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SpaceX just finished its third Starship rocket in two months and a fourth is on the way

SpaceX just finished its third full-scale Starship prototype in a handful of months. (NASASpaceflight - bocachicagal)

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5 years ago

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SpaceX just rolled a completed Starship prototype to the launch pad for the third time in two months and began stacking the next rocket just hours after its assembly facilities were vacated.

SpaceX began building the latest Starship prototype – known as serial number 4 (SN4) – around March 23rd. Exactly 31 days later, SpaceX lifted the vast steel rocket onto a Roll Lift transporter and carried it roughly a mile down the road to the company’s Boca Chica, Texas test and launch facilities. In just a few hours, technicians lifted the rocket off its transporter and onto a fixed launch mount made out of thick steel beams, expediency made possible partly by the addition of new mounting points and hold-down clamps.

Sitting atop the late Starship SN3 prototype’s salvaged skirt, landing leg, and service section, the fate of Starship SN4 remains to be seen and the path it has taken to the pad is paved with the remains of several former prototypes. For the most part, that should be a positive aspect. Given how apparent it is that SpaceX is very quickly learning from past mistakes, SN4 has the best chance yet of successfully passing its proof tests and graduating into Raptor static fire and (perhaps) flight testing. However, if things don’t go as planned, SpaceX is perhaps just a week or two away from completing the next prototype – Starship SN5.

Starship SN4 rolled to the launch pad on Thursday, April 23rd, exactly one month after work on the rocket began. (Elon Musk)

A few hours after SpaceX lifted Starship SN4 onto its steel launch mount, CEO Elon Musk revealed an aerial photo of the rocket and its pad facilities taken with a drone. Recently painted gray and refurbished to undo damage done by Starship SN3’s April 3rd, that mount is currently configured with a strong metal frame and three powerful hydraulic rams. A nearly identical jig was damaged during SN3’s last test when a minor tsunamic of liquid nitrogen – used to safely simulate ultra-cold and explosive liquid oxygen and methane propellant – washed over the mount after the rocket burst.

Much like an ice cube can violently crack and pop when it rapidly changes temperature, untreated steel (almost always cheaper than the alternative) can also be catastrophically damaged by rapid temperature changes (thermal shock). This appears to be exactly what happened to the first hydraulic ram mount, which had visible cracks in photos taken after Starship SN3’s April 3rd demise.

Starship SN4 was installed on top of a launch mount and hydraulic ram stand on April 23rd. (NASASpaceflight – bocachicagal)

SpaceX appears to have had no issue at all acquiring a replacement in a matter of weeks and it arrived and was installed several days ago. The purpose of the hardware is relatively simple: simulate the stresses one or three Raptor engines will create when ignited and ensure Starship’s ‘thrust puck’ and engine section can survive those stresses while filled with cryogenic liquid methane.

Each ram attaches to the thrust puck with the same hardware an actual Raptor uses, including the rods each engine needs for thrust vector control (TVC; i.e. active steering). In the event that Starship SN4 passes its cryogenic proof test(s) and engine stress simulation(s) with flying colors, SpaceX has already built, acceptance-tested, and shipped three Raptor engines to Boca Chica, where they are waiting inside an assembly tent for their call to action.

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Once a Starship prototype passes acceptance testing and three Raptor engines can be installed, it will be a first for SpaceX’s next-generation rocket engine. For example, if SN4 makes it through testing and is ready to proceed into static fire operations, it will be the first time Raptor has operated in a multi-engine setup – always a significant milestone for any launch vehicle, including SpaceX’s own Falcon 9 and Merlin engines.

In case SN4 does make it to the other side, SpaceX is already prepared with both road closures and NOTAMs (Notices To Airmen) for static fire and hop tests spread out over the next week or so.

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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 new Robotaxi geofence shape is an FU by Elon Musk to the competition

Maybe it’s all pareidolia. But maybe it’s not. After all, Tesla embraced the first geofence expansion for what it appeared to be.

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6 hours ago

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August 4, 2025

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tesla austin robotaxi geofence and elon musk laugh from meme review

Tesla expanded its Robotaxi geofence in Austin once again early Sunday morning. The new shape seems to be somewhat of a proverbial, and potentially literal, middle finger to the competition.

If you thought the first expansion was a message to the competition and doubters of the company’s ride-hailing service, you probably will believe the second expansion is an even stronger gesture.

Tesla’s first expansion did not go unnoticed, as its shape was particularly recognizable. The company has always operated with a sense of humor, and it embraced what it did. Some, including me, took it as a message to competitors: We can expand in any direction, in any size, at any time. We’ll prove it.”

