Falcon 9 launching a pair of communication satellites on December 17.Photo: SpaceX
SpaceX is finishing off the year strong, flying its Falcon 9 rocket three times in less than 34 hours to deliver various payloads to low Earth orbit.
So far this year, the company has successfully completed 59 orbital launches. SpaceX still has two more launches scheduled before the end of the year, which would fulfill CEO Elon Musk’s goal of 60 launches for 2022. In June, SpaceX performed three Falcon 9 launches in 36 hours and 18 minutes, but these most recent launches happened in a span of 33 hours and 46 minutes, setting a new record for the company, as Teslarati points out.
For the first of its recent three launches, a Falcon 9 carried the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission to orbit. The rocket took off from Space Launch Complex-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on December 16 at 6:46 a.m. ET. SWOT deployed as planned, beginning its three-year mission as the first satellite to conduct a global survey of Earth’s surface water to measure how it changes over time.
A little over 11 hours later, another Falcon 9 rocket took flight, departing Florida at 5:48 p.m ET. Friday’s second launch carried two communications satellites, the Boeing-built O3b mPower 1 and 2, to orbit for Luxembourg satellite operator SES.
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The third launch was a little closer to home for SpaceX, with the reusable rocket delivering more of the private company’s Starlink satellites to orbit. On December 17, a Falcon 9 launched at 4:32 p.m. ET with 54 satellites tucked into its payload fairing. So far, SpaceX has launched over 3,600 of its internet satellites to orbit, of which 3,284 are currently operational, according to stats collected by astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell. The use of its workhorse Falcon 9 has put the company way ahead of its competition, such as OneWeb, when it comes to building a megaconstellation of internet satellites in low Earth orbit.
SpaceX has two more launches scheduled this year. Multiple reports suggest that the company is planning on launching Falcon 9 on December 28 to deliver more Starlink satellites to orbit, according to Teslarati. There may even be a bonus launch on December 29, with the trusty launch vehicle carrying the Israeli EROS-C3 Earth imaging satellite.
SpaceX CEO Musk had previously stated that he’s aiming for a record-breaking 60 launches of the Falcon 9 rocket this year, so we’ll have to wait and see if the company manages to pull it off. SpaceX may very well succeed in its goal for 2022, but a big challenge awaits next year, with the CEO setting his sights on 100 launches in 2023.
More: Key SpaceX Launches Back on Track After Unexplained Delays
Elon Musk and his companies are famously not the best at keeping promises. But one of his properties blows all others out of the water: The Boring Company. A new piece in The Wall Street Journalhas highlighted the trials and tribulations of working with Musk’s tunnel digging organization.
From the reporting, it sounds like when the tough gets going, so does The Boring Company. It’s delivered on just about nothing in the way of the projects it has planned and agreed upon with cities around the U.S. Musk blames government regulators for this, but odds are that the extremely low estimated price of projects are more at fault here.
Boring has yet to make good on its most ambitious pitch: that it can design tunnel-boring machines that are so fast to operate that they will drive down costs and shake up the industry. Tunneling industry veterans question some of Mr. Musk’s claims.
[…]
Mr. Musk has frequently criticized government regulation, calling it an impediment to building new infrastructure. At a WSJ CEO Council event in 2020, he said he had moved from California to Texas, where Tesla was building a new factory, in part because of government regulations. Government should “just get out of the way,” he said.
Elon’s tunnels have been planned in cities all over, and from Maryland to Chicago to California, local municipalities have been stiffed.
The only tunnels that really exist are two 0.8-mile single-direction tunnels under the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as a small offshoot that can take riders to the Resorts World casino and hotel.
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Even this is a far cry from what Musk envisioned. The Teslas that live within the tunnel are not using Autopilot. They are controlled by humans. On top of that, Musk’s idea of a 700 mph vacuum-powered train is literally nowhere to be found in the real world. That hasn’t stopped Musk from taking investors’ money, though.
To add insult to injury, seasoned drillers are not impressed with many of Musk’s proposals, and they say a lot of the tech he heralds as cutting edge has been around for quite a while. They also don’t believe a lot of Musk’s projections are feasible. Shocking, I know.
Veterans of the tunneling industry note that tunnel-boring machines have been electrified for decades, and that neither continuous construction of the tunnel lining nor digging in from aboveground is new.
