SpaceX has successfully launched 48 more Starlink V1.5 satellites and two rideshare payloads, simultaneously breaking its record for annual launches and making Falcon 9 the most consecutively successfully flown rocket in Western history.
After a small one-day delay, Falcon 9 booster B1060 lifted off for the ninth time at 6:12 pm EST (23:12 UTC), likely missing the opportunity for a spectacular artificial rocket ‘nebula’ but just a few minutes. Nevertheless, Falcon 9 performed flawlessly, acing its ninth landing in 18 months and sending an expendable upper stage and about 14 metric tons (~31,000 lb) of satellites on their way to orbit. The second stage reached an initial parking orbit around nine minutes after launch and coasted for almost an hour before reigniting to insert its Starlink and Blacksky payloads into the correct orbit.
Almost exactly mirroring Blacksky’s first August 2020 Starlink rideshare mission, Falcon 9 first deployed the company’s two ~60 kg (~130 lb) Earth observation satellites around T+1:03. The second stage then gradually spun itself up end over end before releasing all 48 Starlink V1.5 satellites at once ~90 minutes after liftoff, marking the end of Falcon 9’s 101st consecutively successful orbital launch and SpaceX’s 27th launch of the year – new records for western spaceflight and the company, respectively.
As previously discussed on Teslarati, with Starlink 4-3, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 workhorse has become the first western rocket in history to surpass 100 consecutive launch successes, beating out McDonnell Douglas’ (and, later, ULA’s) Delta II rocket.
“As pointed out by a Teslarati reader, Starlink 4-3 could also see Falcon 9 become the first American rocket in history to successfully complete more than 100 orbital launches in a row, narrowly beating out McDonnell Douglas’ retired Delta II rocket for the title. Earlier this year, many outlets already reported that SpaceX’s May 26th Starlink-28 launch was its 100th consecutive launch. While true in a very literal sense, it ignores SpaceX’s infamous Amos-6 Falcon 9 failure, which occurred well before liftoff but still destroyed both the rocket and payload.
Only Russia’s R-7 (Soyuz) rockets – the most-launched rocket family in history – have successfully launched more times in a row. Since 1966, Soyuz rockets have launched more than 1900 times and the family has repeatedly completed 100 consecutively successful launches over its decades of operation. Eleven years after its debut, Falcon 9 currently stands at 127 fully successful launches – a lifetime away from matching Soyuz but still well on its way to a thoroughly impressive second place.”
Teslarati.com – December 1st, 2021
SpaceX has also beaten its 2020 record of 26 launches completed in one year and still has at least three or four more launches planned in 2021 – potentially pushing the company past the 30-launch mark before the end of the year. Up next, SpaceX is scheduled to launch NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) no earlier than (NET) 1am EST (06:00 UTC), December 9th; Turkey’s Turksat 5B communications satellite NET 10:58 pm EST (3:58 UTC), December 18th; Cargo Dragon 2’s CRS-24 space station resupply mission NET 5:06 am EST (10:06 UTC), December 21st; and (potentially) Starlink 2-2 or 2-3 NET late December.
Tesla Senior Vice President for Automotive Tom Zhu, a key executive behind the company’s success in China and Giga Texas, recently highlighted the “prime directive” of Full Self-Driving (FSD).
Zhu’s comments emphasize Tesla’s uncompromising focus on safety, which has made the company’s vehicles among the safest on the road.
Echoing Musk’s vision for safe autonomous driving
Zhu’s post quoted Musk’s statement from 2021, where the CEO reportedly stated that FSD must avoid accidents even if the most ridiculous events happened in the middle of the road. Zhu stated that beyond everything, Tesla’s systems like Autopilot and FSD are designed to keep passengers safe.
“Elon said it in 2021: “For self-driving, even if the road is painted completely wrong and a UFO lands in the middle of the road, the car still cannot crash and still needs to do the right thing. The prime directive for the autopilot system is: Don’t crash. That really overrides everything. No matter what the lines say or how the road is done, the thing that needs to happen is minimizing the probability of impact while getting you to your destination conveniently and comfortably,” Zhu stated.
“The prime directive, the absolute priority, is to minimize the probability of injury to yourself or to anyone on the road, to pedestrians, or anything like that. It can’t be dependent on the road markings being correct.”
Tesla leadership rallies behind global FSD rollout
Tom Zhu, who previously led Tesla China through its record-breaking growth phase, now oversees automotive operations worldwide. He has reportedly become a problem solver for Elon Musk over the years, with previous reports stating that he was brought in to help Giga Texas optimize its vehicle production ramp.
