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SpaceX ‘tops off’ its South Texas Starship prototype with one final steel dome
On September 14th, South Texas SpaceX technicians lifted Starship Mk1’s third and final tank dome and began to attach it atop the prototype’s steel tank section, this time making use of a new method of integration.
This progress comes just two weeks before CEO Elon Musk is expected to present a detailed update on Starship’s newest design iteration. Musk is hopeful that – come his September 28th presentation – Starship Mk1 will be nearly complete and ready for its inaugural flight, a milestone that could come as early as October 13th according to Starship documents filed with the FCC.
This latest installation is likely either the last ring (or nearly so) to be stacked on top of Starship Mk1, paving the way for the eventual attachment of the spacecraft’s conical nose section and the fleshing out of its many internal subsystems and aerodynamic control surfaces. This particular milestone involved the attachment of Starship’s third and final tank bulkhead – in this case, the upper dome of the prototype’s liquid oxygen tank. Excluding hardware that might eventually be installed on the dome itself, this means that Starship Mk1’s tank and engine section has essentially been ‘topped off’.
As previously estimated by the author, this particular tank dome installation – the fifth completed by SpaceX’s Mk1 and Mk2 Starship teams – was done in a manner thus far unique. All previous installations have seen SpaceX technicians lower the domes – completed aside from one vertical weld for flexibility – inside the Starship’s cylindrical tank section. The steel domes are then carefully spot-welded to the side of the tank in their proper place – all while being supported by a large crane – before technicians can complete a seamless ring weld around their entire circumference.
This time around, SpaceX welded the upper tank dome to its companion ring section while both elements were still staged on the ground. Once the dome was completely welded to the steel ring and a dome cap was installed to seal off the top, the ring segment was craned atop Starhip Mk1 on September 14th. It’s possible that this was planned all along for each Starship’s third and final tank dome, but the way CEO Elon Musk has previously described SpaceX’s semi-competitive Mk1 and Mk2 builds suggests that it may instead be a new assembly strategy that evolved in just the last month or two.
Instead of having to do the work of fitting, attaching, and ring-welding the bulkhead to Starship’s tank section 50-100 feet above ground, with all the associated rigging, scaffolding, and challenges such a work environment demands, technicians were able to do the majority of that work at ground-level. This method seems to offload the added challenge of dome installation to the vertical ring installation process, effectively merging the two processes into one much simpler (and safer) feat.
The fact that Starship Mk1’s tank section has now been capped (aside from several small access ports) indicates that all large, plumbing-related components have been installed inside the steel prototype. Up next for Starship Mk1 is the installation of its landing legs/fins/wings (at least two of which have already arrived on-site), canards, and a variety of smaller additions like valves, thrusters, ground connection points, and much more.
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Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
Tesla stock closes at all-time high on heels of Robotaxi progress
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
