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SpaceX tests Starhopper’s maneuvering thrusters ahead of inaugural flight test
Late at night on July 22nd, SpaceX’s South Texas team of technicians and engineers were busy testing a small but critical component of Starhopper, a testbed and low-fidelity Starship prototype meant to attempt its first untethered flight test as early as July 24th.
Monday evening’s testing centered around Starhopper’s cold gas nitrogen thrusters, multi-nozzle assemblies that appear to have quite literally been taken off of flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters. For Starhopper, they will act in a similar – albeit significantly reduced – fashion, serving to control the giant steel prototype’s attitude and augment its lone Raptor engine’s own thrust vectoring (i.e. steering) capability.
Although SpaceX has never released official numbers for the thrust of the cold gas thrusters used on Falcon 9 boosters and upper stages, it’s safe to say from their performance that the low-efficiency nitrogen thrusters produce roughly 5 kN (~1100 lbf) of thrust, perhaps up to 10+ kN. For an almost empty Falcon 9 booster, this translates to extremely rapid (sub-10s) flip maneuvers during return-to-launch-site (RTLS) landings.
At the same time, Falcon boosters have two sizes of cold-gas thrusters, with much larger high-performance (>10 kN) pods – located on the larger of the booster’s two raceways – focused on settling the rocket’s propellant after recovery-related coast periods. A duo of smaller 3-axis pods situated on the outside of the interstage serve as true attitude control system (ACS) thrusters, precisely pointing, flipping, and orienting boosters during vacuum operations and partially augmenting grid fin control authority during the late stages of landings. Despite their much smaller size, they still pack an impressive punch and are famous for almost saving tipping Falcon boosters during early (failed) landing attempts.
Starhopper, meanwhile, is dramatically larger than the Falcon 9 and Heavy boosters its tacked-on ACS thruster pods were designed for. It’s hard to know for sure but safe estimates peg the testbed’s dry mass somewhere around 50-75 metric tons (110,000-165,000 lb) thanks to the thick steel it was constructed out of. In other words, Starhopper likely weighs at least twice as much as an empty Falcon 9 booster (~25 metric tons).
To alleviate this mismatch, SpaceX arrived at a hilariously simple and cheap solution: install double the number of grave-robbed Falcon 9 thruster pods on Starhopper and voila! It was that duo of thruster pod pairs that were tested on July 22nd, visibly producing four distinct jets of pressurized nitrogen gas. Whenever Starhopper gets to hopping, those ACS thrusters should help the rocket precisely control its rotation, attitude, and – to a lesser extent – translation, hopefully helping to ensure a successful inaugural hover and divert test.
Scheduled to occur no earlier than Wednesday, July 24th, SpaceX plans to deconflict Cargo Dragon’s CRS-18 launch and Starhopper’s hover test, meaning that they will not happen simultaneously. In the ~70%-likely event that bad Florida weather delays CRS-18 to Thursday, July 25th, the road before Starhopper will be clear for an attempted hover on the 24th. Additionally, also reported first by NASASpaceflight.com, the test is expected to involve a divert, meaning that Starhopper will lift off, hover roughly 20m (65 ft) off the ground, and then carefully travel a few hundred feet East to a recently-constructed concrete pad for a soft landing.
Note they will want to deconflict with CRS-18, so if that launch is still on (dodgy weather) then perhaps hours before, or after launch? OR, *personal wish!!* go from CRS-18 webcast and then pad cameras at Boca Chica on the SpaceX webcast! ?➡️?— Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) July 23, 2019
This divert was tacitly confirmed by the arrival of a robotic transport mechanism, already used once before to move Starhopper from its build site to the launch pad. If the divert goes as planned, the transport equipment will be used to return Starhopper to its spartan launch mount and ground support equipment (GSE) umbilicals.
If Starhopper survives and Raptor SN06 performs nominally, it’s all but certain that the testbed rocket will be put through a series of increasingly ambitious test flights over the coming months – at least before SpaceX’s first higher-fidelity “Mk 1” Starship prototypes begin their own flight tests. According to CEO Elon Musk, those Starship test hops and flights could begin as few as 2-3 months from now – September or October 2019.