Boring’s speed claims are “totally unrealistic,” said Lok Home, president of the Robbins Co., a leading maker of tunnel-boring machines. “There’ll be improvements here, for sure, but there’s not going to be a revolution.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg for what’s inside WSJ’s article. I highly recommend you take the time to read it right here.
Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk saw his wealth plummet by $100 billion dollars this year, bringing his net worth to somewhere between $170 billion and $182 billion, according to estimates from Bloomberg and Forbes. That’s down from an estimated $340 billion in November 2021. The drop comes as Tesla shares decreased to a two-year low this week, reducing Musk’s wealth by about $8.6 billion in just one day.
Musk reportedly owns around a 15 percent stake in Tesla shares which has decreased by 58.03% year to date, according to Bloomberg. He sold nearly $15.5 billion of his Tesla stock to finance his purchase of Twitter earlier this month.
Tesla accounts for the bulk of Musk’s fortune but has faced revenue decreases due to the ongoing covid-19 restrictions in China and a recent recall of 300,000 Tesla vehicles due to faulty taillights in addition to soaring costs of materials. His net worth continued to take a hit after he acquired Twitter for $44 billion—the largest buyout of a technology company in history.
Musk also had to recently defend the near $56 billion payment package Tesla handed him years ago in court. Richard Tornetta, who owns some Tesla shares, filed the lawsuit back in 2019 claiming the Tesla board offered Musk an overly generous pay package even though he was spending only about half his time at the electric car maker. His new hobby as ‘Chief Twit’ has only amplified claims that he’s spreading himself too thin.
Despite the setbacks, Musk still remains the wealthiest person in the world, coming in above the runner-up, Bernard Arnault, by around $65 billion. Musk is not the only tech executive whose net worth has dropped this year, as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’, and Alphabet co-founder Larry Page have all also experienced significant financial setbacks according to Bloomberg.
Elon Musk is now Twitter’s judge, jury, and executioner—with complete leeway to enact his version of “free speech” on the flailing platform. Image: Gizmodo
Things are really going off the rails at Twitter, as Elon Musk pushes forward in a hostile takeover that seems liable to ensure he’s eventually the only one left at the social media platform. In the latest set of deeply confusing declarations from the multi-CEO and “Chief Twit,” Musk reinstated Twitter accounts for the right-wing “parody” outlet the Babylon Bee, Jordan Peterson, and Kathy Griffin.
Musk announced the reinstatements after a cryptic post simply saying “Freedom Fridays.” He also paired the news with a confusing explanation of how content moderation on Twitter will supposedly operate moving forward. “New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach,” he wrote. “Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter.”
Note: the below Tweet misspells Kathy Griffin’s name.
Musk didn’t un-ban Donald Trump, writing a “decision has not yet been made” about whether or not to allow the former poster-in-chief back on the site. He also said he would not allow conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on the platform, in another tweet exchange. Though, like all of Musk’s promises—who knows how long it will last.
The sudden Twitter ban reversals beg the question: What happened to Musk’s previously announced plan to tackle reinstatements? Less than a month ago, the world’s richest man tweeted that, under his leadership, Twitter would form and rely on a “content moderation council.” “No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” he wrote in an Oct. 28 post.
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Yet seemingly, Freedom Friday went ahead with no such council in place. And it’s abundantly possible that there simply aren’t enough staff left at Twitter to compose one. Initial layoffs slashed about 50% of the company, and more engineers and execs have fled since.
Among other questions that Gizmodo had related to Friday’s announcement:
What is a “negative tweet?”
Who decides that?
Who (or what algorithm) will be monitoring for these “negative tweets” to “deboost” them—and how?
Will there be an official shadowban council?
Gizmodo also isn’t sure, exactly, how single tweets can be “demonetized.” Twitter does not make money directly off of individual tweets, but rather paid posts by advertisers (and, uh, Twitter Blue subscribers). Unless Musk is talking about disallowing offensive ads (which presumably already aren’t allowed), this is seemingly just word salad, devoid of any actual functional policy shift.
