News
Boeing, NASA attempt Starliner landing after missing intended orbit
During the early morning hours of Friday, December 20th, at Space Launch Complex – 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station United Launch Alliance successfully launched a uniquely configured, rated for human spaceflight Atlas V rocket topped with the Boeing Starliner crew capsule to complete its inaugural Orbital Flight Test to the International Space Station (ISS).
However, following the stunning sunrise launch and successful spacecraft separation, Starliner experienced an anomaly with an automated mission event timer which hindered a crucial orbital insertion burn from being completed.
The missed burn and the resulting domino effect of consequences cut Starliner’s journey short. In a joint media teleconference held Saturday, December 21st including NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Boeing senior vice president of Space and Launch Jim Chilton, and deputy manager of NASA Commercial Crew Steve Stich, it was confirmed that just 48 hours following launch Starliner is expected conclude the test flight and return for a controlled landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Initially, Starliner was expected to spend approximately 8 days docked on orbit with the ISS for a return journey tentatively scheduled to occur on December 28th. The lack of orbital insertion and consequential overuse of fuel consumed by smaller incremental burns performed throughout the day on Friday to place Starliner in a safe orbit all but guaranteed that the spacecraft would miss its opportunity to rendezvous and autonomously dock with the ISS, a pivotal objective of the orbital test flight. A fact that was later confirmed on Twitter by Bridenstine.
During the teleconference, Starliner was described as a healthy spacecraft that had in fact achieved circular safe orbit approximately 250km above sea level, lower than would have been achieved had the initial burn occurred as planned. As docking with the ISS was completely out of reach and Starliner remained under tight constraints of how long it could maintain free orbital flight, Boeing and NASA teams jointly decided to bring Starliner home as soon as possible.
While Starliner remained on orbit Friday and Saturday, flight controllers completed many OFT mission objectives. A number of the achievements were outlined in a statement posted to Boeing’s Starliner updates webpage.
“Entry, descent, and landing is not for the faint of heart.” – Jim Chilton
While many OFT mission objectives were successfully met during the dramatically cut short mission the entire goal of Starliner still remains. After all, Starliner is designed to ferry human astronauts safely to and from the ISS. A huge part of that is re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and landing under survivable conditions.
Enough of Starliner’s fuel was preserved to afford multiple opportunities to safely land. Two opportunities to land at the planned site of White Sands Space Harbor on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This location may sound familiar as it is the same location where a different Starliner test capsule recently completed a pad abort test.
NASA and Boeing teams are targeting a landing attempt on Sunday 7:57 am EST (1257 GMT). Should it be needed a backup landing attempt at 3:48 pm EST (848 GMT) in the same location is also available. An anthropomorphic test dummy dressed in Boeing’s recognizable blue spacesuit inside the capsule nicknamed “Rosie the Rocketeer” is wired up with sensors to collect data reflecting the conditions a human astronaut would experience during descent.
NASA will livestream the landing attempt and recovery efforts on NASATV beginning at 5:45 am EST (1045 GMT).
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News
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end with no interventions.
A Tesla Model S has completed the first-ever full Cannonball Run using Full Self-Driving (FSD), traveling from Los Angeles to New York with zero interventions. The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end, fulfilling a long-discussed benchmark for autonomy.
A full FSD Cannonball Run
As per a report from The Drive, a 2024 Tesla Model S with AI4 and FSD v14.2.2.3 completed the 3,081-mile trip from Redondo Beach in Los Angeles to midtown Manhattan in New York City. The drive was completed by Alex Roy, a former automotive journalist and investor, along with a small team of autonomy experts.
Roy said FSD handled all driving tasks for the entirety of the route, including highway cruising, lane changes, navigation, and adverse weather conditions. The trip took a total of 58 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 64 mph, and about 10 hours were spent charging the vehicle. In later comments, Roy noted that he and his team cleaned out the Model S’ cameras during their stops to keep FSD’s performance optimal.
History made
The historic trip was quite impressive, considering that the journey was in the middle of winter. This meant that FSD didn’t just deal with other cars on the road. The vehicle also had to handle extreme cold, snow, ice, slush, and rain.
