put the rocket through its paces with another cryogenic test. Completed on April 26th, the ship’s first cryogenic ‘proof’ test maxed out at around 4.9 bar (70 psi), enough for low-stress hop tests but well short of the sustained pressure needed for orbital spaceflight. While testing singular propellant tanks in the first few months of 2020, Musk revealed that SpaceX was targeting a minimum of 6 bar (~90 psi) for orbital Starship flights – ~8 bar (115 psi) with a 25% safety factor.
The company actually achieved 8.4 bar with one of its Starship test tanks, the same processes of which were used to build Starship SN4, but a full-scale ship has yet to demonstrate those pressures. Now, SpaceX already has a fifth full-scale prototype (Starship SN5) likely just a week or so away from pad readiness, meaning that Starship SN4’s potential destruction during pressure testing wouldn’t have a big impact on plans for a series of imminent flight tests. If SN4 survives pressure testing, it would likely have its Raptor engine reinstalled and move on to a 150m (500 ft) hop test.
News
Tesla Semi lands the biggest electric truck deal in U.S. history
Tesla leads a record 2,500 truck order, but not every truck will be a Semi.
Tesla has landed the largest electric truck order in U.S. history. ZET SCALE, a new alliance of shippers and carriers, named Tesla its primary manufacturer on Tuesday for an initial order of 2,500 electric Class 8 trucks. The deal alone would nearly double the number of electric heavy trucks operating in the country.
According to the press release from Catalyst Mobility, the nonprofit formerly known as CALSTART, Kenworth, RIDE and Volvo were also selected as secondary manufacturers that carriers can pick if their operations call for it. No split between the four brands has been published, so the exact number of Semis in the order is not yet known.
Tesla was selected as the primary OEM for the largest electric Class 8 order in the US by ZET SCALE, a new shippers’ alliance
With 2,500 Semis on order, this will double the entire US electric Class 8 fleet
We’re serious about scale, and ZET SCALE is too!… pic.twitter.com/IiTAdzgken
— Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) September 22, 2026
Tesla won the top slot through a competitive request for proposals. The alliance, which Catalyst Mobility runs with the Smart Freight Centre, scored bidders on price, range, charging capability and production capacity. Pooling freight demand from founding shippers, including Microsoft and PepsiCo, let every truck maker bid lower than it would for a single fleet. “The Tesla Semi is designed for lower cost per mile operations than diesel,” said Dan Priestley, director of the Tesla Semi program, as noted in the press release.
The financing is built to pull in carriers who have avoided electric trucks. ZET Financial is issuing the purchase order for all 2,500 units and will place them with fleets through a fair market value lease. The trucks will be deployed over the next few years across 10 freight hubs in Los Angeles, Stockton, Bakersfield, Seattle and Tacoma, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Atlanta, and the Newark and New York area. ZET SCALE says the first order is only the opening round, with a longer term goal of 10,000 trucks or more.
Even if Tesla ends up with only a majority share, it would still be the biggest Semi deal to date. Einride’s 500 unit order in August was the previous record, and WattEV’s 370 truck order in May was the largest California deal at the time. Einride’s CEO has since said he expects all 500 trucks delivered by the end of 2027.
The announcement lands two days before Tesla formally inaugurates its Semi factory in Nevada on September 24. The 1.7 million square foot plant sits next to Gigafactory Nevada’s 4680 cell lines and is designed for 50,000 trucks a year.
Tesla has expanded Grok from an in-car chatbot into a hands-free work assistant. On September 22, Tesla officially launched Grok Bot capability, confirming that drivers can now manage email, calendars, files, chats, and tasks by voice and then hand more ambitious errands to the AI-fueled productivity cheat code.
Grok itself is built by xAI. The new car features split into two layers: Connectors link Grok to outside accounts. Grok Bot, currently limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, can complete multi-step tasks such as placing a usual coffee order, booking a reservation, or scheduling an appointment. It truly puts the driver in a nearly complete hands-free driving and productivity setting, with ironically the only task truly requiring your hands being to touch the “Start Self-Driving” button.
We were granted access to Grok Bot’s Tesla integration a few weeks back, and we’ve been able to do a handful of things with it. On a handful of occasions, we’ve used it to order food and have it ready for pickup slightly later into the evening; we’ve managed to pick up groceries after a day of errands with Grok Bot, and outside of the car, it’s helped with budgeting and even my fantasy football draft.