Unfortunately, though Gizmodo has reached out with all of the above questions to Twitter’s press account, we do not expect to receive a response. Since Musk’s purchase of the company was finalized, Twitter has not been responding to our press inquiries. Press contacts from other companies run by Musk, like SpaceX and Tesla, are also notoriously difficult for media to reach.
On Friday evening, Tesla CEO Elon Musk finally made it crystal clear that he has no interest in adding “owner of Twitter” to his list of titles. The move was months in the making. Twitter is planning to sue in response.
In a letter to Twitter’s Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk notified the social media company that he would terminate the $44 billion acquisition deal he made in late April. However, it is not yet clear whether Musk can unilaterally end the agreement.
Musk has fixated on the number of spam accounts on the social network. Citing their proliferation of automated bots, he first claimed Twitter was in breach of its merger agreement in early June. Musk’s lawyers argue that the billionaire is backing out of the agreement because “Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement, and is likely to suffer a Company Material Adverse Effect.”
Twitter plans to sue Musk in response. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal retweeted the company’s board chairman Bret Taylor’s promise of legal action minutes after the news broke in defiance of the Tesla CEO.
“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” Taylor wrote.
In an email to staff on Friday obtained by the Verge, Sean Edgett, Twitter’s general counsel, told folks not to share any commentary on the merger on Twitter or Slack.
“Given that this is an ongoing legal matter, you should refrain from Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the merger agreement. We will continue to share information when we are able, but please know we are going to be very limited on what we can share in the meantime,” Edgett wrote. “I know this is an uncertain time, and we appreciate your patience and ongoing commitment to the important work we have underway.”
Jesse Fried, a Harvard Law School professor, told Gizmodo in an email on Friday that Musk could not “simply walk away from the deal” and is probably trying to lower the price of the acquisition.
“He is bound to buy Twitter if he has adequate financing, as it seems he does. There are narrow outs,” Fried said. “Given the contract and Twitter’s post-signing conduct, Musk is highly unlikely to get a Delaware court to give him a ‘get-out-of-merger free card.’ He has presumably been told that by his lawyers.”
The news that Musk is backing out of the acquisition agreement follows months of public buyer’s remorse expressed on Twitter itself. The company says automated bots and spam accounts make up just 5% of the social network’s users, a figure Musk believed was much higher. He requested and received more data on Twitter’s user base but ultimately said the information provided was insufficient.
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that the billionaire’s deal to acquire Twitter was in “serious jeopardy” and that Musk had stopped engaging in funding discussions. The outlet cited doubts from Musk’s team over the data provided on the number of fake accounts and spam bots provided to it by Twitter.
The back-and-forth with Musk has had detrimental effects on Twitter. The stock price of the company had fallen to $36.10 as of Friday, well below the $54.20 he offered. The company laid off members of its recruiting team on Friday as well, though layoffs have struck the tech industry writ large as the stock market has tumbled in recent months. Musk cited the layoffs in his deal termination letter as well as several high-profile resignations. In June, amid a flurry of Musk mayhem, Twitter said it was still committed to closing the deal and hinted that it was unafraid to take legal action. When asked about the Post’s report early today, Twitter reiterated its June response: “We believe this agreement is in the best interest of all shareholders. We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement.”
Musk, Twitter’s largest shareholder, has behaved like Twitter’s owner for weeks now: He’s taken questions from Twitter employees in a town hall, given them product advice (make Twitter more like TikTok).
Fried said it’s all probably just a game to Musk.
“Litigation will be costly for Twitter, and it may agree to lower the price to settle the litigation. This is probably Musk’s game plan here,” the professor said.
Musk’s lawyers delved into further detail of Twitter’s perceived slights and contract violations, the majority of which centered on the blue bird company apparently declining to provide or providing incomplete information to the billionaire.
The billionaire’s accusations are as follows:
Spam and Fake Accounts
As is to be expected, Musk complained about a lack of information from Twitter related to Twitter’s spam and fake accounts. His lawyers state that the social media company did not provide the following:
“(1) daily global mDAU data since October 1, 2020; (2) information regarding the sampling population for mDAU, including whether the mDAU population used for auditing spam and false accounts is the same mDAU population used for quarterly reporting; (3) outputs of each step of the sampling process for each day during the weeks of January 30, 2022 and June 19, 2022; (4) documentation or other guidance provided to contractor agents used for auditing mDAU samples; (5) information regarding the user interface of Twitter’s ADAP tool and any internal tools used by the contractor agents; and (6) mDAU audit sampling information, including anonymized information identifying the contractor agents and Quality Analyst that reviewed each sampled account, the designation given by each contractor agent and Quality Analyst, and the current status of any accounts labelled “compromised.”
