Connect with us

News

SpaceX sets target on rapid Starship development as Mars gains focus

Photo: SpaceX

Published

on

On May 30, SpaceX did something no other private company has: launch astronauts on its own rocket to the International Space Station. The aerospace company was founded 18 years ago, with the goal of sending people into space. It’s president and CEO, Elon Musk, constantly talks about his dreams of making humanity a multi-planet species.

To that end, Musk has charged SpaceX with building a rocket capable of carrying as many as 100 people beyond low-Earth orbit. The craft, known as Starship, is the latest and great in Musk’s increasing larger rockets. Engineers have been busy working on designing new engines as well as increasingly more complex prototypes to put the burgeoning craft through a rapid development process.

Now that SpaceX has achieved human spaceflight, and (if all goes according to plan) should receive certification for regular flights to the space station, Musk is turning his sights back to Mars.

Advertisement

As such, he is focusing more of the company’s efforts on Starship development. In an email obtained by CNBC, Musk wrote, “Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship.”

The first Starship appeared on the flat Texas landscape in early 2019. Eagle-eyed onlookers near the company’s facilities in South Texas spotted the craft and have been monitoring its development process. For a while, Musk had dueling prototypes under construction, tasking a team in Florida to compete with the team in Texas for a little intra-company competition.

That was short-lived, as now SpaceX is keeping its Starship construction efforts confined to Texas. During a recent dramatic test firing of the craft’s attached raptor engine, the company’s fourth major prototype (dubbed SN4), went out in a blaze of glory. This lucky prototype had survived more rounds of testing than previous iterations, but still, the loss of the craft is a bit of a setback for SpaceX.

SN4 did not survive an explosion that occurred during a routine static fire test. Credit: NASASpaceflight/BocaChicaGal

On Saturday, Musk tweeted out a photo showing the company’s Starship facilities in Boca Chica, saying that more would soon be added, including a massive bay that rivaled NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building.

Starship has already snagged a coveted NASA contract that will send humans to the lunar surface in 2024, but to do so, it must get off the ground. Perhaps a more concentrated effort will enable the craft to do so.

An early prototype, called Starhopper, took flight in August, but ever since, the company has failed to produce a new design that can fly. They came very close to SN4. It’s predecessor, SN5, is close to being finished, and the company is already working on SN6, so perhaps we will soon see a Starship fly.

Advertisement

 

 

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Elon Musk teases the capabilities of the Tesla Roadster once again

Published

on

Elon Musk has once again teased the capabilities of the Tesla Roadster, fueling the anticipation that many have for the vehicle, despite it still having no public production or delivery date.

The Roadster is among the most anticipated vehicles in the automotive sector currently, and as Tesla has teased its capabilities, from a lightning-fast 1.1-second 0-60 MPH acceleration to potential hovering with cold-gas thrusters, people are eager to see it.

Although the design seemed to be finalized, there was still more work to be done. Earlier this year, as Tesla was showcasing some of the Roadster’s capabilities to Musk, he stated that it was capable of even more.

This pushed back its production date even further, much to the chagrin of those who have been waiting years for it.

Musk continues to tease us all, and as we sit here waiting hopelessly for it to be revealed, he said today that it is “something special beyond a car.”

Advertisement

Musk’s words were in response to a video posted by Tesla China, showing the Roadster in a new promotional video created by a fan.

The Roadster was planned to be released in 2020, but here we are in 2025, and there is still no sign of the vehicle entering production. However, Tesla did say earlier this year that it would host a demo event for the Roadster, where the company would showcase its capabilities.

Lars Moravy said earlier this year:

Advertisement

“Roadster is definitely in development. We did talk about it last Sunday night. We are gearing up for a super cool demo. It’s going to be mind-blowing; We showed Elon some cool demos last week of the tech we’ve been working on, and he got a little excited.”

Tesla exec gives big update on Roadster, confirming recent rumor

The delays have been attributed to “radically increased design goals” for the vehicle, which have, without a doubt, improved its capabilities, but at the same time, we just want to know if it’s ever going to come.

Tesla can always make it “better,” but at what point do you say, “Okay, it’s time to show this thing off.” They could always build another, even more capable supercar in the next ten years.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk reiterates shocking xAI detail, and hints at an upcoming monster

He also announced that xAI’s upcoming model, Grok 5, will begin training very soon.

Published

on

MINISTÉRIO DAS COMUNICAÇÕES, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk has reiterated a rather shocking tidbit about xAI’s impressive scores at the ARC-AGI benchmark.

He also announced that xAI’s upcoming model, Grok 5, will begin training very soon.

xAI results on the ARC-AGI benchmark

In a recent post on social media platform X, Greg Kamradt, President of the ARC Prize Foundation, noted that Grok 4 has been used in two SOTA submissions to the ARC-AGI V1 and V2 benchmarks. The submissions, which were the best that the foundation has encountered to date, were done using xAI’s large language model, Grok 4. 

As per Kamradt, when asked about why the submissions were done using Grok 4, the authors stated that “It was the best model I used in testing.” Musk was evidently proud of this accomplishment, though he also highlighted that these accomplishments were attained with just Grok 4. This suggests that once Grok 5 is in the picture, xAI’s lead in the AI sector could become notable.

Grok 5 incoming

Elon Musk has shared a number of tidbits about Grok 5 as of late. In recent comments on X, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO stated that he believes Grok 5 has the potential to actually reach artificial general intelligence (AGI). This suggests that Grok 5 would be nothing short of a monster, as it could be capable of matching or surpassing human-level intelligence across tasks such as thinking, reasoning, and other domains by a substantial margin.

Advertisement

Grok 5 may also be coming soon. As per Musk in another post on X, xAI will be starting the training of Grok 5 in a few weeks. Musk definitely seems to be highly optimistic about the capabilities of Grok 5, with the CEO stating late last month that the update would be coming before the end of the year and that it will be “crushingly good.”

Continue Reading

News

SpaceX is partnering with chipmakers to enable Starlink satellite-to-cell service

President Gwynne Shotwell outlined the effort during a space industry conference in Paris.

Published

on

Credit: SpaceX/X

SpaceX is working with microchip manufacturers to integrate satellite-connectivity hardware into smartphones, advancing its plan for direct-to-device services through Starlink. 

The move follows the company’s $17 billion acquisition of wireless spectrum from EchoStar Corp., a deal that positions SpaceX to operate more independently of traditional telecom carriers. 

President Gwynne Shotwell outlined the effort during a space industry conference in Paris this week, as noted in a Bloomberg News report.

Starlink direct-to-device

Starlink currently serves millions of customers in over 100 countries, primarily through ground-based dishes. The company, however, is now expanding into satellite-to-cell service, which should enable unmodified phones to connect directly with orbiting satellites. While SpaceX has a partnership with T-Mobile US, the EchoStar spectrum purchase gives it more control to negotiate with global carriers on its own terms.

“We’re working with chip manufacturers to get the proper chips in phones,” the SpaceX President stated. “We will now be initiating discussions with telcos in a different way now. Now it’s our spectrum, but we want to work with them, almost providing capacity and wholesaling capacity to their customers.”

Advertisement

The company plans to launch satellites capable of supporting its direct-to-device business within two years, with early mobile phone testing expected by late 2026.

Starship program continues test flights

Shotwell also addressed SpaceX’s Starship program, which recently completed its 10th test flight in August. She said the mission met all objectives, providing a critical morale boost to teams after a challenging development year. 

“My Starship team needed that win,” Shotwell noted. “Development programs always are kind of a 24/7 operation, and I was really pleased for them.”

SpaceX is planning to fly one more iteration of the current Starship prototype, known as V2, before transitioning to the next-generation V3 vehicle. That version, expected to debut late this year or early 2026, is designed to be more capable and support eventual crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. 

“The V3, which we want to fly hopefully late this year, but maybe early next year, is really the vehicle that could take humans to the moon and Mars,” Shotwell stated.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending