News
SpaceX’s Starlink internet a step closer to customers as “user terminal” hiring ramps up
As SpaceX prepares to kick off an aggressive Starlink launch campaign in the next month or two, the company is also aggressively hiring build teams that will engineer and mass-produce crucial ground-based hardware, ranging from ground stations and mobile applications to the “user terminals” that will go in customer homes.
The proposed Starlink satellite internet constellation will be comprised of up to 12,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and is designed to provide low latency high-speed broadband internet service the world over. Company CEO Elon Musk has previously discussed that a major focus of the constellation would be to provide reliable and fast internet service to rural and remote locations where existing service may be far too expensive or unreliable.
Over the last 6-12 months, an array of job listings have advertised well over a hundred new positions related to Starlink, with a recent trend towards prioritization of user terminal production at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, CA headquarters. SpaceX is also looking to expand its software development workforce to mature the software needed for user terminals and create a range of other customer-facing products, including a “Starlink Mobile” app for both Android and iOS devices.
Similar to current satellite TV and internet solutions, SpaceX’s Starlink internet service will require ground-based receivers – “user terminals” – at their location of use. By all appearances, SpaceX may also have plans to integrate a WiFi router directly into the terminal to make the user experience as seamless as possible, but it’s just as likely that SpaceX will simply include ports for users to connect their own routers. Musk has previously stated that the user terminals will use phased arrays antennas that will allow them to stay motionless on the ground while electronically ‘steering’ to ensure the best possible satellite connection.
The user terminals will be the connect-all hardware point that will “sit in (Starlink) customers’ homes” to “bridge the gap between OS software, flight software, antenna software, and modem software.” Presumably, the User Terminals will be far more advanced than current access modems and will also encompass a router that would allow satellite wifi service throughout the area of access. Past statements indicate that SpaceX intends for the terminals to be roughly the size of a small pizza box.
In line with user terminal planning, SpaceX has also begun hiring developers for a Starlink Mobile application. This will enable customers to enjoy “a seamless experience managing their accounts and internet access”, presumably offering something akin to the experience that current Tesla customers have with Tesla’s mobile apps.
The current Tesla app is a comprehensive experience that allows user monitoring and customization of every aspect of their Tesla products inclusing vehicles and Powerwall energy systems. The experience guides the user from set-up to everyday use of their various Tesla products.
From the senior software engineer job listing, it can be assumed that the Starlink Mobile app will be comparable to the Tesla app. The advertised position will “bring to life the mobile portal into Starlink.” It’s very likely that the Starlink Mobile app will allow the user to monitor device connections, download and upload speeds, and other customer-specific experiences such as account access and billing. The app will be built completely in-house and from the ground up to ensure that it is specified and tailored to meet the various requirements of a comprehensive and quality customer experience.
SpaceX is expected to ramp up the development and manufacturing of all Starlink supportive ground systems within the coming weeks and months. The advertised positions are all located in California – the software development and manufacturing of User Terminal Teams based in Hawthorne while the mobile application software engineer position is located in Los Angeles.
According to President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX aspires to launch 2-4 more missions in 2019 and as many as 24 dedicated Starlink missions in 2020 alone, roughly translating to a Starlink launch ever two weeks. Customer launches would occur in the interim and SpaceX has made it clear that customers will come first, with Starlink missions then filling in the gaps left in SpaceX’s commercial manifest.
SpaceX ultimately believes that it can begin serving customers after as few as 6-8 launches with 60 Starlink satellites apiece, while initial global coverage will require 24 launches. Beyond those milestones, more launches (involving anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000+ additional satellites) would simply add bandwidth and allow SpaceX to expand its customer base and distribute additional capacity based on demand.
SpaceX’s next two Starlink missions are scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-November and December 2019.
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk shuts down talk of TSMC taking over Terafab
Musk says Tesla and SpaceX will build and run Terafab, with TSMC limited to renting.
Elon Musk has drawn a firm line around who will be in charge of Terafab, the giant chip factory Tesla and SpaceX are planning in Texas.
Musk replied to a post on X arguing that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) would most likely end up owning and operating the plant. “No, we will build and run the fab. Let there be ZERO doubt about that,” Musk wrote. “Maybe TSMC subleases part of the Terafab if they want, but nothing more than that.”
In plain terms, a sublease means TSMC could rent a section of the complex to make chips, similar to a tenant renting one floor of an office tower. The building, the equipment decisions and the daily operation would stay with Tesla and SpaceX.
@herbertong @thejefflutz No, we will build and run the fab. Let there be ZERO doubt about that.
Maybe TSMC subleases part of the Terafab if they want, but nothing more than that.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 7, 2026
The comment shuts down speculation that started last week. On October 2, tech journalist Tim Culpan reported that TSMC was exploring ways to help run Terafab’s factories. Musk responded the next day that it was “just discussions, but something may come of it,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That left room for a scenario where the world’s largest contract chipmaker took the wheel. Musk’s latest post closes that door.
Some background helps explain why this matters. Tesla designs its own AI chips today but pays outside companies like TSMC and Samsung to manufacture them. Musk unveiled Terafab in March as a joint project between Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, arguing that existing suppliers cannot expand fast enough to meet his companies’ future demand. The goal is to produce enough chips each year to supply one terawatt of computing power, roughly 50 times what the entire global AI chip industry produces now.
Those chips are meant for Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robots, the Cybercab and Full Self-Driving computers, along with chips for SpaceX’s planned data centers in orbit. Owning the factory means Musk’s companies would not have to compete with every other chip customer for time on someone else’s production lines.
Intel is still part of the picture. The company signed on in April to help design, build and package chips for the project, and CEO Lip-Bu Tan told Bloomberg this week that Intel will keep working on Terafab despite the TSMC chatter.
The project moved from concept to construction planning over the summer. In August, SpaceX confirmed the Grimes County site about an hour from Houston, sent the county a $10 million payment under its tax abatement deal and said civil work would begin shortly. The first phase carries a $16.8 billion price tag, and total spending across all phases could reach as much as $119 billion.
TSMC chairman C.C. Wei has said a new fab typically takes two to three years to build and another one to two years to reach full output. Tesla and SpaceX have never run one, which is why TSMC’s expertise drew so much attention. Musk’s answer suggests he would rather learn that process in house than hand control of a project this central to Tesla’s robotics and autonomy plans to an outside company.
Terafab Texas will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far.
And it will be stunningly beautiful. https://t.co/4NweOqTL7y
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2026
Elon Musk
Trump to hand Elon Musk a top honor that traces back to JFK
Trump will award Elon Musk the National Medal of Science at Thursday’s White House summit.
Elon Musk is set to receive the highest honor the U.S. government gives to scientists and engineers.
President Donald Trump will present Musk with the National Medal of Science on Thursday at the White House’s Science: A New Golden Age Summit, Fox News Digital first reported on Wednesday. Google cofounder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su will receive the same medal, while Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. A White House official later confirmed the list to Reuters.
“The Trump administration is grateful for the contributions of these incredible leaders in science and technology. These recipients are helping ensure America keeps leading the world in innovation,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston told Fox News.
FIRST ON FOX: Trump will award Elon Musk the National Medal of Science at the White House Thursday.
Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su will also receive the science medal, while Michael Dell and Satya Nadella will receive the technology medal.
It marks Trump’s first time presenting the awards across either administration.
Full story here https://t.co/omnrLV0EwS
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) October 7, 2026
It will be the first time Trump has presented either medal in his two terms. Congress created the National Medal of Science in 1959, and the National Science Foundation, which administers it, says 529 scientists and engineers have received it since. A presidential committee reviews nominees, but the president makes the final call.
