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SpaceX still eyeing back-to-back East and West Coast launches this weekend

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Update #2: SpaceX’s Starlink-15 launch has slipped to Sunday, November 22nd, roughly 36 hours after Sentinel 6A’s scheduled November 21st launch.

Update: Three days later, there’s still a chance that SpaceX will be ready to attempt back-to-back East and West Coast Falcon 9 launches on Saturday, November 21st, potentially launching twice in exactly ten hours if schedules hold.

On the West Coast, a new Falcon 9 rocket has successfully completed a routine static fire test and is likely just hours away from rolling out to SpaceX Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E). The rocket is scheduled to place the international Sentinel 6A oceanographic satellite into a polar orbit, followed by booster B1063’s first landing attempt at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4).

On the East Coast, Falcon 9 and 60 more Starlink v1.0 satellites went vertical at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) pad. It’s unclear if SpaceX will perform a prelaunch static fire test despite the fact that the Starlink-15 mission will be booster B1049’s seventh flight – a first for SpaceX and orbital-class reusable rocketry.

Oddly, SpaceX has yet to update its website with details or confirmation of the two back-to-back launch attempts, raising the possibility of one or both being delayed, but hardware at the pad remains an unequivocal confirmation that at least one of the missions is close to liftoff. As usual, whenever Sentinel 6A and Starlink-15 do launch, SpaceX will host an official webcast on its YouTube channel.

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SpaceX appears to be on track to attempt two separate Falcon 9 launches and landings within the same ten-hour, also marking the company’s 14th Starlink mission this year and first West Coast launch in a year and a half.

After overcoming a range of minor issues, replacing two Falcon 9 booster engines, effectively reactivating a dormant orbital launch complex, and doing all of the above to a standard capable of satisfying NASA’s strict expectations, SpaceX is officially set to launch the Sentinel 6A oceanography satellite no earlier than (NET) 9:17 am PST (16:17 UTC) Saturday, November 21st. The twist: Falcon 9 will be launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), California for the first time since June 2019.

Meanwhile, back on the East Coast, SpaceX has successfully completed Crew Dragon’s operational astronaut launch debut, clearing the company to focus on its third November mission – Starlink V1 L15. Set to be SpaceX’s 14th dedicated Starlink launch in 2020 alone, Starlink-15 is currently scheduled to lift off NET 10:17 pm EDT (03:17 UTC) on November 21st – coincidentally exactly ten hours of Falcon 9’s Sentinel 6A launch.

SpaceX’s Sentinel 6A launch will debut new Falcon 9 booster B1063, first spotted on its way from the company’s McGregor, Texas test facilities to VAFB in late August. Unfortunately, when Falcon 9 booster B1062 suffered a last-second abort on October 2nd, the Merlin 1D booster engine issue ultimately deemed responsible for the anomaly was also traced back to B1061 and B1063.

Falcon 9 booster B1063 was spotted on its way west from McGregor, Texas to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in August. (D. Stamos)

As a result, SpaceX chose to replace an average of two Merlin 1D engines on each of the three boosters in a process that took several weeks. Additional difficulty was added due to the fact that all three new boosters were assigned to high-profile missions for exceptionally strict NASA and US military customers, necessitating extra caution and verification. Regardless of the hurdles, SpaceX managed to complete an entire complex rocket engine anomaly investigation in less than six weeks, determining the root cause, replicating the failure mode with individual engine static fires, replacing multiple engines on multiple boosters, and recertifying all three boosters for their respective flights.

Falcon 9 B1062 successfully launched the US military’s GPS III SV04 satellite on November 5th, followed by Falcon 9 B1061’s flawless four-astronaut launch on November 15th. Of the three impacted boosters, only B1063 remains and is scheduled to launch just four days from now. Barring surprises, all three will likely support one or several dozen more launches in the coming years.

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Falcon 9 booster B1061 lifts off with four astronauts aboard. (Richard Angle)
Falcon 9 booster B1062 lands aboard drone ship OCISLY after a flawless launch debut. (SpaceX)

Meanwhile, SpaceX’s November 21st Starlink-15 launch is expected to feature Falcon 9 B1049 in what will become the first time the same rocket booster flies for the seventh time. In essence, if successful, Starlink-15 will effectively mean that SpaceX is 70% of the way towards achieving its longstanding goal of ten launches per booster.

Falcon 9 B1049 launched and landed for the sixth time on August 18th. (Richard Angle)

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla launches new loaner program that owners will love

Tesla is now giving owners the opportunity to rent a vehicle from them, and it includes a few very attractive features that will have you second-guessing another loaner from insurance.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has launched a new loaner program that owners will love, as it resolves some concerns over a replacement vehicle while it is being repaired.

Earlier this week, Tesla launched the option to rent a Tesla loaner vehicle for just $45 per day if your vehicle is in Collision Repair. Collision repairs did not formerly warrant the issuance of loaner vehicles, as the insurance provider of the car owner would provide transportation arrangements.

