CURRENT NEWS
Washington · Defense
Musk tapped to co-lead Pentagon’s Project Meridian on the future of war
A 120-day study with Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich will recommend weapons and capabilities across domains from underground to cislunar space; findings due by Jan. 28, 2027.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Elon Musk will co-direct Project Meridian, a Pentagon initiative to study the future of warfare and accelerate fielding of advanced systems. Co-directors include Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, backed by academic, policy, and industry experts.
The announcement came in Hegseth’s “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Sept. 30. A companion memo creates a four-star Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM) focused on AI, robotics, and related technologies. Hegseth said the work aims to dominate “any future battlefield, from under the Earth to beyond the moon.”
“Project Meridian will discover and accelerate the fielding of advanced systems needed to guarantee decisive deterrence.” — U.S. government press release, via The Independent
An unclassified report is planned for public release with a classified annex. The move comes months after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was disbanded; Musk had helped lead that effort in 2025.
Sources: Stars and Stripes · The Independent · Washington Post
Also today
SpaceX · NASA
Crew-13 docks at ISS in 7h 55m — fastest American trip on record
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Grace reached the International Space Station at 7:05 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1, 7 hours and 55 minutes after liftoff from Florida — the fastest launch-to-docking time for any American spacecraft, NASA said. Aboard: NASA’s Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA’s Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos’s Sergey Teteryatnikov. Crew-12 may return as soon as Oct. 5.
“The space station was in an opportune spot… this is close to the fastest it could be.” — Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX (via Space.com)
Tesla · Safety
‘Emergency Drive Away’ lets Teslas leave a Supercharger while plugged in
In software 2026.38.3, Tesla Charging rolled out a U.S.-only feature that shifts into Drive with the cable still connected — for emergencies only. Tesla warns the move will damage the car and charger; short camera clips are shared with Tesla, and deliberate misuse brings “additional penalties.” Pre-2021 Model S/X are unsupported.
SpaceX · Starship
Starship Flight 14 reaches orbit, deploys 26 Starlink V3s
On Sept. 28 from Starbase, Starship achieved its first orbital flight after a mid-ascent Raptor shutdown and a brief “go/no-go” drama. Ship deployed 26 next-gen Starlink V3 satellites, then returned early (~3 hours) to a Pacific splashdown. Musk posted: “First orbital flight of Starship successful!”
Neuralink
50,000 hours of brain data power a BCI foundation model
Neuralink (Oct. 1) said participants have streamed over 50,000 hours of unlabeled intracortical data. Pretrained encoders extended decoder life, cut calibration burden, and helped set an 11.32 BPS cursor record. One participant’s decoder remained controllable more than a year and a half later.
“Better than the prior model. Smoother… it just glided where I wanted it to go.” — Participant P9, Neuralink update
Tesla · Product
Every U.S. Model 3 now ships with a 16″ center screen
Tesla North America said Oct. 2 that Model 3s in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Mexico get the larger 16-inch display (was 15.4″), including the $36,990 RWD. Performance range rises to 316 miles / 528 hp; Premium AWD 0–60 drops to 3.8s. V2L and China’s light-gray interior still absent in the U.S.
Business · Stores · Briefs
xAI leases Colossus GPUs to Anthropic, Google, and others
Reporting Oct. 1: Anthropic multi-year deal for ~220,000 GPUs at Colossus 1 (~$1.25B/mo through May 2029, with a 90-day termination clause); Google ~110,000 GPUs at Colossus 2 starting Oct. 2026 (~$920M/mo). xAI targets >1.2M GPUs and >2 GW by year-end.
SpaceX Store: ‘First Orbital Flight’ merch live
Official shop now lists Unisex Starship Milestone First Orbital Flight T-shirt ($35) and Mission Patch ($15), alongside You Are Here Mars/Moon gear and Starship 2026 yearly patch — timed to Flight 14’s orbital milestone.
Tesla teases Halloween Mode for the cabin UI
Oct. 2 teaser on X (“Halloween is coming”) shows a graveyard parked visualization with fog, mansion, and zombie hand. Expect a Toybox-style seasonal mode later this month; no firm release date yet.
Busy Oct. 1: Transporter-18 and NROL-97 also fly
Besides Crew-13, SpaceX lofted Transporter-18 rideshare from Vandenberg and Falcon Heavy NROL-97 from LC-39A the same day — a triple-mission cadence noted on SpaceX’s launches board.