The billionaire said he did not receive data on the methodology Twitter uses to suspend spam and fake accounts.
According to the letter, Musk apparently wanted “access to the sample set used and calculations performed” to determine that less than 5% of Twitter’s mDAUs are fake or spam accounts, which is what the company claims. The request included the daily measures of mDAUs for the past eight quarters. The letter states that the social media company has provided “certain summary data” regarding its mDAU calculations, but not the complete daily measures. In addition, Musk requested materials provided to Twitter’s board about mDAUs’ calculations. Again, he claims he received incomplete information.
“Preliminary analysis by Mr. Musk’s advisors of the information provided by Twitter to date causes Mr. Musk to strongly believe that the proportion of false and spam accounts included in the reported mDAU count is wildly higher than 5%,” the letter states.
Materials Related to Twitter’s Financial Condition
Furthermore, the billionaire’s lawyers claim that he is entitled to certain financial data related to Twitter, including information that aims to help him secure financing for the deal. Musk purported asked for a Twitter’s financial model and budget for 2022, an updated draft plan or budget, and a “working copy” of the Goldman Sachs’ valuation model. He reportedly has only received a PDF copy of Goldman Sachs’ final board presentation.
Access to APIs and Query Restriction
When Musk was provided with information, his lawyers claim it came “with strings attached.” For instance, they claim that Musk was initially not given the same access given to customers to eight Twitter developer APIs. This was only remedied after explaining the lack of access to the company.
Nonetheless, the APIs reportedly contain a “query cap” that prevents Musk and his team from carrying out their desired analyses of the data. The cap was only removed after Musk complained about it twice.
Twitter Fired Two High-Level Execs, Laid Off People, and Froze Hiring
Finally, Musk’s lawyers state that Twitter was obliged to “preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization,” something they claim it did not do. The violations in this area began when the blue bird app fired Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck, its general manager of product and general manager of revenue, respectively, in May.
The letter also cites Twitter laying off 30% of its talent acquisition team this past Thursday and its hiring freeze. As if that wasn’t enough, Musk is also purportedly mad that Twitter didn’t stop its head of data science; the vice president of Twitter service; and a vice president of product management for health, conversation, and growth from leaving.
“The Company has not received Parent’s consent for changes in the conduct of its business,” Musk’s lawyers wrote.
Update 7/9/2022, 6:26 a.m. ET: This post has been updated with information about Edgett’s email to staff.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched Germany’s SARah 1 military imaging satellite into orbit on June 18.Photo: SpaceX
It was a busy weekend for SpaceX, with the private space company launching three of its Falcon 9 rockets into orbit over a period of three days. SpaceX’s final launch may even have been carrying a classified government payload in addition to launching a spare satellite for low Earth orbit operator Globalstar.
The back-to-back launches kicked off Friday from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, where a Falcon 9 rocket carried 53 Starlink satellites to orbit as part of the company’s growing broadband internet megaconstellation. The rocket’s first stage booster set a new record for SpaceX, marking the 13th flight and landing for the reusable booster.
The next day, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched a radar imaging satellite for the German military. SaRah-1, built by Airbus, launched from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to replace the existing SAR-Lupe system. The satellite is designed to deliver images of Earth’s surface at any time of day, regardless of weather conditions.
On Sunday, SpaceX made its final launch of the weekend. Its third Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The company identified one payload on the rocket, Globalstar FM15, a spare satellite for phone and low-speed data communications company Globalstar.
However, several reports suggest that this lone satellite wasn’t the only one hitching a ride to low Earth orbit. Those observing the launch and deployment of the Globalstar payload noticed that the rocket was sporting three unusual burns and landed on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship, which is used when the rocket is carrying heavier payloads, although the Globalstar payload would have been light enough for it to land back on the launch pad, according to SpaceNews.