They picked a shape and went with it:

Tesla’s Robotaxi expansion wasn’t a joke, it was a warning to competitors

It is evident that Tesla is keeping its humor up to continue to show a few things. The first is that it really can expand in any direction it wants and that’s how it is choosing to show it.

The second, well, maybe it’s an edgier way to show doubters that it is really executing on Robotaxi:

Maybe it’s all pareidolia. But maybe it’s not. After all, Tesla embraced the first geofence expansion for what it appeared to be. This might be a similar occurrence, and it might be sending another message to the competition, critics, and doubters.

The expansion was a near-doubling of the geofence Tesla offered previously. After the initial geofence covered just about 20 square miles, Tesla was able to more than double it to 42 square miles with the first growth. This new geofence shape was just under double, and is about 80 square miles.

Tesla’s rapid expansion has impressed many, especially considering the service area has roughly doubled for the second time in well under two months. The Robotaxi service was first offered on June 22.

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Tesla executes ‘a must’ with Musk as race to AI supremacy goes on: Wedbush

Dan Ives of Wedbush says Tesla made the right move getting Elon Musk his pay package.

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9 hours ago

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August 4, 2025

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Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) executed what Wedbush’s Dan Ives called “a must” this morning as it finalized a new pay package for its CEO Elon Musk.

The move helped give Musk his first meaningful compensation at Tesla since 2017, when the company offered a pay package that was based on performance and proven growth. That package was approved by shareholders on two separate occasions, but was denied to Musk both times by the Delaware Chancery Court.

On Monday, Tesla announced on X that it had created a new package that would give 96 million shares of restricted stock to Musk to compensate him for the “immense value generated for Tesla and all our shareholders.”

The details of the pay package are designed to retain Musk, who has voiced some concerns about his control of Tesla, as “activist shareholders” have used lawsuits to disrupt the previously approved package.

You can read all the details of it here:

Tesla rewards CEO Elon Musk with massive, restricted stock package

Ives says Musk’s retention is ‘a must’

Ives said in a note to investors on Monday that with the raging AI talent war that Tesla made a smart move by doing what it could to retain Musk.

He wrote:

“With the AI talent war now fully underway across Big Tech, we believe this was a strategic move to keep TSLA’s top asset, Musk, would stay focused at the company with his priority being to bolster the company’s growth strategy over the coming years. With this interim award increasing Musk’s voting rights upon this grant, which Musk honed in on and mentioned was increasingly important to incentivize him to stay focused on the matters at hand, this was a strategic move by the Board to solidify Musk as CEO of Tesla over the coming years with this framework for Musk’s pay package and greater voting control removing a major overhang on the story.”

He went on to say:

“While the groundwork is now in place for the next few years, it will be critical for the Tesla Board of Directors to get this long-term compensation strategy in place prior to the company’s November 6th shareholder meeting which would address the elephant in the room and remove a significant overhang on the stock.”

Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating and its $500 price target on the stock.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk reveals ideal timeline for insane self-driving feature

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has extremely optimistic expectations for Full Self-Driving progress by the end of 2025.

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12 hours ago

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August 4, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed his ideal timeline for what would likely be the most insane self-driving feature: the ability for drivers to play video games at the wheel.

There are a handful of videos out there of drivers already performing this task. Nobody using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite should perform these activities, as the company maintains the system is not fully autonomous.

Drivers are responsible for the vehicle and should be prepared to take over.

Tesla has put a lot of faith in its development of Full Self-Driving and has made tremendous strides over the past few years. Capabilities have gotten more refined and accurate through various methods, including data collection and hardware improvements.

Tesla kicks Robotaxi geofence expansion into high gear in Austin

It has gotten so good that Tesla launched a Robotaxi platform in Austin, Texas, on June 22. Passengers can hop in the back of a Model Y and will be transported around the city in a confined geofence that is about 90 square miles in size. There is nobody in the driver’s seat, but there is a Safety Monitor in the passenger’s seat.

Tesla launched a similar experience in California’s Bay Area last week, but the company has placed the Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat for that region for the time being.

Eventually, Tesla will get to a point where no monitor is needed, and the vehicles will be able to drive themselves. Many believe that it is a few years away, but Musk believes Tesla could achieve it very soon.

After a video of someone playing Grand Theft Auto in their Cybertruck while operating Full Self-Driving was shared on the social media platform X, Musk said this capability would be available in “probably 3 to 6 months, depending on regulatory approval in your city and state.”

It is important to remember that Musk has been very optimistic regarding autonomy timelines with Tesla projects. We heard for many years that the company would have self-driving vehicles “by the end of the year,” and those projects did not come to fruition.

While there was progress, there were no fully autonomous vehicles or software versions for customers.

With that being said, Tesla has made tremendous strides in its quest for autonomous vehicles this year, and launching a Robotaxi platform was a huge step in the right direction.

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