As per Roy in a post on X, FSD performed so well during the trip that the journey would have been completed faster if the Model S did not have people onboard. “Elon Musk was right. Once an autonomous vehicle is mature, most human input is error. A comedy of human errors added hours and hundreds of miles, but FSD stunned us with its consistent and comfortable behavior,” Roy wrote in a post on X.
Roy’s comments are quite notable as he has previously attempted Cannonball Runs using FSD on December 2024 and February 2025. Neither were zero intervention drives.
Elon Musk
Tesla removes Autopilot as standard, receives criticism online
The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders.
Tesla removed its basic Autopilot package as a standard feature in the United States. The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders, and shifts the company’s strategy towards paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions.
Tesla removes Autopilot
As per observations from the electric vehicle community on social media, Tesla no longer lists Autopilot as standard in its vehicles in the U.S. This suggests that features such as lane-centering and Autosteer have been removed as standard equipment. Previously, most Tesla vehicles came with Autopilot by default, which offers Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer.
The change resulted in backlash from some Tesla owners and EV observers, particularly as competing automakers, including mainstream players like Toyota, offer features like lane-centering as standard on many models, including budget vehicles.
That being said, the removal of Autopilot suggests that Tesla is concentrating its autonomy roadmap around FSD subscriptions rather than bundled driver-assistance features. It would be interesting to see how Tesla manages its vehicles’ standard safety features, as it seems out of character for Tesla to make its cars less safe over time.
Musk announces FSD price increases
Following the Autopilot changes, Elon Musk stated on X that Tesla is planning to raise subscription prices for FSD as its capabilities improve. In a post on X, Musk stated that the current $99-per-month price for supervised FSD would increase over time, especially as the system itself becomes more robust.
“I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (Unsupervised FSD),” Musk wrote.
At the time of his recent post, Tesla still offers FSD as a one-time purchase for $8,000, but Elon Musk has confirmed that this option will be discontinued on February 14, leaving subscriptions as the only way to access the system.
Tesla has initiated Cybertruck deliveries in a new region for the first time, as the all-electric pickup has officially made its way to the United Arab Emirates, marking the newest territory to receive the polarizing truck.
Tesla launched orders for the Cybertruck in the Middle East back in September 2025, just months after the company confirmed that it planned to launch the pickup in the region, which happened in April.
I took a Tesla Cybertruck weekend Demo Drive – Here’s what I learned
By early October, Tesla launched the Cybertruck configurator in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, with pricing starting at around AED 404,900, or about $110,000 for the Dual Motor configuration.
This decision positioned the Gulf states as key early international markets, and Tesla was hoping to get the Cybertruck outside of North America for the first time, as it has still been tough to launch in other popular EV markets, like Europe and Asia.
By late 2025, Tesla had pushed delivery timelines slightly and aimed for an early 2026 delivery launch in the Middle East. The first official customer deliveries started this month, and a notable handover event occurred in Dubai’s Al Marmoom desert area, featuring a light and fire show.
Around 63 Cybertrucks made their way to customers during the event:
First @cybertruck deliveries in the UAE 🇦🇪 pic.twitter.com/sN2rAxppUA
— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) January 22, 2026
As of this month, the Cybertruck still remains available for configuration on Tesla’s websites for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Middle Eastern countries like Jordan and Israel. Deliveries are rolling out progressively, with the UAE leading as the first to see hands-on customer events.
In other markets, most notably Europe, there are still plenty of regulatory hurdles that Tesla is hoping to work through, but they may never be resolved. The issues come from the unique design features that conflict with the European Union’s (EU) stringent safety standards.
These standards include pedestrian protection regulations, which require vehicles to minimize injury risks in collisions. However, the Cybertruck features sharp edges and an ultra-hard stainless steel exoskeleton, and its rigid structure is seen as non-compliant with the EU’s list of preferred designs.
The vehicle’s gross weight is also above the 3.5-tonne threshold for standard vehicles, which has prompted Tesla to consider a more compact design. However, the company’s focus on autonomy and Robotaxi has likely pushed that out of the realm of possibility.
For now, Tesla will work with the governments that want it to succeed in their region, and the Middle East has been a great partner to the company with the launch of the Cybertruck.
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
Tesla removes Autopilot as standard, receives criticism online