Additionally, SpaceX provided a video of the payload deployment to orbit, which showed that it had deployed nearly two hours after liftoff. The video showed what may have been a payload adapter on the rocket’s second stage, suggesting that the rocket may have deployed another payload after its first burn. The mysterious circumstances gave credence to rumors suggesting that SpaceX had launched a U.S. classified government payload. SpaceX has not confirmed the second payload and did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.
Sunday’s launch marked SpaceX’s 26th launch of 2022, and the company is planning to go even bigger for the rest of the year. After passing an environment assessment by the Federal Aviation Administration for a proposed site expansion in Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that heavy rocket Starship would be ready for its first orbital launch in July. Musk is hoping that Starship will be transporting the company’s next-generation Starlink satellites to orbit, which has some astronomers worried over their potential interference in observations of the cosmos. SpaceX has also recently fired several employees over criticism of Musk’s behavior.
The Dragon launch was expected to bring two tons of supplies to the ISS as part of a resupply mission.Photo: NASA
The upcoming launch of an uncrewed SpaceX Dragon to the International Space Station has been postponed following a potential propellant leak, in what is a rare glitch for the reliable cargo vehicle.
NASA revealed yesterday that, as a team loaded the Dragon cargo spacecraft with propellant, it detected “elevated vapor readings” of mono-methyl hydrazine within the propulsion system. It’s not exactly clear when the readings were detected, but NASA says the incident happened this past weekend.
The space agency further explained in its blog that the fuel and oxidizer were unloaded from the offending portion of the spacecraft to enable a more thorough analysis, adding that SpaceX and NASA officials met yesterday to discuss the issue. This means that the launch of the Dragon to the ISS, scheduled for this weekend, has been scrapped. Womp womp.
“Once the exact source of the elevated readings is identified and cause is determined, the joint NASA and SpaceX teams will determine and announce a new target launch date,” NASA’s said on its blog.
The SpaceX Dragon, which went into use 10 years ago, uses Draco thrusters, which rely on MMH fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as an oxidizer, according to SpaceNews. Dragons are equipped with 16 Draco thrusters in order to maneuver the spacecraft.
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The CRS-25 resupply mission is slated to bring over two tons (1,800 kilograms) of supplies to the International Space Station. As NASA notes, the Dragon spacecraft will (eventually) deliver:
new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for the international crew, including a study of immune aging and potential for reversing those effects. One of the primary payloads aboard the cargo flight is the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation or EMIT. This tool will identify the composition of mineral dust from Earth’s arid regions and analyze dust carried through the atmosphere from deserts to see what effects it has on the planet, further advancing NASA’s data contributions to monitoring climate change. It also will carry an investigation from a team of students at Stanford University that will test the process of creating biopolymer soil composite, a concrete alternative, in microgravity.
The current crew on board the ISS will have to wait for these goodies, and hopefully for not much longer.
Last month, SpaceX revealed the design of its next generation of Starlink satellites, which will add to CEO Elon Musk’s vision of constellation of tens of thousands of internet satellites. But Musk’s plans for SpaceX are not without their faults. Last week Musk announced his plans to send one million people to Mars by 2050, which will almost definitely not happen under the given timeline.
More: Musk’s Megarocket Will Deploy Starlink Satellites Like a Pez Dispenser.
When I was six, I peed my pants in class because I was too proud to use my public school bathroom. Similarly, suave billionaire and alleged sexual harasser Elon Musk peed his proverbial pants after a Twitter scuffle with the satirical video game site Hard Drive. Neither Musk nor Hard Drive returned a request for comment.
On May 30, Musk posted a screenshot of Hard Drive’s article “Zodiac Killer Letter Solved by Opening It With VLC Media Player” with the site’s name cropped out. This was done in accordance with his belief that online images exist to be stolen—in 2019, Musk tweeted that “no one should be credited with anything ever,” though he is currently very angry that President Joe Biden has not yet publicly acknowledged Tesla as a leading electric vehicle company.
Despite his thinking that crediting artists for their work is “destroying the medium,” Musk did eventually delete the image he swiped from Hard Drive. But it took a battle of wit and stamina to get him there, which is to say that Musk regurgitated a few aphorisms about art and comedy until Hard Drive skewered his approaches to both, making him, presumably, turn his Tesla on Autopilot and cry his way to yet another shareholder lawsuit.
