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Boeing, NASA attempt Starliner landing after missing intended orbit

Artist rendering of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule in orbit. Image credit: Boeing

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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.

A long-exposure of Starliner’s Atlas V launch debut. (Richard Angle)

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.

https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1208021843388633090

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.

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A statement posted to Boeing’s Starliner update webpage outlines mission objective achievements made while on orbit. (Boeing)

“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.

https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1208458224397115392

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.

An anthropometric test device, called Rosie, is in view inside Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. Rosie will fly aboard Starliner on the company’s Orbital Flight Test, an inaugural flight to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. (Boeing/NASA)

NASA will livestream the landing attempt and recovery efforts on NASATV beginning at 5:45 am EST (1045 GMT).

Check out Teslarati’s newsletters for prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket launch and recovery processes.

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Tesla says texting and driving capability is coming ‘in a month or two’

“In the next month or two, we’re going to look at the safety statistics, but we’re going to allow you to text and drive, essentially.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that within the next month or two, the company will be able to open the ability for people to text and drive because its Full Self-Driving suite will be robust enough to allow drivers to take their attention away from the road.

In its current state, Tesla Full Self-Driving is a supervised driver assistance suite that requires the vehicle operator to maintain control of the vehicle and pay attention to the road surroundings.

However, the company has been aiming to release a fully autonomous version of the Full Self-Driving suite for years, teasing its future potential and aiming to release a Level 5 suite as soon as possible.

CEO Elon Musk believes the company is on the cusp of something drastic, according to what he said at yesterday’s Annual Shareholder Meeting.

One thing Musk hinted at was that the company should be able to allow those sitting in the driver’s seat of their cars to text and drive “in the next month or two,” as long as the statistics look good.

He said:

“In the next month or two, we’re going to look at the safety statistics, but we’re going to allow you to text and drive, essentially.”

The company recently transitioned to its v14 Full Self-Driving suite, which is its most robust to date, and recently expanded to Cybertruck, completing its rollout across the vehicle lineup.

Currently, Tesla is running v14.1.5, and when major improvements are made, that second number will increase, meaning v14.2 will be the next substantial improvement.

Musk said that v14.3 will be when you can “pretty much fall asleep and wake up at your destination.”

We’ve heard a considerable amount of similar statements in the past, and Tesla owners have been conditioned to take some of these timeframes with autonomous driving with a grain of salt.

However, with the upgrades in FSD over the past few months, especially with the rollout of Robotaxi in Austin, which does not utilize anyone in the driver’s seat for local roads, it does not seem as if autonomy is that far off for Tesla.

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Tesla Semi undergoes major redesign as dedicated factory preps for deliveries

The Semi has been one of the most anticipated products in the Tesla lineup due to the disruption it could cause in the trucking industry.

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Tesla put its all-electric Semi truck through quite a major redesign as its dedicated factory for the vehicle is preparing for initial deliveries to the public starting next year.

The Semi has been one of the most anticipated products in the Tesla lineup due to the disruption it could cause in the trucking industry.

It has already been in numerous pilot programs for some pretty large companies over the past couple of years, PepsiCo. being one of them, and it is moving toward first deliveries to other companies sometime in 2026.

Yesterday at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Tesla unveiled its new Semi design, which underwent a pretty significant facelift to match the aesthetic and vibe of the other vehicles in the company’s lineup.

Additionally, Tesla announced some other improvements, including changes to efficiency, and some other changes that we did not get details on yet.

The first change was to the design of the Semi, as Tesla adopted its blade-like light bar for the Class 8 truck, similar to the one that is used on the new Model Y and the Cybertruck:

There also appear to be a handful of design changes that help with aerodynamics, as its efficiency has increased to 1.7 kWh per mile.

Tesla also said it has an increased payload capability, which will help companies to haul more goods per trip.

All of these changes come as the company’s Semi Factory, which is located on the same property as its Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada, is just finishing up. In late October, it was shown that the Semi facility is nearly complete, based on recent drone imagery from factory observer HinrichsZane on X:

Tesla Semi factory looks nearly complete

The factory will be capable of producing about 50,000 Tesla Semi units annually when it is completely ramped. The company has major plans to help get the Semi in more fleets across the United States.

Other entities are also working to develop a charging corridor for electric Class 8 trucks. The State of California was awarded $102 million to develop a charging corridor that spans from Washington to Southern California.

Another corridor is being developed that spans from Southern California to Texas, and 49 applicants won $636 million from the Department of Transportation for it.

Tesla requested funding for it, but was denied.

The Semi has been a staple in several companies’ fleets over the past few years, most notably that of Frito-Lay and PepsiCo., who have reported positive experiences thus far.

Musk said last year that the Semi had “ridiculous demand.”

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Tesla Cybercab production starts Q2 2026, Elon Musk confirms

Elon Musk highlighted that the fully autonomous vehicle will be the first Tesla designed specifically for unsupervised self-driving.

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Credit: Tesla/X

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that production of the company’s autonomous Cybercab will begin in April 2026, and its production targets will be quite ambitious. 

Speaking at Tesla’s 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Musk highlighted that the fully autonomous vehicle will be the first Tesla designed specifically for unsupervised self-driving.

A robotaxi built for an autonomous world

Musk described the Cybercab as a clean-slate design optimized for autonomy, with no steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors. “It’s very much optimized for the lowest cost per mile in an autonomous mode,” Musk said, adding that every Tesla produced in recent years already carries the hardware needed for full self-driving.

The Cybercab will be assembled at Giga Texas and will serve as the company’s flagship entry into the commercial robotaxi market. Musk emphasized that the project represents Tesla’s next evolutionary step in combining vehicle manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and mobility services.

One Cybercab every ten seconds

Musk reiterated that the Cybercab’s production process is more closely modeled on consumer electronics assembly than on traditional automotive manufacturing. This should pave the way for outputs that far exceed conventional automotive products.

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“That production is happening right here in this factory, and we’ll be starting production in April next year. The manufacturing system is unlike any other car. The manufacturing system of the Cybercab, it’s closer to a high volume consumer electronics device than it is a car manufacturing line. So the net result is that I think we should be able to achieve, I think, ultimately, less than a 10-second cycle time, basically a unit every 10 seconds.

“What that would mean is you could get on a line that would normally produce, say, 500,000 cars a year at a one minute cycle time, Model Y. This would be maybe as much as 2 million or 3 million, maybe ultimately it’s theoretically possible to achieve a 5 million unit production line if you can get to the 5-second cycle time,” the CEO said.

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