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SpaceX settles on Thursday for first Falcon 9 launch of 2021

After a few days of delays, Falcon 9 booster B1060's fourth flight is on track to be SpaceX's first launch of the new year. (Richard Angle)

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After a few days of delays, SpaceX appears to have settled on Thursday, January 7th for the first of several dozen Falcon 9 launches planned in 2021.

Originally scheduled to launch as early as January 4th, SpaceX’s Turksat 5A communications satellite launch was “placed TBD due to mission assurance” on January 1st – an unfortunate catch-all euphemism often used by launch providers in lieu of any real explanation for delays. Regardless, Next Spaceflight reports that Turksat 5A will be Falcon 9 B1060’s fourth launch, a milestone the first stage (booster) has reached just six months after its first flight.

Despite the minor delay, SpaceX’s current target of four launches this month is still well within reach even though the slip exemplifies the uphill battle the company will face as it aims to achieve CEO Elon Musk’s goal of 48 launches in 2021. Weather is currently 60% favorable for SpaceX’s first launch of the year and Turksat 5A is scheduled to lift off no earlier than 8:28 pm EST on January 7th (01:28 UTC, 8 Jan).

Unfortunately, SpaceX’s first launch of the new year has been steeped in unprecedented controversy for the company, including the first-ever instance of mass-protests at its Hawthorne, California factory and headquarters. The reason: Turksat 5A, while partially meant for civilian communications, will also support the Turkish military, which supported Azerbaijan after the country – unprovoked – reignited a long-simmering conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in September 2020.

Stemming from events that transpired over the last several centuries, Armenian-Azeri conflict and Turkish involvement are extraordinarily complex and messy. In the 1910s and 1920s, Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) infamously committed atrocities against Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek communities within its occupied territory in a process of “Turkification”, systematically killing 1-3 million people in what would ultimately be labeled genocide. In a separate but related conflict, Turkey eventually chose to support Azerbaijan’s claim to the ethnically (75-90%) and historically Armenian territory, backing the country against Armenia in the first Nagorno-Karabakh War in the 1990s.

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Azerbaijan reignited the conflict in 2020, resulting in the deaths of at least 6000 combatants and civilians on both sides and ultimately securing a substantial portion of Nagorno-Karabakh territory as part of a November 2020 ceasefire agreement. To an extent, Nagorno-Karabakh’s borders are now more or less back to where they were before the first war in the 1990s. While an avoidable loss of life is inherently deplorable, it’s extremely difficult to say whether Azerbaijan was justified but it and Turkey’s history of systematic and discriminatory hostility towards Armenians leaves little benefit of the doubt worth giving.

Ultimately, that cloud of ambiguity makes it hard to directly fault SpaceX for choosing to launch Turksat 5A or for its contracts to launch Turksat 5B and future domestically-built satellites. Additionally, if SpaceX should be criticized for willingly launching the satellite, Airbus – contracted by Turkey to build Turksat 5A – is at least as worthy of critique but has yet to be included at all in protest discourse despite the fact that Turkey’s production contract was publicly announced in 2017.

In the history of spaceflight, a satellite that is completed but never launches is all but unheard of, as the inherent bureaucratic and financial inertia behind a launch campaign mere months away from its scheduled liftoff is obviously immense. Even if SpaceX were to accept major financial penalties and back out of its contract, Arianespace, Roscosmos, or ULA would assuredly accept any replacement contract.

For protestors still set on making an impact, the shrewd move would be to redirect attention on future Turkish satellite projects like Turksat 5B, 6A, and beyond with the intention of killing contracts in the cradle – a far more tenable goal.

Stay tuned for more launch details as SpaceX nears its first mission of 2021.

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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 considers making a big move with Model Y pricing as demand is skyrocketing

“Trending toward a need to expedite output even further, which could mean adjusting pricing upward in the coming days. Trying hard not to, will see.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is considering making a big move with Model Y pricing as demand is skyrocketing due to the EV tax credit expiring in just over a month.

With the $7,500 EV tax credit set to be removed on September 30, Tesla is experiencing increased demand for its Model 3 and Model Y. Customers are doing whatever they can to take delivery of the car they ordered as soon as possible.

The IRS recently adjusted the EV tax credit’s rules slightly.

Tesla set to win big after IRS adjusts EV tax credit rules

Previously, the vehicle had to be delivered by September 30, but a slight tweak the agency made last week will now allow customers to enter a legally binding contract along with a marginal down payment by that date. The delivery can occur after September 30, and the car can still qualify for the credit.

However, demand is getting so crazy for the Model Y that Tesla is considering a price increase on the all-electric crossover, as well as a potential boost in production output to keep up with orders.

