SpaceX
SpaceX’s Starship, Starhopper prototypes continue slow and steady progress
The last few weeks of SpaceX’s work on Starship and Starhopper prototypes has been marked by less visible progress relative to the past few months. The changes that are visible, however, confirm that its Boca Chica engineers are working around the clock to complete the first orbital Starship prototype.
At the same time, it appears that SpaceX’s South Texas facilities are preparing for a rapid period of expansion and build-up. New work around the ad-hoc Starhopper pad has recently begun, while construction of a second concrete jig for concurrent prototype fabrication and what will likely be a more permanent hangar and control facility are also ramping up. Things have been quiet news-wise for SpaceX’s McGregor and Hawthorne facilities but there is reason to believe that Raptor production and testing is going smoothly.
And over at its pal’s place, the orbital prototype (and the build-up of another jig)
?@BocaChicaGal
Dedicated Updates: https://t.co/FYHRkwZ2dd pic.twitter.com/glg8Yr6oO6— Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) April 20, 2019
Starship Alpha
The most obvious visible progress made in April is centers around SpaceX’s first orbital Starship prototype, soon to begin its third month of active construction. As of mid-March, the shells of two large steel barrel sections – together about 18 m (60 ft) tall – were fully erected at the build site, with a handful of other sections in various states of welding. The height of those two cylinders has remained unchanged since then but it’s safe to assume that a ton of work has been going on inside them, invisible to anyone viewing from public perspectives since drones were effectively banned in March. In other words, the two pieces – most likely the barrel sections of Starship’s liquid methane and liquid oxygen (LOX) tanks – are likely being carefully transformed into actual propellant tanks.
There is also a good reason for their height differential: the larger (LOX) section is almost exactly a third larger than the small section (methane) in part because of the physical reality that Starship will need almost exactly 33% more LOX than methane by volume. Large propellant tanks – particularly those meant for cryogenic fluids and spaceflight applications – are often quite complex, with the vast majority of that complexity happening under the hood. The above render was made while SpaceX was still planning on carbon fiber tanks and also appears to be significantly simplified, but it still offers a small look at some of that complexity.
Aside from successfully completing thousands of welds throughout the assembly, a lot of the effort of building an advanced tank is put into plumbing – both internal and external – needed to load, unload, pressurize, depressurize, and generally manage cryogenic (i.e. super cold) liquid propellant. SpaceX decided to utilize a partial balloon tank design to keep the steel skins of its stainless steel Starship and Super Heavy as thin as possible, adding yet another level of internal work due to the need for stringers and longerons on top of baffles and hardware to mount COPVs or header tanks.
Adding further complexity to the internal structure of Starship is the presence of major aerodynamic surfaces and landing legs, both of which will need to survive extreme stresses if they are to function as intended. Those structures must be aerodynamically streamlined and attach to the outside of Starship’s hull, likely requiring significant structural reinforcements both inside the spacecraft’s nose and rearmost propellant tank.
Super Heavy?
SpaceX began construction of a second concrete fabrication jig just a handful of days ago. Effectively a copy of a jig occupied with the larger of the two barrel sections of the orbital Starship prototype, the simple structure acts as a mount and includes a large door that allows scissor lifts to get inside the steel structure. The new jig is being built directly adjacent to Starship’s smaller barrel section, suggesting that it could simply be a way to concurrently work on both the LOX and methane tanks. Given the inherent simplicity of a concrete jig, it could also end up being used to support the simultaneous assembly and integration of the first Super Heavy booster prototype.
Back in December 2018, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk indicated that the first Super Heavy prototype would start production in “spring” (i.e. NET April 2019). Musk has also indicated that Starship and Super Heavy will be simultaneously built both in Boca Chica, Texas and Cape Canaveral, Florida. In general, SpaceX is clearly beginning another round of expansion and improvement for its Boca Chica facilities, including the new concrete jig and an entirely new building on the same plot of land.
Starhopper
Last but not least is SpaceX’s Starhopper prototype. After completing an inaugural round of multiple wet dress rehearsals (WDRs) and two Raptor static fires/hops, SpaceX technicians removed the vehicle’s lone Raptor engine on April 8th. Starhopper has remained more or less inactive in the last two weeks, aside from some work going on inside the vehicle (per the open access hatch).
