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SpaceX successful in epic third Starship test launch

Starships lifts off from Starbase (Credit SpaceX)

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SpaceX was successful in its third test flight of the largest rocket ever as Starship took to the skies at 8:25 am CT from Starbase, Texas.

The massive rocket made it further than ever during its third flight, including successful stage separation and atmospheric re-entry.

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The 33 Raptor engines powered Booster 10 with Ship 28 stacked on top all the way through its portion of the flight, never losing one engine. Two minutes and 50 seconds into the flight, Booster 10 and Ship 28 went through the hot staging maneuver flawlessly.

Booster 10 then relit some of its engines to perform the boost backburn toward a landing area just East of the launch pad in the Gulf of Mexico. The booster made it all the way through the burn and re-oriented itself to a vertical position as it plunged through the atmosphere and used its giant grid fins to help stabilize the vehicle.

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During the final moments of the re-entry, the forces on the vehicle became too much, and around the 2 km mark, the booster engine attempted to light for the landing burn, but it appears a few failed, and the booster was lost shortly after.

While Booster 10 was plunging back through the atmosphere, Ship 28 continued to fly perfectly, burning all 6 Raptor engines to reach orbital velocity. The ships’ engines shut down just over eight and a half minutes into flight and were officially in space, coasting between the Florida Keys and Cuba on its way to its planned re-entry over the Indian Ocean.

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During the coast phase, SpaceX completed multiple in-flight tests, such as opening and closing the payload bay, or the pez door, as they put it. Following that, the rocket then performed a fuel transfer demonstration, moving fuel from the header tanks into the main tanks. This was the first time they had done this while in orbit, but according to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, they are waiting to officially confirm this.

SpaceX had intended to perform a re-light of a Raptor engine while in space, however, they elected to skip that and attempt this during a future mission.

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Ship 28 then began atmospheric entry 46 minutes into the mission. Thanks to the Starlink connection, SpaceX was able to provide amazing views of the plasma build-up around the ship, something that is generally never seen as the plasma blocks the signal on smaller vehicles.

Just over 49 minutes into the flight, during peak heating, the Starship data connection was lost with both Starlink and TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay satellites), the former being used for all vehicles in space, including the Crew Dragon capsule.

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The on-screen telemetry stopped at a speed of 25,707 km/h at a height of 65 km. SpaceX said that with both signals dropping at the same time, it is likely the ship broke up during re-entry and did not make the planned intact splashdown.

While neither Booster 10 nor Ship 28 made it 100% to their planned splashdown, this third test flight was a massive win for SpaceX, and the company will look to complete the fourth flight test within a couple of months.

Questions or comments? Shoot me an email at rangle@teslarati.com, or Tweet me @RDAnglePhoto.

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Launch journalist, specializing in launch photography. Based on the Space Coast, a short drive from Cape Canaveral and the SpaceX launch pads.

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Tesla to improve one of its best features, coding shows

According to the update, Tesla will work on improving the headlights when coming into contact with highly reflective objects, including road signs, traffic signs, and street lights. Additionally, pixel-level dimming will happen in two stages, whereas it currently performs with just one, meaning on or off.

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Credit: @jojje167 on X

Tesla is looking to upgrade its Matrix Headlights, a unique and high-tech feature that is available on several of its vehicles. The headlights aim to maximize visibility for Tesla drivers while being considerate of oncoming traffic.

The Matrix Headlights Tesla offers utilize dimming of individual light pixels to ensure that visibility stays high for those behind the wheel, while also being considerate of other cars by decreasing the brightness in areas where other cars are traveling.

Here’s what they look like in action:

As you can see, the Matrix headlight system intentionally dims the area where oncoming cars would be impacted by high beams. This keeps visibility at a maximum for everyone on the road, including those who could be hit with bright lights in their eyes.

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There are still a handful of complaints from owners, however, but Tesla appears to be looking to resolve these with the coming updates in a Software Version that is currently labeled 2026.2.xxx. The coding was spotted by X user BERKANT:

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According to the update, Tesla will work on improving the headlights when coming into contact with highly reflective objects, including road signs, traffic signs, and street lights. Additionally, pixel-level dimming will happen in two stages, whereas it currently performs with just one, meaning on or off.

