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SpaceX’s used Falcon Heavy booster shown off in stunning detail [Gallery]
Less than two weeks after SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy performed a simultaneous first-stage landing, the Elon Musk-led space company has completed the process of recovering the massive rocket’s two side boosters, both of which can now lay claim to supporting two separate orbital missions. However, while fascinating in its own right, more interesting is the fact that SpaceX has chosen to very publicly display one of those two boosters front and center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center (KSCVC).
It is likely no coincidence that the National Space Council is scheduled to have their second-ever meeting at Kennedy Space Center this Wednesday. One can readily imagine that SpaceX’s vast, sooty, flight-proven Falcon rockets can be quite an imposing and impressive sight, and it appears that the launch company is hoping to thoroughly impress the Space Council on Wednesday.
- Falcon Heavy’s side booster on display at the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- This side booster is Core 1025, the same booster that launched and landed during the CRS-9 Cargo Dragon mission in 2016. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- A beautiful sunset eclipsed by SpaceX’s equally beautiful flight-proven Falcon Heavy booster. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
Regardless of odd and interesting jockeying, the Falcon Heavy booster display is an absolutely unprecedented opportunity in SpaceX history, and Teslarati’s East coast photographer Tom Cross jumped on it. This rocket display is easily the first time the general public has ever been allowed to get so close to fresh rocket hardware, let alone the entire booster of a brand new launch vehicle. Tom has captured some extraordinarily detailed photos of various flight-proven rocket hardware, ranging from titanium grid fins to Merlin engines and even more esoteric parts, like landing leg connecting points.
Titanium grid fins
Appearing nearly unscathed after exposure to reentry temperatures that are often less kind to aluminum, SpaceX’s second flight-test of titanium grid fins has been a resounding success. It’s been hinted by CEO Elon Musk that these massive pieces of cast metal are probably the most expensive individual components on a Falcon 9, and they certainly look every bit the part. Check out these pieces of metalworking art in the best detail yet.

Falcon rockets are constructed largely of aluminum and painted with compounds that are designed to burn off under the heat of reentry, known as ablation. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- Falcon Heavy side booster 1025’s flight-proven nose con and grid fins, girdled by one of SpaceX’s rocket transporters. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- RIP B1044’s titanium grid fins. May they make a happy little reef at the bottom of the ocean. (Tom Cross)
- Note the serial number, this grid fin appears to be the 3rd titanium fin ever produced- SN00003. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- Details of the grid fin. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- Rather menacing, eh? (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- The sinuous curves of the grid fins allow them to better attack the air at the highest pressure points during reentry. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- They also happen to look incredibly beautiful. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
Merlin engines and octaweb details
Taking the brunt of the force and heat of reentry, Falcon Heavy booster 1025’s business end is a powerful display of the intense environment SpaceX’s rockets must survive in order to successfully find their way to land (or sea). Around each Merlin engine is an insulating ceramic fiber blanket intended to protect the more sensitive components of rocket plumbing from the intense heat and buffeting experienced by the engine bells. The octaweb and engine area is also lined with a fair amount of cork – yes, the same material you cork a wine bottle with – designed to sap up the heat of reentry and often ablate. This simple material has worked incredibly well for the rocket company, although it is considerably less than reusable, and likely has to be replaced each launch. Falcon 9 Block 5, expected to begin integrated testing in Texas just days from now, will likely switch to a more reusable material for its octaweb heat shield.

Falcon Heavy booster 1025’s well-worn octaweb. The Merlin engines are underneath their blue cozies. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)

A beautiful capture of one of the booster’s nine Merlin engines, showing off the pipe used to cool the engine bell, as well as the ceramic blanket that protects its more sensitive plumbing. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- All nine Merlin 1Ds displayed with their adorable cozies. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- Falcon Heavy side booster B1025 gives a sense of the sheer brutality of reentry conditions. (Tom Cross)
- An incredibly detail shot of the side of the octaweb. The large chunk of smooth metal in the center is actually one of the booster’s connection points to the Falcon Heavy center core. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- SpaceX’s 338th Merlin engine on display. This particular component circulates cold propellant around the engine bell to cool it down. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- A beautiful capture of one of the booster’s nine Merlin engines, showing off the pipe used to cool the engine bell, as well as the ceramic blanket that protects its more sensitive plumbing. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
- Note the pieces of cork that have been torn off by the buffeting and heat on the lefthand side. (Tom Cross)
Ultimately, this Falcon Heavy booster display is an incredible show of force to the National Space Council, as well as an extraordinary opportunity and inspiration for KSC visitors. Teslarati photographer Tom Cross has given us one of the most detailed looks yet at a complete SpaceX rocket, not to mention such a historic and flight-proven specimen.
The National Space Council meets early tomorrow morning (10:00 am EST, Feb. 21), and will be live-streamed here. SpaceX’s very own President and COO Gwynne Shotwell is expected to be in attendance, and will likely present a brief statement to the council.
Be sure to follow Teslarati’s space team for exclusive backstage access to SpaceX, coast-to-coast:
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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.
Elon Musk
Tesla reveals Optimus Academy, where robots teach themselves
Tesla has begun building production quality Optimus robots in Fremont and revealed its training plan.
Tesla has started building Optimus on the high volume line it set up inside its Fremont factory, and the company says the robots coming off it are the first that meet the bar for a real product. “The bots coming off this line are the first production-quality bots that we have manufactured,” Tesla wrote in its third quarter shareholder letter, adding that it has “proven that the current manufacturing process for Optimus is suitable for a commercial product.”
The line sits in space that built the Model S and Model X until this spring. Tesla cleared the old vehicle line in 46 days, as Teslarati reported in July, to make room for robot production sized for one million units a year. On Wednesday’s earnings call, Elon Musk said most of the equipment for that capacity is already in Fremont, with output set to climb toward roughly 20,000 robots a week as the line ramps.
Musk described the ramp as a classic S curve. “The growth of Optimus is an S curve, but the initial curve is a shallow slope,” he said. The team is now refining the robot’s AI, electromechanical design, reliability and service life, and Musk expects that work to be finished by the end of next year, when Tesla plans to start delivering Optimus to outside companies for dangerous, repetitive and around the clock jobs.
The most interesting part of the call was how Tesla plans to teach the robots. Its cars send real driving data back to the AI team from millions of vehicles, but Optimus has no fleet like that yet. “A big difference with Optimus versus the cars is we don’t have this vast fleet of cars from which we can gather training data,” Musk said. Tesla’s answer is an Optimus Academy, where 10,000 to 20,000 robots will practice a wide range of tasks and feed what they learn into the next version of the model. Every unit off the Fremont line becomes a source of that training data.
Smarter hardware is on the way too. Tesla plans to put its AI5 chip into Optimus next year, and Musk said a new Optimus video should arrive within one or two months showing the robot completing tasks driven by AI rather than preprogrammed motions. He took aim at rival humanoid demos that only run scripted routines, saying those would not hold up in the real world.
The supply chain is lining up behind the program. In September, Tesla certified Tuopu, Joyson and Sanhua as mass production partners for Optimus components. A far larger Optimus factory is also rising at Giga Texas, where drone footage from Joe Tegtmeyer showed the steel frame nearing completion, and Musk has pegged that plant’s long term target at 10 million robots a year.
Tesla executives also said Optimus production costs are trending toward the expected manufacturing cost of Cybercab, a sign the robot is being engineered for volume from the start. The hands remain the toughest piece of the design, a point Musk also made at the X Takeover event earlier this month, as Teslarati covered at the time, and that is where much of the current engineering effort is focused.
