“The selfless art of anonymous meme creators is something to be admired,” Musk tweeted at the Hard Drive Twitter account after it requested credit twice.
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“ok well lemme know what you think about this one,” Hard Drivesaid in response and posted a link to an article titled “Elon Musk Admits He Wants to Travel to Mars Because No One Hates Him There Yet.” Musk did not seem like he wanted to steal that one.
“The reason you’re not that funny is because you’re woke,” he said. “Humor relies on an intuitive & often awkward truth being recognized by the audience, but wokism is a lie, which is why nobody laughs.”
A most intriguing observation indeed. It forces us to ponder why Musk reposted Hard Drive at all. The site’s being “not that funny” and “woke” clearly proves an affront to his discerning taste and sensibility, which includes allegedly showing an unwilling woman his penis. It is also possible that Musk’s condemnation of Hard Drive’s “wokism” stems from some sort of affinity with the Zodiac Killer, the origin of this Twitter spar.
“very funny to me that elon’s example of ‘woke humor’ is an article making fun of the ZODIAC KILLER of all people,” Hard Drive editor-in-chief Jeremy Kaplowitz said. “’woke comedy is ruining everything, man. you used to be able to kill a bunch of people in the 60s and write letters to the police about it, but not anymore.’”
Musk called a Hard Drive writer a coward for blocking him, declared the stolen meme he tweeted to protect a result of a “slow meme day,” and rounded the night off with another pilfered meme. This one was about putting your phone down and going outside. Hopefully, Musk stays online—who else would defend the Zodiac Killer’s honor?
A video posted to NASASpaceflight’s YouTube channel showed the new prototype being rolled out to the testing area.Screenshot: Gizmodo
It’s been nine months since we last saw a new Starship prototype exit the SpaceX factory in Boca Chica, Texas. The unfinished rocket, designated S24, is slated for qualification testing, but the Elon Musk-led company still needs regulatory approval to launch the fully stacked system.
The rollout of prototype S24 is a potential sign that SpaceX is on track to perform the first orbital flight test of the fully stacked Starship rocket later this year, as Musk, the company’s founder and CEO, has promised. That SpaceX will attempt 12 Starship launches in 2022—another Musk promise—seems overly optimistic at the moment, but nuttier things have happened.
Starship is designed to transport cargo and passengers to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars. Musk has described it as a “generalized transport mechanism for the greater solar system,” but more conservatively, the company must demonstrate the vehicle as being capable of landing astronauts on the Moon, as per a NASA contract. The space agency is wanting to plop astronauts on the lunar surface by 2025, which means SpaceX needs to get cracking; a fully stacked Starship rocket has yet to leave the ground.
The sudden appearance of Starship prototype S24 is thus a welcome sign from the company. The unfinished unit left the SpaceX factory at the Boca Chica facility yesterday and was transported to a testing area. A video posted to NASASpaceflight’s YouTube channel showed the new prototype being rolled out, providing several clear views of the behemoth. The prototype will need to pass some basic qualification tests, namely pressure and cryogenic proof tests. Should all go well, S24 will then be moved to Suborbital Pad A for further evaluation, as Teslarati explains:
Rather than leaping straight into static fires, SpaceX will minimize the risk of catastrophic failure by first using hydraulic rams to simulate the thrust of six Raptor V2 engines while Starship’s steel tanks and plumbing are chilled to cryogenic temperatures. Only after Ship 24 completes stress testing will SpaceX install new Raptor engines and [perform] several static fires.
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Absent from the rocket are hundreds of tiles and an aerocover, but S24 does exhibit some differences from previous versions, such as a more resilient thrust section, a new nose, an upgraded landing propellant tank, and a payload bay and door, according to Teslarati.
The previous prototype, S20, made its first appearance in August 2021 and was retired in May 2022. S20 never took flight, but it did undergo Raptor static fire tests and was temporarily stacked atop Super Heavy booster BN4, making it the largest rocket ever assembled.
Depending on how things go, S24 could stay on the pad or be moved back to the factory for further work. The prototype could very well be the upper stage that gets placed atop Booster 7, which is also undergoing development at the Boca Chica facility. The Super Heavy booster is about to undergo Raptor installation, according to NASASpaceFlight.