Without a Raptor engine, there is admittedly not a whole lot that SpaceX can do with Starhopper, aside from additional WDRs if the first handful of tests were not enough. Instead, some minor work has been going on around the Hopper’s ad hoc pad, mainly taking the appearance of dirtmoving. Without aerial views, its hard to tell what exactly is taking shape, but it’s safe to say that Starhopper is simply waiting for additional Raptors to be produced, tested, and delivered to Boca Chica. Once more Raptors are ready, it’s understood that SpaceX will move into multi-engine (likely 3+) hop tests, perhaps loosing Starhopper from its tethers.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX’s next Starship flight set to make history on Friday the 13th
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15 and its first ship catch.
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15, the mission the company plans to use for its first attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower.
SpaceX Vice President of Launch Kiko Dontchev shared the date on stage at the UP.Summit on Thursday, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger, who was in attendance. It is the first launch target to come directly from a SpaceX executive. Until now, the public schedule had relied on FAA air traffic planning slides, which listed Flight 15 for no earlier than November 8 and later November 12. SpaceX has not posted an official mission page yet, and no launch time has been shared.
The date lands inside the window Elon Musk sketched out last month. Speaking at Giga Texas on October 10, Musk said the flight would “probably launch a little bit before Thanksgiving,” as Teslarati reported. On SpaceX’s third quarter earnings call ten days later, he confirmed that Flight 15 would try to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the ship, and put the odds of a successful ship catch at “more likely than not.” SpaceX also aired an animation of the maneuver during that webcast, showing the ship swinging vertical over Starbase before dropping into the tower’s chopsticks.
The hardware is ready. Booster 22 fired all 33 of its Raptor engines for a full duration static fire at Pad 2 on October 25. Ship 42 followed with a single engine burn simulating a deorbit maneuver on October 26 and a 60 second firing of all six engines the next day, according to NASASpaceflight. Ship 42 had already rehearsed the catch in September, when the Pad 2 arms lifted it into position and crews connected the quick disconnect arm while the vehicle hung from the tower.
The remaining hurdle is regulatory. The FAA’s Starship page does not yet list a Flight 15 license. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in October that, after “significant constructive engagement with the FAA,” she expects the license to cover a return to the launch site and a tower catch for both stages. Bringing the ship home means a reentry path that heads toward land, rather than ending over open ocean as every Starship flight so far has.
SpaceX has caught Super Heavy three times, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, but the ship comes back from orbital velocity and has never been caught. Flight 14 on September 28 was the first Starship to reach orbit, deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down despite an early engine shutdown that Musk blamed on engine computer software.
Musk has called a successful ship catch “the first time that there’s been full recovery of an orbital class rocket,” and he has already named the step after it: a Flight 16 where both the booster and the ship fly again. NASASpaceflight reports that Ship 43, the next vehicle in line, is set for static fire testing in December.
Tesla and SpaceX shares fell on Wednesday after Democrats swept both chambers of Congress. The decline stood out as broader market securities recovered and turned positive, while both of Musk’s publicly traded companies lagged.
CEO Elon Musk already joked about the unsuccessful campaigning for the Republicans, but now the new party will make pretty drastic changes to how it handles Tesla and SpaceX, and those companies will adjust their outlook.
Let’s take a deeper look.
Tesla ($TSLA)
Tesla shares traded lower during the regular session after Democrats secured both the House and Senate. The stock was down 2.32 percent at around 1:45 p.m. on the East Coast, trading at around $389.30.
The pressure is tied to more than the raw scale of Musk’s political spending, estimated at $450–474 million this cycle with roughly $224 million directed at Texas. In that state, Tesla now faces a Democratic governor and a Democratic senator after Gina Hinojosa unseated Greg Abbott and James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton.
The Austin Gigafactory, Robotaxi pilot programs in multiple Texas cities, and any related AI compute expansion sit under a new state executive who campaigned against certain corporate subsidies and floated a moratorium on new data-center construction.
Federally, Democratic control of key committees opens the door to deeper examination of Tesla’s autonomous-driving safety record, federal energy-storage and manufacturing incentives, and the national-security implications of any combination with SpaceX.
Investors are also weighing whether the company’s historically close alignment with the prior Republican leadership will invite slower permitting, additional hearings, or tighter rules on Full Self-Driving deployment.
For Tesla, the political shift adds near-term friction around state permitting and federal regulatory approvals for autonomy and energy storage. A potential merger with SpaceX may face slower review even if it proceeds.
