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SpaceX Receives Pentagon Help To Develop New Rocket Engine
SpaceX has been awarded a Pentagon contract for development of its next generation Raptor rocket engine, which is 6 times more powerful than the Merlin engine it uses now.
The U.S. Department of Defense has announced a $33.7 million dollar contract awarded to SpaceX for the development of the Raptor rocket propulsion system prototype as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The Raptor engine burns a mixture of liquid methane and liquid oxygen, and designed to produce six times the thrust of the Merlin engines SpaceX recently used on its historic mission that saw its first stage rocket land itself back on earth from orbit. Here’s why that’s important to SpaceX.
Currently, virtually all large military satellites launches are done by the United Launch Alliance, a consortium made up of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. In 2013, ULA was awarded a $1.1 billion contract for multiple launches using Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V or Boeing’s Delta IV rockets. SpaceX wants a piece of that pie.
According to Motley Fool, both ULA rockets use RD-180 engines purchased from Russia’s Energomash, which is majority owned by the Russian government. After Russia’s 2014 actions in Crimea, the US slapped economic sanctions on it and Energomash. They in turn decided they would not sell any more rocket engines to ULA. The US Congress responded to that by prohibiting the US military from using any Russian rocket engines to launch its satellites.
But Houston, we have a problem. No rocket engines means no satellite launches. ULA placed its hopes on either Blue Origin or Aerojet Rocketdyne coming up with a new rocket engine to replace the RD-180 it can no longer buy from Energomash, but that process could take 3 or 4 years to complete.
So Congress has relented somewhat. Buried in the more than 1,000 page appropriations bill approved just before Christmas, it gave ULA approval to buy a supply of RD-180s — just enough to keep it in the military launch business for the time being. But clearly, America needs American made rockets for its various space programs going forward.
“SpaceX Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two” [Source: SpaceX]
Enter SpaceX, which received authorization to bid for Pentagon business last year. The next generation Raptor engines will be used to power the upcoming Falcon 9 “heavy lift” and “super heavy lift” rockets. The more powerful Falcon 9 could be used in place of the traditional satellite launching vehicles from Lockheed and Boeing. That would open the door for lucrative government contracts to flow to SpaceX instead of ULA.
There is a lot of money up for grabs launching satellites for the military over next several years. SpaceX has been funding its Raptor engine program out of its own pocket up until now, but under terms of the new contract, the Pentagon will provide $1 in development funding for every $2 invested by SpaceX.
Lockheed and Boeing might be giving way to the Aerospace upstart. SpaceX, like every venture Elon Musk is involved with, will put every ounce of effort into getting to the finish line ahead of everyone else.
More SpaceX News
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- Watch as SpaceX Completes a Historic Rocket Landing
Tesla is delaying its event for the Roadster, moving it from this Thursday, October 1, to Thursday, October 15, due to unfavorable weather.
The company has said it has been tracking the weather for this Thursday closely with local meteorologists, and because the event can only be held outside, Tesla is making the call to delay it:
“We’ve been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted & because this event can only be held outdoors, we’ve made the difficult decision to reschedule. New date is October 15. Additional details to follow.”
Roadster event update
We’ve been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted & because this event can only be held outdoors, we’ve made the difficult decision to reschedule.
New date is October 15. Additional details to…
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 28, 2026
We are sure that this is bringing back PTSD for some Tesla fans, and we know it is not ideal, but this also reveals some things about the event. Tesla said that this can only be held outdoors, meaning it bodes well for the rumors that the vehicle could potentially hover.
Some believe that this was essentially confirmed by the FAA airspace restriction they were granted, but this could have been for a drone show or to keep drones from spying on the event.
Tesla Roadster is available for order once again following brief hold
The Roadster event has been long-awaited, and it is unfortunate that the weather is going to keep us all waiting a little bit longer.
The Tesla Roadster will be unveiled in Waco, Texas.
Elon Musk
SpaceX turned a heralding moment for Starship into its greatest
Starship reached orbit despite losing an engine, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites on Flight 14.
SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit for the first time on Monday, and for a few nail-biting minutes it looked like it wouldn’t. During ascent on Flight 14, one of Ship 41’s six Raptor engines shut down early, and SpaceX’s livestream host Dan Huot told viewers the team had decided not to commit to orbit. Minutes later, after what Huot described as a lot of conversation in the control room, the final poll came back in favor, and a roughly 19 second burn of a single Raptor pushed the ship into orbit about 170 miles up.