Finally, the new system will prevent the high beams from glaring back at the driver. The system is made to dim when it recognizes oncoming cars, but not necessarily objects that could produce glaring issues back at the driver.

Tesla’s revolutionary Matrix headlights are coming to the U.S.

This upgrade is software-focused, so there will not need to be any physical changes or upgrades made to Tesla vehicles that utilize the Matrix headlights currently.

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Elon Musk

xAI’s Grok approved for Pentagon classified systems: report

Under the agreement, Grok can be deployed in systems handling classified intelligence analysis, weapons development, and battlefield operations. 

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Credit: xAI

Elon Musk’s xAI has signed an agreement with the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to allow Grok to be used in classified military systems.

Previously, Anthropic’s Claude had been the only AI system approved for the most sensitive military work, but a dispute over usage safeguards has reportedly prompted the Pentagon to broaden its options, as noted in a report from Axios.

Under the agreement, Grok can be deployed in systems handling classified intelligence analysis, weapons development, and battlefield operations. 

The publication reported that xAI agreed to the Pentagon’s requirement that its technology be usable for “all lawful purposes,” a standard Anthropic has reportedly resisted due to alleged ethical restrictions tied to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons use.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to meet with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in what sources expect to be a tense meeting, with the publication hinting that the Pentagon could designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk” if the company does not lift its safeguards. 

Axios stated that replacing Claude fully might be technically challenging even if xAI or other alternative AI systems take its place. That being said, other AI systems are already in use by the DoD. 

Grok already operates in the Pentagon’s unclassified systems alongside Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google is reportedly close to an agreement that will result in Gemini being used for classified use, while OpenAI’s progress toward classified deployment is described as slower but still feasible. 

The publication noted that the Pentagon continues talks with several AI companies as it prepares for potential changes in classified AI sourcing.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk denies Starlink’s price cuts are due to Amazon Kuiper

“This has nothing to do with Kuiper, we’re just trying to make Starlink more affordable to a broader audience,” Musk wrote in a post on X.

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Credit: Starlink

Elon Musk has pushed back on claims that Starlink’s recent price reductions are tied to Amazon’s Kuiper project.

In a post on X, Musk responded directly to a report suggesting that Starlink was cutting prices and offering free hardware to partners ahead of a planned IPO and increased competition from Kuiper.

“This has nothing to do with Kuiper, we’re just trying to make Starlink more affordable to a broader audience,” Musk wrote in a post on X. “The lower the cost, the more Starlink can be used by people who don’t have much money, especially in the developing world.”

The speculation originated from a post summarizing a report from The Information, which ran with the headline “SpaceX’s Starlink Makes Land Grab as Amazon Threat Looms.” The report stated that SpaceX is aggressively cutting prices and giving free hardware to distribution partners, which was interpreted as a reaction to Amazon’s Kuiper’s upcoming rollout and possible IPO.

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In a way, Musk’s comments could be quite accurate considering Starlink’s current scale. The constellation currently has more than 9,700 satellites in operation today, making it by far the largest satellite broadband network in operation. It has also managed to grow its user base to 10 million active customers across more than 150 countries worldwide. 

Amazon’s Kuiper, by comparison, has launched approximately 211 satellites to date, as per data from SatelliteMap.Space, some of which were launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Starlink surpassed that number in early January 2020, during the early buildout of its first-generation network.

Lower pricing also aligns with Starlink’s broader expansion strategy. SpaceX continues to deploy satellites at a rapid pace using Falcon 9, and future launches aboard Starship are expected to significantly accelerate the constellation’s growth. A larger network improves capacity and global coverage, which can support a broader customer base.

In that context, price reductions can be viewed as a way to match expanding supply with growing demand. Musk’s companies have historically used aggressive pricing strategies to drive adoption at scale, particularly when vertical integration allows costs to decline over time.

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