We’ve been using @Grok Bot in Tesla for a few weeks after gaining Early Access, which we thank the awesome engineers for
Grok Bot makes things much easier across your entire life. From the Tesla, I’ve used it to place pickup orders for my Fiancée and I, we’ve ordered groceries… https://t.co/ZJSLieG1s5
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 22, 2026
Tesla shows another way to utilize it: in their demo, a driver says “Hey Grok,” asks the assistant to check an inbox, and hears that a message concerns a weekend reservation. Grok then scans the calendar, reports no conflicts, and confirms the Tahoe trip is clear. It can also add check-in details to a road-trip itinerary. The point is not novelty chat. It is keeping eyes on the road, or on Full Self-Driving, while the car handles the paperwork of a trip:
.@Grok in your Tesla can now do meaningful work for you
With Connectors, you can manage your inbox, clean up your calendar, or talk through existing files/chat/tasks – all hands-free pic.twitter.com/W1LuybQh0P
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 22, 2026
This Grok rollout is not a gadget add-on as much as it is Tesla’s thesis in software form: the car should stop being a machine you operate and start being a room you occupy.
Connectors and Grok Bot treat the cabin as an office that happens to move, and that has truly been Tesla’s intention for years now. The car has slowly become an extension of a home more than a vehicle. Inbox, calendar, groceries, takeout, and reservations become voice work, not dashboard chores that you need to do before you get in your car.
Responsibility shifts from the driver to the stack, and as many Tesla owners rely on FSD for travel, Grok Bot now handles the monotony of dinner reservations or appointments.
Elon Musk
X changed how everyone gets paid, and this lawsuit shows why
X sued a Bitcoin account network over fake payouts as its creator pay model shifts
Elon Musk’s X has taken a Bitcoin-focused engagement ring to court, and the case doubles as a receipt for how differently the platform pays creators today. The company filed suit in the High Court of England and Wales against Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa, alleging the pair ran six accounts, including @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy and @TrendingBitcoin, as one coordinated operation to fake the kind of engagement that used to translate directly into money.
According to the filing, first reported by Gizmodo, the accounts posted near identical “BREAKING” crypto headlines seconds apart, in one case 11 seconds, then had three more handles like, reply to and repost the material to manufacture what X called “a false appearance of genuine, human communication and interaction.” X says the scheme pulled in at least £207,384, about $278,000, and pegs its own investigation and remediation costs at another £75,000. The accounts were suspended August 18. X general counsel James Burnham announced the case on X last weekend, writing that the company “will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators.” Musk’s own reaction, posted shortly after, was three words: “Don’t mess with 𝕏.”
Don’t mess with 𝕏 https://t.co/HSmd5hL6aQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2026
The timing lines up with a a recent update to how X pays its creators. The program these accounts allegedly gamed, Creator Revenue Sharing, launched in mid 2023 and paid out based on how much a post got engaged with. Originality was never part of the formula, which is exactly how the platform ended up flooded with recycled clips, copy pasted “BREAKING” posts and replies engineered purely to farm reactions from paying subscribers.
X tried patching the model more than once, including an April cut to aggregator payouts and a March regional weighting change that Musk personally paused hours after it was announced. X retired Creator Revenue Sharing for good on September 7 and opened its replacement, Original Content Rewards, the next day.
Today, we’re launching Original Content Rewards.
The reality is that Revenue Sharing had reached a point where its incentives were misaligned. Creators should be focused on bringing net new content to the platform instead of maximizing payouts. We could have kept adding more… pic.twitter.com/VJIxqlPrjm
— Allegra Jacchia (@allegrajacchia) August 7, 2026
The new math is stricter. Payouts now come only from qualified impressions, meaning unique Home Timeline views from Premium subscribers where at least half the post is visible, and replies no longer count toward eligibility at all. Copied posts, reuploaded media and reposts without meaningful changes are explicitly excluded. Allegra Jacchia, senior product manager for Creators at SpaceXAI, which now runs X’s product and AI work following xAI’s acquisition of the platform, put it bluntly, saying the goal is to reward creators who bring original ideas and perspective, “not those who have become best at gaming the system.”
Read that way, the lawsuit isn’t really about six crypto accounts. It’s X putting a dollar figure on what the old incentive structure cost, then suing to collect it right as the new one goes live. For live updates on how the case and the new rewards program shake out, follow @Teslarati on X.
Tesla Semi lands the biggest electric truck deal in U.S. history
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