Tesla is now giving owners the opportunity to rent a vehicle from them, and it includes a few very attractive features that will have you second-guessing another loaner from insurance.

The Tesla you rent while your car is in collision repair will come with free Full Self-Driving, free Supercharging, and free toll coverage, no small print included.

All things considered, this is a great deal for those who require a car for transportation while their car is being repaired.

The cost of Supercharging and Full Self-Driving alone would warrant the $45 per day price tag. Add in the tolls for those who commute on turnpikes for work or are planning an extensive trip that would require it, and it truly becomes an even more attractive deal.

Tesla has done a good job at improving its Service division over the past few years, and it truly needed it. In hopes of launching an F1-style service experience, Tesla started doing away with some of its perks, including loaner vehicles for single-day visits and even Uber credits.

Tesla’s ‘F1’ Service strategy eliminates same-day loaner vehicles, Uber credits

However, it has listened to the complaints of its owners and tried to cater an experience that is more advantageous and less of a hassle. It’s already made tremendous steps in the past few years, and this is the icing on the cake.

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SpaceX Starship Flight 10: What to expect

SpaceX implemented hardware and operational changes aimed at improving Starship’s reliability.

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing to launch the tenth test flight of its Starship vehicle as early as Sunday, August 24, with the launch window opening at 6:30 p.m. CT. 

The mission follows investigations into anomalies from earlier flights, including the loss of Starship on its ninth test and a Ship 36 static fire issue. SpaceX has since implemented hardware and operational changes aimed at improving Starship’s reliability.

Booster landing burns and flight experiments

The upcoming Starship Flight 10 will expand Super Heavy’s flight envelope with multiple landing burn trials. Following stage separation, the booster will attempt a controlled flip and boostback burn before heading to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf of America. One of the three center engines typically used for landing will be intentionally disabled, allowing engineers to evaluate whether a backup engine can complete the maneuver, according to a post from SpaceX.

The booster will also transition to a two-engine configuration for the final phase, hovering briefly above the water before shutdown and drop. These experiments are designed to simulate off-nominal scenarios and generate real-world data on performance under varying conditions, while maximizing propellant use during ascent to enable heavier payloads.

Starship upper stage reentry tests

The Starship upper stage will attempt multiple in-space objectives, including deployment of eight Starlink simulators and a planned Raptor engine relight. SpaceX will also continue testing reentry systems with several modifications. A section of thermal protection tiles has been removed to expose vulnerable areas, while new metallic tile designs, including one with active cooling, will be trialed.

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Catch fittings have been installed to evaluate their thermal and structural performance, and adjustments to the tile line will address hot spots observed on Flight 6. The reentry profile is expected to push the structural limits of Starship’s rear flaps at maximum entry pressure.

SpaceX says lessons from these tests are critical to refining the next-generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles. With Starfactory production ramping in Texas and new launch infrastructure under development in Florida, the company is pushing to hit its goal of achieving a fully reusable orbital launch system.

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Elon Musk takes aim at Bill Gates’ Microsoft with new AI venture “Macrohard”

It is quite an appropriate name for a company that’s designed to rival Microsoft.

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Credit: xAI/X

Elon Musk has set his sights on Microsoft with a new company called “Macrohard,” a software venture tied to his AI startup, xAI. 

Musk described the project as a “purely AI software company” that’s designed to generate hundreds of specialized coding and generative AI agents that could one day simulate products from companies like Microsoft entirely through artificial intelligence.

Macrohard‘s Purpose

Musk announced Macrohard on Friday, though xAI had already registered the trademark with the US Patent Office a few weeks ago, as noted in a PC Mag report. Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that Musk has mentioned such an initiative.

Just last month, he stated that xAI was “creating a multi-agent AI software company, where Grok spawns hundreds of specialized coding and image/video generation/understanding agents all working together and then emulates humans interacting with the software in virtual machines until the result is excellent.”

At the time, Musk stated that “This is a macro challenge and a hard problem with stiff competition,” hinting at the venture’s “Macrohard” moniker. A few years ago, Musk also posted “Macrohard >> Microsoft” on X. 

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Powered by xAI and Colossus

Macrohard appears to be closely linked to xAI’s Colossus 2 supercomputer project in Memphis. Musk has confirmed plans to acquire millions of Nvidia GPUs, joining rivals such as OpenAI and Meta in a high-stakes race for AI computing power. Colossus is already one of the most powerful supercomputer clusters in the world, and it is still being expanded.

xAI is only a couple of years old, having been founded in March 2023. During its Engineering Open House event in San Francisco, Elon Musk highlighted that the company’s speed will be its primary competitive edge. “No SR-71 Blackbird was ever shot down and it only had one strategy: to accelerate,” Musk said.

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