Thursday’s group of medalists run or founded companies, and three of them sit at the center of the Super Intelligence hardware race that Musk competes in. Huang’s Nvidia supplies the GB300 chips filling SpaceX’s Colossus 2 cluster, while Su’s AMD is Nvidia’s biggest rival in data center GPUs.
Worth noting that Trump’s uncle, MIT physicist John G. Trump, received the National Medal of Science from President Ronald Reagan for his work on ionizing radiation and its uses in medicine and industry.
The Pentagon taps Elon Musk to design the battlefield of the future
For Musk, the medal is the latest sign of how far his relationship with Trump has come since their 2025 split over the “Big Beautiful Bill” and his exit from DOGE. Last week, he sat at Trump’s left during a White House lunch where AI executives signed a voluntary safety accord, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named him to help lead the Pentagon’s Project Meridian study on the future of warfare. Musk has also adopted the administration’s new vocabulary, saying on Sunday that SpaceXAI will be renamed SpaceXSI after Trump ordered federal agencies to replace “artificial intelligence” with “super intelligence.”
Musk has collected science honors before, including the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication in 2019.
Lifestyle
Tesla FSD changed its mind mid-intersection, and it may have saved a life
Tesla shares dashcam footage of FSD Supervised stopping mid intersection to avoid a T-bone crash.
Tesla is putting another Full Self-Driving save in front of its 24.8 million followers on X.
On Tuesday morning, Tesla’s main account shared a dashcam clip with the caption “FSD Supervised preventing T-bone crash.” The footage came from an owner posting as TheNewGrid, who described what happened at a stop sign: “I looked at the car coming to the stop sign figured they would stop, my car went, then came to a stop mid intersection as they flew by. Had I been manually driving this would have resulted in a crash.”
The sequence is the notable part. FSD had already started crossing when the other driver ran the stop sign. Instead of pressing on, the car braked hard in the middle of the intersection and let the crossing vehicle pass in front of it. By the owner’s own account, they had made the same assumption the software initially made, that the other car would stop, and would not have corrected in time.
FSD Supervised preventing T-bone crash
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 6, 2026
The clip is the latest in a run of safety posts Tesla has amplified over the past several days. On Saturday, the company shared a video from Selling Sunset star Jason Oppenheim, who sold his Bentley for a Model Y and said he was buying Teslas with FSD for 10 of his employees. Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla AI, followed up by writing that Tesla self-driving “reacts to other people cutting into your path with super-human response times.” On Monday, a Cybertruck owner posted footage of FSD moving across three lanes from a red light to clear a path for an ambulance approaching from behind.
This recent clip also lands a few weeks after Tesla began shipping Automatic Collision Evasion with FSD v14.3.9, a feature that can activate FSD on the driver’s behalf when a frontal collision is imminent or the driver appears distracted. Elluswamy said in September that “even earlier prediction of hazards, even faster reaction time and overall significantly better safety and collision avoidance” are coming with v15, the release Tesla has tied to round the clock Robotaxi operation.
The safety messaging matters beyond social media. Tesla has said FSD Supervised was 4.1 times less likely to crash than manual driving across 100 million kilometers on European roads, and it has been putting those figures in front of regulators. Eight EU countries have now approved FSD Supervised, with Croatia the most recent, but the EU’s bloc-wide vote originally set for October 6 has been pushed to December at the earliest.
FSD Supervised is still a Level 2 system, and the driver remains responsible at all times. Even heavy users find reasons to step in. Teslarati’s Joey Klender, who uses FSD for about 76 percent of his driving, laid out five recurring issues on Tuesday that still prompt him to intervene. Clips like this one show the other column of that ledger: moments where the software caught a mistake a human was about to make.
Elon Musk shuts down talk of TSMC taking over Terafab
Trump to hand Elon Musk a top honor that traces back to JFK
Tesla FSD changed its mind mid-intersection, and it may have saved a life
The Pentagon taps Elon Musk to design the battlefield of the future
Tesla Roadster’s new patent preps white-knuckle speeds, keeping it grounded
