GoKawiil
Tech News
SpaceX is preparing to launch the fourteenth test flight of its Starship rocket on Monday, marking a new attempt after 13 previous missions. The flight is described as attempting a milestone the vehicle has not achieved in any prior test.
Google plans to launch a fridge-sized prototype satellite carrying roughly the computing power of one server, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as soon as October 1. The satellite is part of Project Suncatcher, an effort to test whether AI data center hardware can operate in orbit powered by continuous sunlight, and could remain in space for up to six years.
SpaceX is reportedly no longer accepting Falcon 9 launch reservations for dates past 2028, even as the rocket remains the workhorse of the global launch market. In 2025, Falcon 9 flew 165 missions with a perfect payload delivery record, accounting for nearly half of all worldwide launches. Elon Musk has said SpaceX will redirect engineering and manufacturing resources from Falcon to Starship once the newer rocket can fly reliably several times a week.
Google will send a satellite carrying its Tensor Processing Units into low Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on October 1st, as part of Project Suncatcher. The mission aims to test how the chips withstand spaceflight stress, radiation, and thermal extremes, with a cooling system using heat pipes and radiators also being trialed. Google plans to launch two more satellites next year as part of a broader effort toward a constellation of chip-equipped satellites.
Tesla has reopened reservations for its long-delayed Roadster, requiring a $5,000 refundable deposit followed by an additional $45,000 wire transfer within 10 days. The company plans to unveil the car's pricing, specifications and production timeline at an event near Waco, Texas on October 1, having first taken $50,000 deposits for the same car back in 2017.
Advanced Micro Devices' stock climbed enough to push its market valuation above $1 trillion, according to reporting on the milestone. The chipmaker joins a small group of companies including Nvidia, SpaceX, and Meta that have reached the trillion-dollar threshold.
Satellite operators are finding it harder to book rides to orbit as SpaceX scales back its workhorse rocket in favor of newer vehicles, while competing launch companies have yet to ramp up capacity to match demand. The resulting supply crunch is forcing smaller satellite makers and researchers to compete more aggressively for limited slots.
SpaceX is targeting September 28 at 8:15AM Eastern for Starship's 14th flight, pending regulatory approval, after pushing the date back from September 22. Unlike prior suborbital tests, this flight will send Starship into orbit for six loops around Earth over 10 hours and deploy 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites into the constellation. The Super Heavy booster will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the upper stage will later be deorbited into the Pacific.
NASA has expanded its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract with SpaceX, adding three additional crewed Dragon missions to the International Space Station through 2030. The new award is worth up to $946 million and brings SpaceX's total operational flights under the contract to 17, pushing its cumulative earnings from NASA to $5.92 billion. SpaceX shares ISS crew transport duties with Boeing, whose Starliner is set to begin crewed flights in 2027 after an unpiloted test flight.
Italian launch provider Avio says it is fielding a wave of new customer inquiries after SpaceX told several prospective clients it would not accept new commercial Falcon 9 orders. Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo said some of these spurned customers lobbied European institutions at the International Space Summit in Paris for subsidies to offset the higher cost of flying on Europe's Vega C, which reportedly runs about $60 million per launch.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman denied OpenAI's request to access the confidential terms of a settlement between X, SpaceX AI, and Apple in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit. X and SpaceX AI plan to drop their claims against Apple after reaching the deal, but the case continues against OpenAI. Pittman reviewed the agreement privately and concluded it holds no information pertinent to the remaining dispute.
At the first International Space Summit in Paris on September 10, European leaders including Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron called for the continent to build its own launch and crewed spaceflight capacity rather than relying on NASA and firms like SpaceX. The event took on added significance after reports that the White House discouraged US companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin from attending, which one former satellite executive called a wake-up call.