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Tesla Cybercabs take over Austin’s F1 weekend
Tesla Cybercabs swarmed Austin’s F1 Grand Prix as sightings hit a record during race weekend.
Tesla’s driverless Cybercabs used the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin as their biggest public stress test yet. On Sunday afternoon, Tesla head of AI software Ashok Elluswamy quoted a photo from X user Ben Steindl showing a long line of gold Cybercabs and Model Y Robotaxis stacked up on a road near Circuit of the Americas. “Robotaxis as far as the eye can see!” Elluswamy wrote. Steindl’s original post was more matter of fact: “@Tesla @robotaxi is busy for the Austin F1.”
The fleet also handled the trip home. The race started at 3 p.m. Central, and once it ended, Cybercab Spotter, an account that logs Cybercab sightings around Austin, posted that “People are requesting Cybercabs to get home.”
Robotaxis as far as the eye can see! 🤩
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) October 25, 2026
Tesla set this up days in advance without announcing it. Late on October 22, rider David Moss posted Robotaxi app screenshots showing the Austin service area wrapping around the track toward Elroy and FM 812, with ride requests open until 1 a.m. A banner in the app read “Last call is 1am · Limited to nearby dropoffs.” Austin rides ended at 11 p.m. as recently as early October, as Teslarati reported, before moving to midnight on October 17.
Not every rider got dropped at the gate. Early app searches showed spots like COTA Karting as “Service blocked,” and one rider who took a Cybercab to the track Friday said the rideshare area was less than a 20 minute walk from the front gate.
The weekend also produced a new activity record. Cybercab Spotter counted 1,250 Cybercab sightings in Austin on Saturday, qualifying day. The previous high was 1,072 on October 16. Sightings count the same car more than once, so they measure how busy the fleet is rather than how big it is. For size, the Texas automated vehicle registry listed 463 Cybercabs at midday Sunday, up from the 300+ Tesla claimed on October 10, when Elluswamy also said Dallas is next for Cybercab.
The track was out of reach for Tesla’s main rival. Waymo runs in Austin only through Uber, and its service area stops well short of COTA. Waymo did not announce any race day service.
Tesla has not said how many rides it gave to and from the circuit, or whether the expanded zone and 1 a.m. cutoff will stay after race weekend. On the third quarter earnings call, Elluswamy said 2 a.m. service is coming “pretty soon” and that Tesla plans to run Robotaxi around the clock before the end of the year. The company is also aiming to hand the first Cybercabs to customers before 2026 ends, which would put cars like these outside Tesla’s own fleet for the first time.
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Tesla makes good on its Cybercab promise in just two weeks
Tesla Cybercab riders can now pull up a rear camera view and darken the screen.
Tesla has given Cybercab passengers a way to see what is behind them, along with a way to turn the cabin screen off entirely.
Riders in Austin can now bring up a live rearview camera feed on the Cybercab’s center display in the middle of a trip. Austin rider Ethan McKanna spotted the change late Friday night, posting from a ride that “You can now open the camera to view what’s behind you in Cybercab!” His photo shows a strip of rear camera video across the top of the screen, with another Cybercab following on a bridge. Sawyer Merritt shared the image Saturday and wrote that it “sounds like” there is also a new quiet mode that darkens the entire screen for riders who want to relax, sleep, or avoid a bright display at night.
The camera view goes beyond the rear feed. Tesla UI software engineer Evan, who posts as @CarCoder, replied to McKanna with a tip: “You can also tap it to see more cameras, and swipe it up or down to hide and show.” Until now, the Cybercab only showed its rear and repeater feeds on the “Please Exit Safely” screen at the end of a ride, so passengers could check for cyclists and traffic before opening a door.
Quiet mode surfaced a day earlier. Austin rider Jackson Blatz posted a video Friday morning of the new Robotaxi interface in a Cybercab with the option. Tesla has not published release notes for either feature.