The reversal matters because SpaceX had written the exit ramp into the mission plan. The company said it would only fire the orbital insertion burn if flight controllers confirmed enough backup hardware remained for the deorbit burn, a condition Teslarati laid out ahead of the flight. Losing an engine was exactly the scenario that rule was built for.
Pressing forward fits Elon Musk’s history. Falcon 1 failed three straight times before its fourth launch reached orbit in 2008, with SpaceX nearly out of money, and Starship was developed by flying prototypes until they broke. What changed this year SpaceX going public, and with $SPCX sliding below its IPO price in July when Flight 13 slipped, the short interest climbed significantly, as Teslarati reported at the time. A Starship potentially lost today with revenue generating next-gen Starlink satellites aboard would have landed directly on shareholders.
Splashdown confirmed. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the first orbital flight of Starship! pic.twitter.com/urjmiwnvNl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026
That pressure showed up after orbit. SpaceX cut a flight planned to last nearly 10 hours to about three, moving splashdown from west of Chile to the North Pacific near Hawaii. SpaceX gave no reason, though Musk said this month the company was being extremely cautious about debris risk. The single Raptor for deorbit worked, and Ship 41 completed its flip and landing burn before breaking apart in the water, an outcome SpaceX expected. Musk has structured SpaceX’s governance to shield long term bets from market pressure.
The payload is the bigger business story. Musk posted that all 26 Starlink V3 satellites deployed and are “operating nominally.” Each V3 is rated for about 1 Tbps of downlink and 160 Gbps of uplink, so this single launch adds roughly 26 Tbps, about 10 times what a Falcon 9 load of V2 Mini satellites adds. The V3 is too large for Falcon 9, making Starship the only vehicle that can build out the planned 100,000 satellite constellation, at up to 60 per flight once it reaches routine service. Unlike the 20 V3 units on Flight 13, which reentered on a suborbital path, these will raise their orbits and could begin serving customers within weeks and bring in hundreds of millions of additional dollars in projected Starlink revenue.
SpaceX has already begun winding down Falcon 9 Starlink launches from Florida in favor of Starship. Reported targets put Flight 15 as early as October 19, leaving about three weeks to diagnose Monday’s engine shutdown before the next orbital attempt.
Starship’s 14th flight is set to launch on Monday, Sept 28. The 75-minute launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. CT. Live coverage of the mission starts ~35 minutes before launch → https://t.co/uQKQvgaTmJ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 27, 2026
Tesla quietly doubled the size of its Cybercab fleet within the Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas, over the weekend to well over 100 units.
The move not only establishes more of the steering-wheel-less and pedal-less vehicles within the ride-sharing fleet Tesla has been operating for a year, but it also solidifies a more robust Robotaxi fleet as a whole.
Riders started receiving notifications from the Robotaxi app that stated: “Cybercab fleet has doubled: more rides available.”
I got this notification on the robotaxi app. They are saying the Cybercab fleet has doubled. Glad that they are advertising this pic.twitter.com/FFrnw4FRCF
— Abhimanyu Yadav (@WorldlyReviewer) September 26, 2026
Tesla first launched rides in the Cybercab in early September, although the Robotaxi fleet has been active for over a year, as rides began last Summer. Cybercab is truly Tesla’s most crucial vehicle release yet, as it is the first car any company has built that is geared toward full-fledged and end-to-end autonomy, never needing human intervention for anything.
Only available in Austin at the current time, Cybercab has two seats and has been spotted testing around various U.S. states and regions; Tesla plans to deploy the Cybercab in various U.S. cities in the coming months as a best-case scenario.
Tesla Cybercab gets initial tie-in to localized, in-house cathode plant
The availability of the Cybercab has doubled from just 58 units last Monday to 125 the following Friday. Marking a substantial increase in Cybercab availability, the additional ride-sharing units are more than welcome, as wait times for Cybercabs, especially, were quite high.
The dramatic increase is a sign that demand for Robotaxi is growing and Tesla is feeling more confident that its driverless ride-hailing suite, especially its Full Self-Driving software, is able to handle any traffic situation without explicit direction or supervision from a human being.
Tesla Roadster event gets delayed due to unfavorable weather
SpaceX turned a heralding moment for Starship into its greatest