Zhu’s comments may sound ambitious, but FSD has proven that it values safety above all else over the years. This was highlighted recently in an incident in Australia, when a Model Y was hit by what could very well be a meteor. Despite the impact and part of its windshield melting, the vehicle was able to drive safely and keep its passengers safe.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s biggest tech rival just canceled his Tesla Roadster
“I really was excited for the car! And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait,” Altman said.
Elon Musk’s biggest tech rival just canceled his reservation for a Tesla Roadster, the supercar the company has been developing for nearly eight years.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, announced on X on Thursday evening that he canceled his Tesla Roadster reservation, or at least is trying to:
A tale in three acts: pic.twitter.com/ClRZBgT24g
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 30, 2025
Altman placed his Tesla Roadster reservation with a $50,000 deposit way back on July 11, 2018. However, he recently decided that he had waited long enough and decided to email the company to officially cancel the order.
“Hi, I’d like to cancel my reservation. Could you please refund me the $50k?” Altman emails to reservations@tesla.com.
He then received an immediate response, but not from Tesla. Instead, it was a bounce-back message from Google, stating that the message could not be delivered to the email because it was not active.
Altman then provided a reason for his cancellation, and it was not related to the intense rivalry he had with Elon Musk:
“I really was excited for the car! And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait.”
I really was excited for the car! And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait.
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 30, 2025
Altman and Musk have a lengthy history with one another that dates back to 2015, when OpenAI was created. The feud has resulted in lawsuits over breaching founding agreements by prioritizing profits.
Musk has been especially critical in recent years because of Altman’s decision to turn OpenAI into a for-profit business that he says is “built on a lie.”
This year, Musk offered over $97 billion to buy OpenAI, and a judge blocked his request to stop the company from being converted into a for-profit in March.
OpenAI then countersued Musk in April, while xAI, Musk’s company, sued OpenAI for allegedly stealing secrets through poached employees in September.
Elon Musk explains why xAI sued OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft
Regarding the Roadster, Tesla has been developing it for several years and has delayed its release for five consecutive years. The company says it will have a demo of what it has changed since it was unveiled in 2017 later this year, but no date has been set quite yet.
News
Neuralink’s first human patient reflects on 21 months with brain implant “Eve”
He credited Neuralink and Elon Musk for giving him “the opportunity to be the first,” as the experience has been life-changing.
Nolan Arbaugh, the first person to receive Neuralink’s brain implant, shared his 21-month update this week, reflecting on how far he’s come since his groundbreaking surgery.
Arbaugh, who became paralyzed after a diving accident, stated that his Neuralink implant, which he fondly calls “Eve,” continues to transform his daily life.
Arbaugh celebrates Neuralink’s progress
In his post on X, Arbaugh revealed that his hands-on involvement with Neuralink has decreased as more participants have joined the program. “The team might call me to test something once in a blue moon,” he wrote, adding that he’s happy to see others experience the technology’s full potential, from operating robotic arms to typing on keyboards with thought alone.
He credited Neuralink and Elon Musk for giving him “the opportunity to be the first,” as the experience has been life-changing. Despite a recent pressure sore that temporarily kept him bedridden, Arbaugh noted that he is still very optimistic, describing his journey as one of resilience, faith, and gratitude. He also teased “big news” coming for his two-year update in early 2026.
Studies and a growing public speaking career
These days, Arbaugh stated that he is focused on his studies in neuroscience, taking full-semester courses in chemistry, biology, and pre-calculus while earning top grades. He credited “Eve” for making school possible again, as his current academic workload would have been “impossible without Neuralink.” Arbaugh stated that he has also begun building a speaking business after delivering a paid talk at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference.
“At the beginning of September I attended the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Park City, Utah, as a paid speaker. That sentence seemed like an impossibility two years ago. But it’s just the beginning. My business is built, my legal is near complete, I’m surrounding myself with a team of amazing folks, and I plan on speaking once or twice a month in the same fashion beginning as soon as January.
“Conferences, interviews, podcasts—you name it, and I want to be there spreading the word about how amazing this technology is, the growth it’s experiencing, the possibilities of the future, and how it has so deeply affected my life,” Arbaugh stated.
Tesla top exec Tom Zhu highlights Elon Musk’s “prime directive” for FSD
Elon Musk’s biggest tech rival just canceled his Tesla Roadster
Neuralink’s first human patient reflects on 21 months with brain implant “Eve”
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