News
SpaceX bumps Starship booster engine count, ramps up Raptor factory
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that Starship’s Super Heavy booster will have at least one more engine than expected after hardware spotted at its Boca Chica, Texas factory indicated as much.
Simultaneously, Musk revealed that SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California factory and headquarters is now producing Raptors at a rate that will likely make it the company’s most numerous product (outside of Starlink) in the near future.
Musk says that Super Heavy boosters will “initially” have 29 Raptor engines instead of 28 engines and could even be upgraded to 32 engines down the road. In 2020, the vehicle’s design was updated, dropping from 31 to 28 engines for unknown reasons before SpaceX began work on the first real Super Heavy hardware. Known as BN1 or booster number 1, that rocket was stacked to its full ~70m (~230 ft) height but ultimately turned into a manufacturing pathfinder (i.e. practice) after Super Heavy’s design changed once again.
Who or what has been causing those seemingly endless design changes is unclear but SpaceX is finally at a point where any more major changes will explicitly delay plans for Starship’s inaugural spaceflight – deemed an “orbital test flight” by the company. It remains to be seen if SpaceX will actually attempt to recover the first booster(s) after those initial quasi-orbital test flights but we now have a better idea of what those Super Heavies might look like.
Namely, Musk seems to indicate that even the very first flightworthy prototypes will be outfitted with a full complement of Raptors – seemingly nipping in the bud the possibility of a booster debuting with the fewest possible engines. In the case of the first few initial orbital launch, that means that SpaceX is happy to risk losing 32-35 engines for every single attempt.
That could imply several things. SpaceX might be extremely confident that early boosters will be recovered. It could have zero faith in the reusability of early flown Raptors, meaning that they’re functionally expendable regardless of the outcome. SpaceX could have also reduced the cost and increased the speed of production to the point that expending dozens of Raptors isn’t a major issue – though ~32 Raptors would cost $8 million even if SpaceX has already hit Musk’s long-term “<$250k” per-engine target.
However, Musk also says that SpaceX has ramped up Raptor production to the point that it’s almost completing one engine every 48 hours – equating to around 180 Raptors per year or a maximum cadence of one expendable three-engine Starship and 29-engine booster launch every nine weeks. At that run rate, Raptor has likely beat out Falcon’s venerable Merlin to become SpaceX’s most-produced rocket engine.
According to NASASpaceflight, SpaceX has already begun work on Raptors with serial numbers in the 150s. Two new Raptor test stands in work at its McGregor development facilities will also reportedly enable an average of one engine qualification every day – enough testing capacity to outfit 6 boosters and 30 Starships (~365 Raptors) per year. In short, SpaceX is well on its way to having the ability to manufacture and power a truly vast fleet of Starships and Super Heavy boosters.
Elon Musk
Brazil Supreme Court orders Elon Musk and X investigation closed
The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has ordered the closure of an investigation involving Elon Musk and social media platform X. The inquiry had been pending for about two years and examined whether the platform was used to coordinate attacks against members of the judiciary.
The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.
According to a report from Agencia Brasil, the investigation conducted by the Federal Police did not find evidence that X deliberately attempted to attack the judiciary or circumvent court orders.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet concluded that the irregularities identified during the probe did not indicate fraudulent intent.
Justice Moraes accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation and ruled that the investigation should be closed. Under the ruling, the case will remain closed unless new evidence emerges.
The inquiry stemmed from concerns that content on X may have enabled online attacks against Supreme Court justices or violated rulings requiring the suspension of certain accounts under investigation.
Justice Moraes had previously taken several enforcement actions related to the platform during the broader dispute involving social media regulation in Brazil.
These included ordering a nationwide block of the platform, freezing Starlink accounts, and imposing fines on X totaling about $5.2 million. Authorities also froze financial assets linked to X and SpaceX through Starlink to collect unpaid penalties and seized roughly $3.3 million from the companies’ accounts.
Moraes also imposed daily fines of up to R$5 million, about $920,000, for alleged evasion of the X ban and established penalties of R$50,000 per day for VPN users who attempted to bypass the restriction.
Brazil remains an important market for X, with roughly 17 million users, making it one of the platform’s larger user bases globally.
The country is also a major market for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, which has surpassed one million subscribers in Brazil.
Elon Musk
FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan
Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.
U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr criticized Amazon after the company opposed SpaceX’s proposal to launch a large satellite constellation that could function as an orbital data center network.
Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.
Amazon recently urged the FCC to reject SpaceX’s application to deploy a constellation of up to 1 million low Earth orbit satellites that could serve as artificial intelligence data centers in space.
The company described the proposal as a “lofty ambition rather than a real plan,” arguing that SpaceX had not provided sufficient details about how the system would operate.
Carr responded by pointing to Amazon’s own satellite deployment progress.
“Amazon should focus on the fact that it will fall roughly 1,000 satellites short of meeting its upcoming deployment milestone, rather than spending their time and resources filing petitions against companies that are putting thousands of satellites in orbit,” Carr wrote on X.
Amazon has declined to comment on the statement.
Amazon has been working to deploy its Project Kuiper satellite network, which is intended to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink service. The company has invested more than $10 billion in the program and has launched more than 200 satellites since April of last year.
Amazon has also asked the FCC for a 24-month extension, until July 2028, to meet a requirement to deploy roughly 1,600 satellites by July 2026, as noted in a CNBC report.
SpaceX’s Starlink network currently has nearly 10,000 satellites in orbit and serves roughly 10 million customers. The FCC has also authorized SpaceX to deploy 7,500 additional satellites as the company continues expanding its global satellite internet network.
Energy
Tesla Energy gains UK license to sell electricity to homes and businesses
The license was granted to Tesla Energy Ventures Ltd. by UK energy regulator Ofgem after a seven-month review process.
Tesla Energy has received a license to supply electricity in the United Kingdom, opening the door for the company to serve homes and businesses in the country.
The license was granted to Tesla Energy Ventures Ltd. by UK energy regulator Ofgem after a seven-month review process.
According to Ofgem, the license took effect at 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday and applies to Great Britain.
The approval allows Tesla’s energy business to sell electricity directly to customers in the region, as noted in a Bloomberg News report.
Tesla has already expanded similar services in the United States. In Texas, the company offers electricity plans that allow Tesla owners to charge their vehicles at a lower cost while also feeding excess electricity back into the grid.
Tesla already has a sizable presence in the UK market. According to price comparison website U-switch, there are more than 250,000 Tesla electric vehicles in the country and thousands of Tesla home energy storage systems.
Ofgem also noted that Tesla Motors Ltd., a separate entity incorporated in England and Wales, received an electricity generation license in June 2020.
The new UK license arrives as Tesla continues expanding its global energy business.
Last year, Tesla Energy retained the top position in the global battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator market for the second consecutive year. According to Wood Mackenzie’s latest rankings, Tesla held about 15% of global market share in 2024.
The company also maintained a dominant position in North America, where it captured roughly 39% market share in the region.
At the same time, competition in the energy storage sector is increasing. Chinese companies such as Sungrow have been expanding their presence globally, particularly in Europe.
Brazil Supreme Court orders Elon Musk and X investigation closed
FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan
