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SpaceX’s Starship to return humanity to the Moon in stunning NASA decision

SpaceX - and only SpaceX - has won a competitive NASA contract to land a Starship - and eventually astronauts - on the Moon. (NASA)

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In one of the biggest NASA contracting surprises in years, the space agency has chosen SpaceX – and only SpaceX – to return humans to the surface of the Moon with its next-generation Starship rocket.

The Washington Post’s Christian Davenport broke the news a few hours before NASA’s scheduled announcement and teleconference, revealing that SpaceX beat out Dynetics and a Blue Origin-led “National Team” for a sole-source contract to build, launch, and land a custom version of Starship on the Moon for $2.89 billion. If that uncrewed testing is successful, SpaceX and Starship will be tasked with landing the first astronauts on the Moon in half a century as early as the in the mid-2020s.

While a Human Landing System (HLS) announcement was fully planned and expected to happen this month, virtually everyone following the process believed that NASA would continue to lean on the rationale behind selecting multiple providers for its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) and Commercial Crew (CCP) programs. Having multiple distinct providers, spacecraft, and rockets available to accomplish the same tasks fundamentally insulates NASA (and the International Space Station that depends on those programs) from losing the ability to transport crew or cargo in the event that any one provider is delayed or suffers a major failure.

With a goal as complex as landing humans back on the Moon for the first time since the 1970s, redundancy and multiple distinct solutions would obviously be even more desirable. Entirely contrary to expectations, NASA instead announced that it had exclusively contracted with SpaceX alone for next phase of HLS development. Though SpaceX may have been the only competitor already testing something approximating real integrated flight hardware, NASA’s decision to sole-source HLS to Starship represents a significant gamble.

Simultaneously, though, the move is also extraordinarily pragmatic and indicates that one or several major decisionmakers at NASA have taken less positive lessons from its commercial cargo and crew programs to heart. Crucially, over the first several years of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), Congress systematically underfunded the development of two commercial crew spacecraft – one from Boeing and the other from SpaceX. As a direct result, the launch debuts of both spacecraft were delayed by several years, forcing NASA to to continue relying on Russian Soyuz launches well into the 2020s to get its astronauts to the ISS.

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Additionally, SpaceX – an unequivocal underdog and newbie next to Boeing in the mid-2010s – has drastically outperformed its traditional aerospace counterpart, beating Boeing to the punch and launching astronauts first. Boeing’s Starliner is now at least 18 months behind Crew Dragon despite costing almost 60% more.

In its first year on the books, almost mirroring NASA’s Commercial Crew experience, Congress aggressively underfunded the HLS program, allotting $850M – just 25% – of the $3.4B NASA requested. In other words, NASA seems to be proceeding with HLS under the assumption that Congress – as it did with CCP – will continue to chronically underfund the lunar lander program for years to come. If that’s the case, NASA appears to have made an uncharacteristically astute decision to structure HLS not on its preferred budget – but on what the agency believes Congress will pony up.

Put in a slightly different way, NASA is basically telling Congress that its lack of commitment has forced the agency to sole-source its lunar lander contract to SpaceX, putting the impetus on Congress to properly fund the HLS program if it wants redundant providers. All told, while NASA is undoubtedly taking a risk selecting SpaceX and Starship to return both it and humanity to the Moon, the space agency has now made it abundantly clear that it’s fully committed to the program and goal, whether or not Congress is willing to do its job.

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla’s NHTSA probe is already on its way to being resolved

The problem the NHTSA had with Tesla’s reporting is already on its way to being resolved, as the agency and the company have been in communication.

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tesla showroom
Credit: Tesla

Tesla is being probed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for not reporting accidents in a timely manner, the agency said on Thursday.

It is already well on its way to being resolved, the agency said.

The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) identified numerous instances in which Tesla reported crashes that “occurred several months or more before the dates of the reports.”

The Standing General Order in place by the agency requires crash reports to be submitted within five days of Tesla receiving the notice of an accident.

The investigation states Tesla submitted crashes in one of two ways:

“Many of the reports were submitted as part of a single batch, while others were submitted on a rolling basis.”

The problem the NHTSA had with Tesla’s reporting is already on its way to being resolved, as the agency and the company have been in communication.

Tesla has already been in contact with the agency’s ODI and stated that the timing of the reports was an issue with its data collection. The issue has been resolved, Tesla told them.

The NHTSA said the initiation of the probe against Tesla is a “standard process for reviewing compliance with legal requirements, to evaluate the cause of potential delays in reporting, the scope of any such delays, and the mitigations that Tesla has developed to address them.”

It is the latest NHTSA probe into Tesla, as it has also been investigating the company for accidents during Full Self-Driving operation in reduced visibility conditions.

The agency also sought information on the rollout of Robotaxi a few months ago, and how Tesla planned to handle low-visibility conditions in its driverless ride-hailing service.

The NHTSA was interested in knowing how Tesla planned to assess the ability of FSD’s engineering controls, whether any other similar FSD crashes had occurred in low visibility, and if modifications to FSD software would impact its performance in these conditions.

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Tesla rolls out minor but significant improvement to Robotaxi service

As per Tesla, Robotaxis will now arrive at their pickup locations with their doors locked.

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Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla has rolled out a minor but significant improvement to its Robotaxi service. The update was shared by the Tesla community on social media platforms such as X. 

New Robotaxi App update

As observed by the electric vehicle community on social media, Tesla has started rolling out the Robotaxi App’s Version 25.8.5 (6074) to users. The update seems to be quite minor, though Tesla mentioned something quite notable the update’s “What to Test” section.

As per Tesla, Robotaxis will now arrive at their pickup locations with their doors locked. Customers would not need to unlock the Robotaxis manually, however, as the vehicles would automatically unlock as they approach the car. “You ride now arrives locked and will automatically unlock as you walk up. Just ensure your app has Bluetooth access enabled,” Tesla wrote.

While this update is minor, it does improve the safety of the vehicles themselves. It also provides another layer of convenience for users of the driverless ride-hailing service. The fact that Tesla is already refining the Robotaxi App’s features this early bodes well for the program. It suggests, if any, that the service will already be fairly refined when it starts being opened to more users.

Robotaxi praised for its safety

Tesla is following a deliberate and cautious rollout strategy for its Robotaxi rollout, though early reviews of the system have been quite positive. Some reviewers have also dubbed Tesla’s Robotaxi service as a safer alternative to more conventional ride-hailing services such as Uber.

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This was highlighted by auto reviewer Scotty Reiss in a post on A Girl’s Guide to Cars.

“I like the personal safety factor. No driver to threaten or harass you. You control the locking and unlocking of the car. You can change the pickup location at any time. The car will wait for you. You can call the support desk if you need help. You can change your destination if the drop-off area seems sketchy. All of it together makes me feel safer getting a car home from the airport at midnight or into the city after dark, and I definitely feel safer having my daughters take a self-driving rideshare when they go out to meet friends for dinner,” Reiss wrote in her post.

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Tesla China VP confirms Model Y L first deliveries in September

The first deliveries of the extended wheelbase all-electric family car are expected to start in just a few weeks.

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Credit: Tesla China

Tesla China Vice President Grace Tao has subtly confirmed the recently released Model Y L’s first deliveries. As per the executive, the first deliveries of the extended wheelbase all-electric family car are expected to start in just a few weeks.

Model Y L estimated delivery date

While the standard Tesla Model Y Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) and All Wheel Drive (AWD) are listed with an estimated delivery date of 1-3 weeks, the electric vehicle maker simply listed the Model Y L with an estimated delivery date of “September 2025.” This date was reiterated by VP Grace Tao in a post on Weibo. 

“Prospective Model Y L owners are welcome to post their orders in the comment section. This Sunday, August 24th, at midnight, 10 friends will be drawn to receive Tesla peripherals… Tesla cars are fun to drive alone, whether you have children or how many children, this car can meet all your needs. We will deliver in September and wait for you to get in the car,” Tao wrote.

Model Y delivery speculations

While Grace Tao’s Weibo post confirmed that the Model Y L’s first customer deliveries will indeed be held within September, some industry watchers have estimated that the extended wheelbase vehicle will start deliveries in about three weeks. This suggests that the first Model Y L customer deliveries could start around September 11 in China. This date would be quite impressive considering that the vehicle was released just a few days ago.

The Tesla Model Y has so far been a hit among followers of the company, so much so that fans in countries like the United States have expressed their intention to purchase the vehicle, which starts at just RMB 339,000 ($47,180). Unfortunately, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has stated that the Model Y L will not start production in the United States until the end of 2026. He also noted that the vehicle might not ever make it to the U.S., due to the advent of self-driving cars in the country.

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