News
SpaceX launches fourth Starlink mission in 16 days
Update: SpaceX has officially completed its fifth Falcon 9 launch and landing in three weeks and delivered its fourth batch of Starlink satellites to orbit in 16 days.
Following a rare ‘leapfrog’ likely due to the presence of third-party rideshare payloads from Capella Space and Tyvak, Starlink-26 successfully lifted off on May 15th, six days after a flawless Starlink-27 launch that also marked the first tenth flight of a Falcon booster. Starlink-26 is SpaceX’s fourth Starlink rideshare and fifth self-managed rideshare overall, as well as the company’s 15th launch of 2021. With more than six months to go until 2022, SpaceX could complete upwards of 40 orbital launches this year if it maintains that cadence.
Up next, Starlink-28 is already scheduled to launch as early as the afternoon of May 26th.
On the heels of a two-week April hiatus as SpaceX switched its focus to a crucial astronaut launch, the company has begun churning through an unending backlog of Starlink missions.
Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 became the first crewed space capsule and liquid rocket booster to launch astronauts twice on April 23rd, acing NASA’s Crew-2 mission with four international astronauts. Less than a week later, SpaceX jumped back to the grind with Starlink-24 on April 29th. On May 4th, Falcon 9 B1049 aced its ninth launch and landing and delivered the booster’s seventh batch of 60 Starlink satellites to orbit with Starlink-25.
Less than five days after that, Falcon 9 booster B1051 successfully lifted off on SpaceX’s Starlink-27 mission, becoming the first liquid rocket booster ever to complete ten orbital-class launches (and landings). Hours later, Starlink-25 Falcon 9 booster B1049 sailed back to port on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY). Amidst that flurry of launches, landings, and booster returns, SpaceX has already scheduled its next Starlink launch – Starlink-26 – less than a week after Starlink-27.
According to Spaceflight Now, Next Spaceflight, and launch photographer Ben Cooper, Starlink-26 – leapfrogged by Starlink-27 for unknown reasons – is scheduled to launch as early as 6:58 pm EDT (00:58 UTC) on Saturday, May 15th, less than a week after Starlink-27. Next Spaceflight reports that SpaceX has assigned Falcon 9 booster B1058 to launch Starlink-26 – its eighth orbital-class launch – 38 days after the same rocket launched Starlink-23.
There are some signs that Starlink-26 will carry rideshare payloads for one or several other companies, which could explain why the mission was leapfrogged by Starlink-27. The only other instance of a leapfrog happened last year when Falcon 9 booster B1049 was beset by repeated delays while trying to launch Starlink-15, which could also have delayed Starlink-26.
Either way, if SpaceX manages to launch Starlink-26 on time, it will be the fourth Starlink launch in 16 days and third in 11 days, setting up May 2021 to be one of the busiest months in the company’s history. Beyond Starlink missions, SpaceX recovered Crew Dragon and four astronauts for the first time after a record-breaking long-duration spaceflight on May 2nd, followed by Starship SN15 becoming the first full-size Mars rocket prototype to survive a high-altitude launch and landing on May 5th.
Less than two weeks prior, SpaceX launched four international astronauts to orbit in a flight-proven Dragon capsule and on a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster, representing a truly historic validation of the company’s reusable rockets and spacecraft. Accompanied by the symbolic but still historic tenth flight of a Falcon booster weeks later, it’s hard to say that SpaceX’s future has ever looked brighter.
News
Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Marie Nilsson, chair of Sweden’s IF Metall union and a prominent critic of Tesla, has left X and is urging audiences to follow the union on Meta’s Threads instead.
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Anti-Tesla union leader exits X
In a comment to Dagens Arbete (DA), Nilsson noted that her exit from X is not formally tied to IF Metall’s long-running labor dispute with Tesla Sweden. Still, she stated that her departure is affected by changes to the platform under Elon Musk’s leadership.
“We have stayed because many journalists pick up news there. But as more and more people have left X, we have felt that the standard has now been reached on that platform,” she said.
Jesper Pettersson, press officer at IF Metall, highlighted that the union’s departure from X is only indirectly linked to Tesla Sweden and Elon Musk. “Indirectly it does, since there is a lot of evidence that his ownership has caused the change in the platform to be so significant.
“We have nevertheless assessed that the platform had value for reaching journalists, politicians and other opinion leaders. But it is a microscopic proportion of the public and our members who are there, and now that value has decreased,” Petterson added.
IF Metall sees Threads as an X alternative
After leaving X, IF Metall has begun using Threads, Meta’s alternative to the social media platform. The union described the move as experimental, noting that it is still evaluating how effective the platform will be for outreach and visibility.
Pettersson acknowledged that Meta also does not operate under Sweden’s collective bargaining model, but said the union sees little alternative if it wants to remain visible online.
“In a perfect world, all large international companies would be supporters of the Swedish model when they come here. But unfortunately, the reality is not like that. If we are to be visible at all in this social media world, we have to play by the rules of the game. The alternative would be to become completely invisible, and that would not benefit our members,” he said.
Despite many recent rumors and various reports, Elon Musk confirmed today that SpaceX is not developing a phone based on Starlink, not once, but twice.
Today’s report from Reuters cited people familiar with the matter and stated internal discussions have seen SpaceX executives mulling the idea of building a mobile device that would connect directly to the Starlink satellite constellation.
Musk did state in late January that SpaceX developing a phone was “not out of the question at some point.” However, He also said it would have to be a major difference from current phones, and would be optimized “purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.”
Not out of the question at some point. It would be a very different device than current phones. Optimized purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2026
While Musk said it was not out of the question “at some point,” that does not mean it is currently a project SpaceX is working on. The CEO reaffirmed this point twice on X this afternoon.
Musk said, “Reuters lies relentlessly,” in one post. In the next, he explicitly stated, “We are not developing a phone.”
Reuters lies relentlessly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
We are not developing a phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
Musk has basically always maintained that SpaceX has too many things going on, denying that a phone would be in the realm of upcoming projects. There are too many things in the works for Musk’s space exploration company, most notably the recent merger with xAI.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
A Starlink phone would be an excellent idea, especially considering that SpaceX operates 9,500 satellites, serving over 9 million users worldwide. 650 of those satellites are dedicated to the company’s direct-to-device initiative, which provides cellular coverage on a global scale.
Nevertheless, there is the potential that the Starlink phone eventually become a project SpaceX works on. However, it is not currently in the scope of what the company needs to develop, so things are more focused on that as of right now.
Tesla has added a notable improvement to its Dashcam feature after complaints from owners have pushed the company to make a drastic change.
Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations that Tesla owners have communicated regarding the Dashcam feature is the lack of ability to retain any more than 60 minutes of driving footage before it is overwritten.
It does not matter what size USB jump drive is plugged into the vehicle. 60 minutes is all it will hold until new footage takes over the old. This can cause some issues, especially if you were saving an impressive clip of Full Self-Driving or an incident on the road, which could be lost if new footage was recorded.
This has now been changed, as Tesla has shown in the Release Notes for an upcoming Software Update in China. It will likely expand to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, and was first noticed by NotaTeslaApp.
The release notes state:
“Dashcam Dynamic Recording Duration – The dashcam dynamically adjusts the recording duration based on the available storage capacity of the connected USB drive. For example, with a 128 GB USB drive, the maximum recording duration is approximately 3 hours; with a 1 TB or larger USB drive, it can reach up to 24 hours. This ensures that as much video as possible is retained for review before it gets overwritten.”
Tesla Adds Dynamic Recording
Instead of having a 60-minute cap, the new system will now go off the memory in the USB drive. This means with:
- 128 GB Jump Drive – Up to Three Hours of Rolling Footage
- 1TB Jump Drive – Up to 24 Hours of Rolling Footage
This is dependent on the amount of storage available on the jump drive, meaning that if there are other things saved on it, it will take away from the amount of footage that can be retained.
While the feature is just now making its way to employees in China, it will likely be at least several weeks before it makes its way to the U.S., but owners should definitely expect it in the coming months.
It will be a welcome feature, especially as there will now be more customization to the number of clips and their duration that can be stored.
Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Elon Musk confirms SpaceX is not developing a phone
