SpaceX
SpaceX’s Mr Steven preps for “claw” upgrade for football field-sized net
Photos from Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin show that SpaceX’s Mr. Steven fairing recovery vessel is undergoing extensive upgrades to the arms that secure the catch net, likely in support of what CEO Elon Musk described as a factor-of-four extension of the net’s catching area.
In order to accomplish that fourfold increase in usable area, SpaceX will have to effectively double the reach of Mr Steven’s four ‘limbs’, a significant change that explains why the vessel appears to have had all four arms amputated. Intriguingly, the vessel’s upgrades are taking place at SpaceX’s recently-leased Berth 240, the company’s preferred location for berthing its fleet of rocket recovery vessels, conducting Falcon 9 booster recovery ops, and -eventually – the first Mars rocket factory in 2019.
As of now, it’s unclear what approach SpaceX will take for upgrading Mr Steven’s arms – with only one detached example visible at Berth 240, it appears that the company will either add on to the hardware already built for the boat or start from scratch in order to optimally extend their reach. A new net, of course, will also be needed to span the fourfold increase in area – in other words, up to roughly 6000 square meters, 65,000 square feet, or 1.5 acres. I have little doubt that SpaceX will be able to reliably catch Falcon 9 payload fairings with a net as large or larger than American and European football fields (~1.3 acres vs. ~1.7 acres).

An artist rendering of a Falcon 9 fairing parasailing towards Mr Steven’s net. Original photos by Chuck Bennett (Instagram @chuckbennett) and SpaceX. (Chuck Bennet/SpaceX/Eric Ralph)
SpaceX’s has roughly four weeks until their next West coast launch and thus another opportunity to attempt to catch a Falcon 9 payload fairing. That mission is currently scheduled for early July 20th from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) in Vandenberg Air Force Base. Teslarati’s West coast photographer will continue to check up on Mr Steven to judge whether the vessel will be ready in time for launch.
- One of Mr Steven’s four amputated arms, removed in preparation for upgrades. (Pauline Acalin)
- A sad Mr Steven sits beside Berth 240, sans arms. (Pauline Acalin)
- Berth 240 demolition begins! (Pauline Acalin)
- A Falcon 9 fairing overlooks SpaceX’s Berth 240 construction progress, June 20th. (Pauline Acalin)
BFR factory construction
Meanwhile, serious demolition has begun at Berth 240, likely preparing a number of basic necessities before any major building begins. A giant pile of broken concrete lays witness to that process, likely involving the appraisal, repair, and replacement of utilities and pipe systems currently buried under the facility. Forlorn Falcon 9 payload fairings – pulled intact out of the Pacific Ocean – can be seen stoically looking on while construction crews begin the first steps of a process that will, at least eventually, culminate in the completion of a factory for the rocket that will obsolete Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and their fairings.
Based on land use approvals published in March 2018, the construction will be cut into two phases, with phase one focusing on a smaller, intermediary building capable of support limited Falcon recovery work and potentially initial BFR prototype construction, allowing that process to be moved from the temporary tent it currently is housed in. Phase 2 would see a larger build constructed around the preceding facility, necessitating the demolition of one of Berth 240’s historic buildings. Per the filings, Phase 1 is expected to be finished within 16-18 months of approval, placing its completion sometime in mid to late 2019.
- Note the fencing around the actual foundation site for SpaceX’s proposed BFR factory. (Pauline Acalin)
- Renders of the proposed BFR factory at Berth 240. (SpaceX)
- Blueprints of the proposed BFR factory at Berth 240. (SpaceX)
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck fleet takes over at SpaceX’s Starbase
Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.
Tesla Cybertrucks have taken over at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, as hundreds of the all-electric pickup trucks were spotted late last week rounding out a massive fleet of vehicles.
The Cybertruck fleet is geared toward replacing gas vehicles that are used at Starbase for everyday operations. The only surprise about this is that it was not done sooner:
Was just visiting. pic.twitter.com/5Q9wPPaeuH
— Derek Li (@derek1ee) October 31, 2025
Deliveries have been going on for a few weeks, as Cybertrucks have made their way across the state of Texas from Austin to Starbase so they could be included in SpaceX’s fleet of vehicles at the facility.
Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.
However, there are some other perspectives to consider as SpaceX is utilizing such a massive fleet of Cybertrucks. Some media outlets (unsurprisingly) are seeing this as a move of weakness by both Tesla and SpaceX, as the aerospace company is, in a sense, “bailing out” lagging sales for the all-electric pickup.
It’s no secret that Tesla has struggled with the Cybertruck this year, and deliveries have been underwhelming in the sense that the company was anticipating between 1 million and 2 million orders for the vehicle before it was widely produced.
A lot of things changed with the Cybertruck between its 2019 unveiling and 2023 initial deliveries, most notably, price.
The price of the Cybertruck swelled significantly and priced out many of those who had pre-ordered it. Some have weighed the option of whether this purchase was a way to get rid of sitting inventory.
However, it seems more logical to consider the fact that SpaceX was likely always going to transition to Teslas for its fleet, especially at Starship, at some point.
It doesn’t seem out of the question that one Musk company would utilize another Musk company’s products, especially considering the Cybertruck has been teased as the vehicle that would be present on Mars.