Core growth drivers such as vehicle deliveries, energy deployments, and robotaxi rollout remain intact, yet the stock now carries a higher political-risk premium that could weigh on valuation until the company demonstrates workable relationships with the new Texas leadership and congressional majorities.
SpaceX ($SPCX)
SpaceX shares also declined in live trading on November 4 following the Democratic midterm sweep. The stock traded at $134.97, down 4.49 percent. The drop occurred even as broader indexes stabilized, highlighting a company-specific reaction to the election outcome.
Musk’s large contributions, concentrated in Texas races that both companies lost, place SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility and headquarters under a new Democratic governor.
At the federal level, Democratic control of Congress enables greater scrutiny of NASA, the Department of Defense, and other contracts that support a meaningful share of revenue, along with reviews of Starlink national-security uses and any Tesla merger. Analysts have noted that empowered committees can hold hearings and request documents on these relationships.
For SpaceX, the results raise the risk of delayed contract awards, higher compliance costs, and tighter constraints on AI and satellite infrastructure expansion, particularly in Texas where a data-center moratorium has been discussed.
A merger with Tesla could encounter political friction that slows integration of launch, connectivity, and autonomy capabilities.
While Starlink growth and launch cadence continue as primary drivers, the company faces a more contested path for federal funding and state-level operations, requiring management to rebuild ties with the new congressional majorities and Texas leadership to limit the overhang.
SpaceX has selected Qualcomm Technologies to supply core infrastructure for Starlink Mobile’s planned nationwide terrestrial 5G network in the United States.
Announced on November 4, the multi-year agreement covers radios, baseband units, and commercial-grade Layer 1 software based on Qualcomm’s Dragonwing Cellular Infrastructure platforms, specifically the QRU100 and QDU100:
🚀 SpaceX has picked Qualcomm to supply radios, baseband units and Layer 1 software for Starlink Mobile’s nationwide terrestrial 5G network.
Deployment across tens of thousands of U.S. cell sites starts in 2027. Qualcomm calls it its biggest 5G deal yet. https://t.co/YKLRakuJjB
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 4, 2026
These will power Massive MIMO radio units featuring 64 transmit and 64 receive paths (64T64R), designed to boost coverage, capacity, and spectral efficiency at scale. Qualcomm has described the pact as its largest 5G deal to date, with deployment across tens of thousands of U.S. cell sites scheduled to begin in 2027.
The terrestrial build-out is meant to complement, not replace, Starlink’s satellite direct-to-cell capabilities. SpaceX has assembled substantial spectrum holdings for this purpose: roughly 65 MHz of mid-band frequencies acquired from EchoStar (including AWS-4 and related bands) and up to 14 MHz of low-band 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management.
The low-band airwaves improve indoor penetration and range, while mid-band supports higher capacity. SpaceX executives, including President Gwynne Shotwell, have outlined a hybrid architecture in which satellites eliminate outdoor dead zones and terrestrial nodes add capacity where demand is highest.
Earlier comments suggested small cells or femtocells potentially co-located with existing Starlink user terminals on roofs, though later filings also reference more conventional antennas on towers and structures.
The big picture is SpaceX’s bid to become a full-fledged U.S. mobile carrier rather than a satellite partner or dead-zone filler. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile together generate hundreds of billions in annual wireless revenue; Shotwell has said SpaceX expects to win customers by offering superior coverage, including during disasters, through seamless satellite-terrestrial handoff.
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are trying to shut Starlink out before FCC vote
Starlink already represents a major share of SpaceX’s revenue and profit following the company’s 2026 IPO. By vertically integrating spectrum, satellite manufacturing, launch capacity, and now ground radio equipment, SpaceX aims to control more of the connectivity stack.
Qualcomm’s involvement also positions the network for future evolution toward AI-native 6G infrastructure, with energy-efficient processing that could improve deployment economics.
Challenges remain: spectrum depth still lags the Big Three, capital costs for tens of thousands of sites will be substantial, and regulatory approvals continue, but the Qualcomm deal marks a concrete step from spectrum accumulation toward operational network build-out.
In short, the partnership accelerates Starlink Mobile’s shift from orbital broadband specialist to hybrid mobile competitor, testing whether a space-based company can reshape terrestrial wireless economics and coverage in the world’s largest market.
SpaceX’s next Starship flight set to make history on Friday the 13th
EVgo taps Tesla Superchargers for mass charging expansion