Inventory is dwindling in several markets across the United States, a good sign for the company, as it could have one of its best quarters in recent history in terms of deliveries.

However, Tesla is thinking of bumping the price slightly, Raj Jegannathan, the company’s VP of IT, AI Infrastructure, Apps, Infosec, and Vehicle Service Operations, said on X:

The price adjustment would come as a response to increasing production output, Jegannathan’s response seems to indicate.

The bump would help Tesla’s margins, but the idea that the company could adjust pricing by increasing it would not be popular with potential car buyers. It might encourage some buyers to put their orders in sooner, hoping to avoid a new, higher price.

However, it could also steer some buyers away from putting an order in on a vehicle, especially if the price increase is more than a few hundred dollars.

Tesla boosted the price of the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck recently, but brought in a “Luxe Package” to help justify it.

It comes with Free Full Self-Driving, Free lifetime Supercharging, four years of premium service, and lifetime Premium Connectivity.

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Tesla produces 100,000th new Model Y in Giga Berlin

The milestone was announced on X.

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Credit: Tesla Manufacturing/X

Tesla has produced its 100,000th new Model Y at Gigafactory Berlin. The milestone was announced by the electric vehicle maker through its official Tesla Manufacturing account on social media platform X. 

New Tesla Model Y milestone

The milestone was announced by Tesla on X, when the company wrote “Today, we built the 100,000th New Model Y at Giga Berlin!” The announcement was accompanied by an image of a new Model Y coming off the line.

The milestone was received warmly by members of the Tesla community, many of whom expressed excitement at the further progress of the new Model Y program at Giga Berlin. The facility, after all, only produces Model Y units, which would make it the perfect site to produce new variants like the Model Y Performance and possibly even the Model Y L, which was recently launched in China. 

New Model Y ramp

As noted in a previous report from electrive, the initial production of the new Model Y started in Giga Berlin around mid-January 2025. Since the new Model Y involved a changeover from the legacy Y to the new variant, the ramp of the new Model Y’s production at the Germany-based facility was likely a gradual process over the past months. 

It would then be no surprise if the next 100,000 new Model Y units would be produced in Giga Berlin in a shorter period. Giga Berlin could become an even bigger factor in Tesla’s global sales, after all, especially if it becomes the site that produces the Model Y Performance and the Model Y L for Europe and other territories. Giga Berlin, if any, seems to be quite busy recently, with aerial videos of the facility showing a fleet of mysteriously covered Model Y units being stored within the complex.

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Tesla set to win big after IRS adjusts EV tax credit rules

“For purposes of sections 25E, 30D, and 45W, a vehicle is ‘acquired’ as of the date a written binding contract is entered into and a payment has been made. A payment includes a nominal down payment or a vehicle trade-in.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is set to potentially come out as a big winner as the IRS has adjusted the rules of the $7,500 EV tax credit slightly.

The $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles is set to expire on September 30, but the IRS has made a slight adjustment to the terms of the credit that will give consumers a bit more time to buy an EV and receive the discount.

The original terms of the EV tax credit were that delivery of an EV must be completed by September 30. Even if you had made a reservation or put a down payment on an EV, if it did not arrive and take delivery by September 30, the credit would not apply to you.

Tesla is ready with a perfect counter to the end of US EV tax credits

This put some people in quite a tough situation. As wait times for some EVs, especially Tesla Model Y and Model 3 vehicles, continue to be pushed back due to an increase in demand as consumers are trying to take advantage of the credit, some car buyers ordered a car that was not the trim level, paint color, or interior color that they wanted.

However, the IRS has adjusted the terms of the tax credit to enable people to have a bit more time to get the vehicle they want.

Late last week, the agency said that the meaning of “acquired” has been changed, and now, if a consumer has entered a legally binding contract to take delivery of the vehicle, which includes a nominal down payment on the car, they can take delivery after the previous September 30 deadline and still qualify for the credit.

The IRS wrote:

“For purposes of sections 25E, 30D, and 45W, a vehicle is ‘acquired’ as of the date a written binding contract is entered into and a payment has been made. A payment includes a nominal down payment or a vehicle trade-in.”

Tesla could come out as a big winner here because of this. The company is experiencing a lot of demand for its cars because of the tax credit’s expiration, and now that the rule has been adjusted to include orders received by the 30th as long as they’re accompanied by a nominal down payment, some of these high-demand deliveries could leak into Q4.

Q3 is likely going to be a very strong quarter for Tesla, and questions remain about how the company will perform in subsequent quarters since the tax credit is going away. However, this slight adjustment is a big plus for Tesla and other EV makers.

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