◉ PSYCHOHISTORY

SpaceX

playerAI & Compute · Media & Managed Opposition · Defense & Military-Industrial
Elon Musk's rocket company launched Starship into orbit, bought the AI coding tool Cursor and sends up most of the world's satellites.
Who they are

SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company.

What they do

It runs the Starlink satellite network (more than 11,000 satellites in orbit by August 2026) and launches crews to the space station for NASA. On September 28, 2026 Starship reached orbit for the first time. In August it completed its purchase of the AI coding tool Cursor.

How it works

It launches constantly. Its Falcon 9 rocket flew 100 times in 2026 by late August, and on October 1 it flew three missions in one day, one of them for the NRO spy-satellite agency. It also lobbies regulators: in August it pushed the FCC to look hard at a rival's $8bn purchase of Iridium.

Why it matters

SpaceX now houses Musk's AI company and X. It holds a classified satellite contract (Starshield), had the largest stock listing on record in June 2026, and owns Cursor, one of the biggest users of Anthropic's Claude.

What's new (Aug–Oct 2026)

Aug 15, 2026 — Cursor became officially part of SpaceX, according to a Cursor blog announcement. The deal gave SpaceX the option to buy Cursor for $60bn. (techcrunch.com)
Aug 15, 2026 — SpaceX launched a mission from Cape Canaveral to replace Globalstar satellites. Spaceflight Now called it "the 650th landing of a Falcon booster to date." (spaceflightnow.com)
Aug 18–25, 2026 — Spaceflight Now reported "SpaceX exceeds 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit" and that "The Starlink 10-49 mission is set to be the 100th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket in 2026." (spaceflightnow.com)
Aug 19–28, 2026 — SpaceX tested engines ahead of Starship Flight 14: a single-engine demonstration on Aug 19, a six-engine 60-second test firing on Aug 21, and a Super Heavy booster engine test at Starbase on Friday, Aug 28. (teslaoracle.com ; space.com ; basenor.com)
Aug 27, 2026 — SpaceX pushed the FCC to look closely at Rocket Lab's $8bn purchase of Iridium. (pcmag.com)
Aug 30, 2026 — NASA's Roman Space Telescope launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, "headed to Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2, about 930,000 miles from Earth." Spaceflight Now said it "launched Sunday on a $4.3 billion mission." (wtam.iheart.com ; spaceflightnow.com)
Sept 3, 2026 — ChatGPT, Claude and Grok all went down on Thursday. OpenAI blamed a routing error starting about 7:43am PT, Anthropic had an infrastructure problem fixed by 16:16 UTC, and SpaceX's Memphis computing center had an outage. All were back by 12:38pm PT. (theregister.com ; 9to5google.com ; cnet.com ; theverge.com)
Sept 28, 2026 — Starship reached orbit for the first time, on its 14th test flight, despite an engine failure. SpaceX mission control announced "Starship is orbital" on Monday's livestream. (aljazeera.com ; space.com ; reuters.com)
Oct 1, 2026 — NASA and SpaceX's Crew-13 launched to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral at 11:10 am EDT. Commander Jessica Watkins "became the first Black woman to lead a mission into space." (foxbusiness.com ; arstechnica.com ; orlandosentinel.com)
Oct 1, 2026 — SpaceX flew three launches in one day: Transporter-18 "carried 130 payloads into a polar Sun-synchronous orbit," and a Falcon Heavy flew its first launch for the NRO. Ars Technica counted "three launches and four landings (plus a Dragon docking at the ISS) in one day." (arstechnica.com ; orlandosentinel.com)

The engine's record — word for word
[Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-08-15 — Cursor is officially part of SpaceX (Cursor blog announcement); the deal gave SpaceX the option to acquire Cursor for $60bn. (1 source) (techcrunch.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-08-15 (US local) — SpaceX Globalstar replenishment launch from Cape Canaveral; Spaceflight Now: "the 650th landing of a Falcon booster to date". (1 source) (spaceflightnow.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-08-18 to 2026-08-25 — Spaceflight Now archive: "SpaceX exceeds 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit"; "The Starlink 10-49 mission is set to be the 100th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket in 2026". (1 source) (spaceflightnow.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-08-19, 2026-08-21, 2026-08-28 — Starship Flight 14 prep: single-engine demonstration 19 Aug and six-engine 60-second static fire 21 Aug (Basenor; SpaceX on X quoted by Tesla Oracle); Super Heavy booster engine test at Starbase "on Friday (Aug. 28)" (Space.com). (teslaoracle.com ; space.com ; basenor.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-08-27 — SpaceX pushed the FCC to scrutinize Rocket Lab's $8bn Iridium acquisition (PCMag). (1 source) (pcmag.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-08-30 — NASA's Roman Space Telescope launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, "headed to Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2, about 930,000 miles from Earth"; Spaceflight Now: "launched Sunday on a $4.3 billion mission". (wtam.iheart.com ; spaceflightnow.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-09-03 — ChatGPT, Claude and Grok outages Thursday 3 Sep: OpenAI cited routing error from about 7:43am PT; Anthropic infrastructure issue, restored 16:16 UTC; SpaceX Memphis compute center outage; all back by 12:38pm PT (9to5Google). (theregister.com ; 9to5google.com ; cnet.com ; theverge.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-09-28 (Monday) — Al Jazeera: SpaceX mission control announced "Starship is orbital" on Monday's livestream. Space.com: "SpaceX launches Starship into orbit for 1st time". Reuters: reached orbit on 14th test flight despite engine failure. (aljazeera.com ; space.com ; reuters.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-10-01 — NASA SpaceX Crew-13 launched to ISS from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral at 11:10 am EDT Oct. 1, 2026. Ars: commander Jessica Watkins "became the first Black woman to lead a mission into space." (foxbusiness.com ; arstechnica.com ; orlandosentinel.com) [Live pass Oct 6 2026] 2026-10-01 — SpaceX triple-header: Transporter-18 "carried 130 payloads into a polar Sun-synchronous orbit"; first Falcon Heavy launch for the NRO; "three launches and four landings (plus a Dragon docking at the ISS) in one day." (arstechnica.com ; orlandosentinel.com)
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