The rear camera view moved quickly from request to release. Earlier this month, Cybercab rider Dan Burkland asked Tesla to let passengers pull up the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Evan answered “In development,” as Teslarati reported at the time. About two weeks later, riders have it.
The feature fills a gap created by the Cybercab’s design. With no steering wheel, no pedals, no mirrors and no rear window, a passenger has no natural way to glance behind the car. The eight exterior cameras that feed Tesla’s autonomy software were already on board, so the change only required software.
There is also an AI angle to how it was built. Yun-Ta Tsai, a senior staff engineer on Tesla’s AI team, quoted Merritt’s post and wrote that the “(human) camera view tuning is optimized with Grok and implements part of the algorithm by directly programming the fixed-function hardware, so I don’t even need to check the datasheet.” Tsai did not say which part of the algorithm Grok handled. Grok already plays a bigger role inside the vehicle, with Grok Bot now enabled across every Cybercab and the Model Y Robotaxi fleet after Tesla brought the agent into its cars in September.
The two features join a busy week of changes for riders in Austin, which also brought a redesigned Live Activity for iPhone and Apple Watch and live trip sharing. They also arrive as Tesla prepares the Cybercab for life outside its own fleet. On the third quarter earnings call, Lars Moravy said the company is aiming to deliver Cybercabs to customers before the end of 2026. Tesla has not said whether the camera view and quiet mode will also come to its Model Y Robotaxis.
Elon Musk
Tesla shows what Roadster drivers will see on screen before thruster activation
Tesla’s Roadster video reveals a fighter jet inspired cockpit with a 5,500 PSI thruster gauge.
Tesla has given future owners their clearest look yet at the cockpit of its next generation Roadster. In a 34 second video posted to X on Friday afternoon, the company walked through the car’s touchscreen with a caption: “Inspired by fighter jet cockpits, Roadster’s interface was designed around the pilot.”
The clip opens on a black screen with red graphics and a 3D wireframe of the car, which sits beside the Roadster’s squared off yoke. Tapping parts of the model brings up controls for the rear wing, including low drag and high downforce positions, along with a charging page with a charge limit bar and a small music player. A row of tabs along the bottom reads Home, Vehicle, Listen, Climate and Navigate.
Most of the video is spent in Track Mode. The dashboard shows a live circuit map, a list of session lap times, brake and motor temperatures, and pressure and temperature readouts for each tire. A setup page lets the driver pick Auto, Low Drag, High Downforce or Custom aero modes, adjust aero balance and brake balance, and switch stability and traction control off. Along the bottom, a status bar reads “Thruster · 5,500 PSI” next to a “Boost Ready” indicator.
That gauge ties the software to the hardware Tesla showed off near Waco, Texas on October 15. The Thrust and Rocket versions use cold gas thrusters fed by carbon overwrapped pressure vessels, and Tesla lists 0 to 60 mph times of under 0.9 seconds and under 0.59 seconds for them, as Teslarati detailed in its breakdown of the three Roadster configurations. The base Performance car relies on a fan and ground sealing system for grip, and the aero settings on screen match the active wings and suction setup covered in our look at how the Roadster generates downforce.
The Roadster layout is a departure from the rest of Tesla’s lineup. Instead of a map centered screen, the Roadster puts the car itself at the center of the home page, and Tesla’s Roadster page lists two smaller forward displays alongside the main touchscreen. Tesla has not said whether any of the Track Mode telemetry will make its way to the Model 3 Performance or other vehicles.
The interface could still change before deliveries. Elon Musk said at the event that Roadster production will begin in 2028, and Tesla says the flagship Rocket version is not approved for public road use. Reservations are open with a $50,000 payment, while Thrust is listed as a limited release and Rocket is invite only.
Those who want to see the car in person will get their first chance this weekend. The Roadster goes on display in the lobby of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles from October 24 to 27, according to Sawyer Merritt, the first time the public will be able to view it up close.
Tesla Cybercabs take over Austin’s F1 weekend
Tesla makes good on its Cybercab promise in just two weeks