News
SpaceX successfully launches 100th Starlink mission of 2025
With 100 Starlink missions completed for 2025, space enthusiasts have noted that SpaceX has successfully launched 2,554 Starlink satellites so far this year.
SpaceX achieved its 100th Starlink mission of the year on Friday, October 31, marking another milestone for 2025.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink broadband satellites successfully lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:41 p.m. ET, carrying another 28 Starlink satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
Falcon 9 booster’s 29th flight
Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage touched down on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. This marked the booster’s 29th flight, which is approaching SpaceX’s reuse record of 31 missions.
This latest mission adds to SpaceX’s impressive 138 Falcon 9 launches in 2025, 99 of which were dedicated to Starlink, according to Space.com. The company’s focus on reusing boosters has enabled this breakneck pace, with multiple launches each week supporting both Starlink’s expansion and external customers.
Starlink’s network continues massive global expansion
Starlink remains the largest active satellite constellation in history, with more than 10,000 satellites launched, nearly 8,800 of which are currently active. SpaceX recently achieved Starlink’s 10,000-satellite milestone. With 100 Starlink missions completed for 2025, space enthusiasts have noted that SpaceX has successfully launched 2,554 Starlink satellites so far this year.
Starlink, which provides high-speed, low-latency internet connectivity even to the world’s most remote areas, has been proven to be life-changing technology for people across the globe. The service is currently operational in about 150 countries, and it currently has over 5 million subscribers worldwide. From this number, 2.7 million joined over the past year.
SpaceX
SpaceX checks off 49 lunar lander milestones in push toward Artemis III
SpaceX has revealed that it has completed 49 major milestones for NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program, marking significant progress in the development of the Starship lunar lander that will deliver astronauts to the Moon.
The updates were detailed in SpaceX’s new blog post To the Moon and Beyond, which was recently posted on the private space company’s official website.
As noted by SpaceX, the 49 milestones that were completed by its HLS team were “tied to developing the subsystems, infrastructure, and operations” needed to safely land humans back into the lunar surface. SpaceX noted that it has only received funding on contractual milestones that have been successfully completed, the vast majority of which have been achieved on time or ahead of schedule.
Following are highlights of SpaceX’s completed milestones, as per the company’s post.
For the first time in our existence, we possess the means, technology, and, for the moment, the will to establish a permanent human presence beyond Earth. Starship is designed to make this future a reality → https://t.co/dGAZiB4rr3 pic.twitter.com/WsTg44G3oz — SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 30, 2025
- Lunar environmental control and life support and thermal control system demonstrations, using a full-scale cabin module inhabited by multiple people to test the capability to inject oxygen and nitrogen into the cabin environment and accurately manage air distribution and sanitation, along with humidity and thermal control. The test series also measured the acoustic environments inside the cabin
- Docking adapter qualification of the docking system that will link Starship and Orion in space, an androgynous SpaceX docking system capable of serving as the active system or passive system and based on the flight-proven Dragon 2 active docking system
- Landing leg drop test of a full-scale article at flight energies onto simulated lunar regolith to verify system performance and to study foot-to-regolith interaction
- Raptor lunar landing throttle test demonstrating a representative thrust profile that would allow Starship to land on the lunar surface
- Micrometeoroid and orbital debris testing of shielding, insulation, and window panels, analyzing different material stackups that will be used to protect Starship from impact hazards and harsh thermal conditions
- Landing software, sensor, and radar demonstrations testing navigation and sensing hardware and software that will be used by Starship to locate and safely descend to a precise landing site on the Moon
- Software architecture review to define the schematic of major vehicle control processes, what physical computers they will run on, and software functions for critical systems like fault detection, caution and warning alerts, and command and telemetry control
- Raptor cold start demonstrations using both sea-level and vacuum-optimized Raptor engines that are pre-chilled prior to startup to simulate the thermal conditions experienced after an extended time in space
- Integrated lunar mission operations plan review, covering how SpaceX and NASA will conduct integrated operations, develop flight rules and crew procedures, and the high-level mission operation plan
- Depot power module demonstration, testing prototype electrical power generation and distribution systems planned to be used on the propellant depot variant of Starship
- Ground segment and radio frequency (RF) communications demonstration, testing the capability to send and receive RF communications between a flight-equivalent ground station and a flight-equivalent vehicle RF system
- Elevator and airlock demonstration, which was conducted in concert with Axiom to utilize flight-representative pressurized EVA suits, to practice full operation of the crew elevator which will be used to transfer crew and cargo between Starship and the lunar surface
- Medical system demonstration covering the crew medical system on Starship and the telemedicine capability between the ground and crew
- Hardware in the loop testbed activation for the propellant transfer flight test which uses a testbed with flight representative hardware to run simulations for the upcoming propellant transfer flight test
Ultimately, SpaceX’s message is clear. With its plans for a simplified architecture, the timeframe of the first crewed lunar landing of the current century could happen sooner than expected.
Musk definitely seems determined to prove skeptics wrong, with the CEO declaring on X that Starship will be the vehicle that would pave the way for the buildout of a base on the Moon. “Starship will build Moonbase Alpha,” Musk wrote.
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