CancelledUncrewed Mars landing 2018
“Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018. Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details…”
“Starlink V2, launching next year, will transmit direct to mobile phones, eliminating dead zones worldwide”
See his original post on XLoads Elon's actual tweet, right here.
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What actually happened
No direct-to-phone satellites launched in 2023. The full-size Starlink V2 needed Starship and never flew on schedule; SpaceX instead launched its first six direct-to-cell satellites on a Falcon 9 on January 2, 2024, and the first satellite texts were sent January 10, 2024. T-Mobile's commercial T-Satellite texting service did not launch until July 2025, and dead zones were not 'eliminated worldwide'. CNBC — SpaceX and T-Mobile send first texts via Starlink satellites (Jan 2024) ↗
The Progression
Aug 26, 2022
The promise: “Starlink V2, launching next year, will transmit direct to mobile phones, eliminating dead zones worldwide” · Elon Musk on X, August 26 2022, day after the T-Mobile 'Coverage Above and Beyond' event at Starbase (verified verbatim via publish.x.com oEmbed) ↗
Jan 2, 2024
Delivered · Late — 2 days late. No direct-to-phone satellites launched in 2023. The full-size Starlink V2 needed Starship and never flew on schedule; SpaceX instead launched its first six direct-to-cell satellites on a Falcon 9 on January 2, 2024, and the first satellite texts were sent January 10, 2024. T-Mobile's commercial T-Satellite texting service did not launch until July 2025, and dead zones were not 'eliminated worldwide'. CNBC — SpaceX and T-Mobile send first texts via Starlink satellites (Jan 2024) ↗
Today · Jul 16, 2026
Status: Delivered · Late · 2 days late. It happened — eventually.
The day after the August 2022 T-Mobile partnership event, Musk posted that Starlink V2 satellites would launch 'next year' and transmit directly to mobile phones, 'eliminating dead zones worldwide'. 2023 came and went with no direct-to-cell satellites; the first six launched January 2, 2024 on Falcon 9 (not the Starship-dependent full V2), and commercial satellite texting for T-Mobile customers only arrived in July 2025.
Receipts
LAST CHECKED 2026-06-26- [TWEET] Elon Musk on X, August 26 2022, day after the T-Mobile 'Coverage Above and Beyond' event at Starbase (verified verbatim via publish.x.com oEmbed)
- [TWEET] Companion tweet: 'connectivity will be 2 to 4 Mbits per cell zone, so will work great for texting & voice calls' (verified via oEmbed)
- [REPORT] CNBC coverage of the Aug 25 2022 T-Mobile/SpaceX event
More from the feed
Cancelled
PartialStarship reaches orbit
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goalposts: 2020 → 2022 · moved 1×
Delivered · LateGlobal Starlink coverage by end of 2021
“Most of Earth by end of year, all by next year, then it's about densifying coverage.”
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'Shocked if we do not achieve FSD safer than human' in 2022 →
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