Should SpaceX want to perform its orbital test, however, the Federal Aviation Administration needs to complete its environmental review, the delivery of which is expected on May 31. The FAA has delayed this much-anticipated review on four previous occasions, but the regulatory agency is expected to release it for real next week. The Boca Chica facility, or Starbase as it’s known to SpaceX employees, is located on environmentally sensitive land.
The outcome of the review could have a significant bearing on the project; the worst case scenario for SpaceX would be a full-blown environmental assessment of the Boca Chica site, which could take years. Alternatively, the FAA could come back with a list of easily resolvable recommendations for SpaceX to follow. Or something in between. Either way, we’ll be watching these developments closely.
More: Elon Musk’s Plan to Expand SpaceX Launch Site in Texas Hits Another Snag.
Poor performance and even poorer public perception have forced Elon Musk’s Boring Company to largely pivot away from its most ambitious projects and opt instead to prioritize more politically friendly locals. Now, Musk reportedly has his sights set on Texas and Miami for the company’s near future.
Boring has reportedly filed for permits to develop a new test site and compound in Bastrop Country near Austin, according to 2021 documents obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek. The company reportedly plans to build a compound on the land equipped with on-site housing where they will build “as many tunnels as necessary” to test out new techniques for developing underground tubes. Each of the tunnels at the test site may stretch around 300-600 feet long.
Besides the tunnels, Boring’s Texas site will reportedly feature 10 prefabricated, 550 square feet one-bedroom homes for workers, and may one day include a cafe and retail buildings.
Meanwhile, about 1,300 miles to the east, the company also recently submitted a proposal for a new 6.2-mile loop tunnel in Miami. That proposal, Insider reports, claims the so-called “The North Miami Beach Loop” could potentially transport more than 7,500 passengers per hour. At scale, Boring believes that figure could jump up to 15,000 per hour, though if Boring’s recent displays are any guide that’s still a long, long way away.
Boring estimates its proposed Miami project would cost between $185 million to $220 million and could take less than three years to build. The company also outlines ways it could expand upon the 6.2-mile route, potentially adding connections to Hard Rock Stadium and Florida International University’s Biscayne Campus. As with all Musk-related ventures, these timelines and estimates should be taken with a grain of salt.
Still, the proposals were met with excitement from at least some Florida officials.
“We have a lot of traffic congestion and this would be a way of alleviating a great deal of that traffic,” North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Joseph told Insider. Joseph claims Musk’s tunnels could come at a fraction of the cost of larger infrastructure plans and could potentially get started with comparatively few major disruptions to the local economy.
The Miami proposal marks the second attempt by Boring to cave out the ground beneath Florida in as many years. Last summer, the Fort Lauderdale mayor said the city had accepted a proposal to build a tunnel connecting the city down toward the beach, something he saw as a “truly innovative way to reduce traffic congestion.”
Both of these new projects follow a slew of reported pitfalls and strategic re-orientation at the company. Though Boring once had grand, years-long plans to build tunnels connecting Washington and Baltimore and another meant to shuttle Los Angeles residents to Dodger stadium, both of those endeavors stalled due to regulatory restrictions and environmental review, Bloomberg notes. In a sign of exasperation, the company reportedly removed any mention of the projects from its website.
“I think you can declare these dead,” Dena Belzer, President of Consultancy Strategic Economics, told Bloomberg at the time.
Other still active projects on the other hand have failed to whip up the levels of hype attained by Musk’s other side hustles. In Las Vegas, for example, where Boring currently operates a tunnel transporting drivers to the Las Vegas Convention Center, cars can still only attain a top speed of around 35mph and have to drive one at a time. Videos posted of commuters using the tunnel so far appear half-assed at best.
From a purely practical perspective though, Boring’s geographic reorientation makes sense, particularly in Texas. Tesla, for instance, officially moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin last year, as did Musk himself. Both Texas and Austin also saw some of the largest influx of tech workers migrating during the pandemic as well, though there are signs some of that shakeup is at least partially leveling out.
Metro areas in Texas and Florida, which largely lack subways and other forms of public transportation, do legitimately need some major reimagining of their transportation infrastructure. Whether or not Boring so far lackluster tubes can actually make any meaningful difference in that department, though, is another thing entirely.
