News
Boeing Starliner spacecraft successfully returns to flight 29 months after ill-fated debut
More than three years after SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft first safely reached orbit and almost three and a half years after Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule’s ill-fated launch debut, Boeing has finally returned to flight and made it farther than ever before towards a successful test flight.
Almost ten months after Boeing’s first attempt at Starliner’s second uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2 #1), the stars aligned. As expected, the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket lifted off on time at 6:54 pm EDT (22:54 UTC) on Thursday, May 19th, ascending from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) Launch Complex 41 (LC-41) without issue. After a four and a half minute burn, the Atlas V booster – powered by a Russian-built RD-180 engine – separated and the Centaur upper stage – powered by two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10 engines – took over.
Another six minutes later, Centaur shut down and Starliner ultimately separated from the rocket a bit less than 12 minutes after liftoff. Unlike SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, though, Starliner separated from its launch vehicle before reaching orbit – a task Boeing engineers chose to reserve for the spacecraft itself to limit stress on the spacecraft and crew in the event of a high-altitude abort. However, that design decision also adds significant risk in other ways and – after the spacecraft’s extremely poor performance during its first launch attempt – turns a Starliner launch into a sort of 30-minute cliffhanger.
While just a hair shy of true orbit, Starliner’s suborbital launch trajectory means that whether or not it wants to, the spacecraft will reenter Earth’s atmosphere about an hour after liftoff if it can’t complete a minute-long orbital insertion burn. In the case of OFT-2, that burn came about 31 minutes after liftoff and was thankfully successful, inserting Starliner into a stable, circular orbit and undoubtedly triggering a massive wave of relief for all employees involved. From that stable orbit, Starliner can finally begin to prepare to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time ever.
The story of Starliner’s tortured orbital flight test (OFT) campaign began in earnest on December 20th, 2019, when an uncrewed prototype of the Boeing spacecraft first attempted to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. Infamously, a major software bug that could have been easily detected with even the most basic integrated hardware-in-the-loop prelaunch testing caused Starliner to lose control the moment it separated from Atlas V. Only through a heroic last-second effort was Boeing able to insert Starliner into orbit and prevent the spacecraft from reentering prematurely, which would have likely destroyed it. After hundreds of seconds of unplanned burns of its many attitude control thrusters, Starliner no longer had enough propellant to safely reach the ISS.
Boeing would later correct another completely unrelated software bug mere hours before Starliner’s planned reentry and recovery. If undetected, it could have caused the spacecraft’s capsule and service sections to crash into each other shortly after separation, potentially damaging the capsule’s heat shield and dooming it to destruction during reentry. Had astronauts been aboard, either of the two software bugs could have potentially resulted in crew fatalities and total mission failure. Instead, through a combination of sheer luck and a quick emergency response from Boeing and NASA teams, the spacecraft was saved and recovered in New Mexico.
On a positive note, aside from raising deep and foreboding questions about Boeing’s software development and integrating testing capabilities and NASA’s inept and inconsistent oversight, OFT-1 did still demonstrate that Starliner was able to reach orbit, operate in space, deorbit, survive atmospheric reentry, and land softly under parachutes.
However, the problems were about to continue and spread beyond software. On July 30th, 2021, shortly before a different uncrewed Starliner was scheduled to reattempt the first Orbital Flight Test, the launch was aborted. Eventually, Boeing and NASA reported that 13 of Starliner’s 24 main oxidizer valves had failed to open during a prelaunch test just a few hours before liftoff. The resulting investigation ultimately concluded that the Aerojet Rocketdyne-supplied valves had a faulty design and that Boeing had failed to properly insulate those valves from humidity and water intrusion. It also delayed the next OFT-2 launch attempt by almost ten months.
But finally, after almost 30 months of work to rectify those software and hardware failures, Starliner has intentionally reached a stable orbit without running into a major problem – certainly cause for some amount of optimism. Still, safely rendezvousing and docking with the ISS may be the biggest and riskiest challenge Starliner has faced yet and Boeing will be attempting the feat for the first time in its modern history. Starliner is expected to begin proximity operations around 3 pm EDT on May 20th. If the first attempt is perfect, docking could occur as early as 7:10 pm EDT.
Ultimately, even if Boeing is now more than three years behind SpaceX, whose Crew Dragon spacecraft first reached orbit and the ISS in March 2019 and launched its first astronauts in May 2020, it’s essential that NASA has two redundant crew vehicles available to carry its astronauts to and from the station. SpaceX’s extraordinary success and heroic efforts have allowed the company to singlehandedly ensure NASA access to the ISS since November 2020, but no complex system is perfect and even a failure outside of SpaceX’s control could trigger a long delay that could threaten NASA’s uninterrupted presence on the International Space Station.
NASA has contracts with SpaceX to maintain that uninterrupted presence at the ISS through Crew Dragon’s Crew-7 mission, which could launch as early as September 2023 and would then return to Earth around March 2024. If OFT-2 is completed without significant issue, Boeing’s next priority is Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT), a crewed launch debut that could happen before the end of 2022.
After that, Starliner’s first operational crew launch could potentially occur in Q1 2024, just before Crew Dragon’s Crew-7 recovery. Following Crew Dragon’s near-flawless uncrewed test flight, it took another 14 months for NASA and SpaceX to proceed to Demo-2, Dragon’s Crew Flight Test equivalent. Dragon’s first operational astronaut launch occurred in November 2020, 20 months after its uncrewed demo flight. If NASA follows a similar path for Starliner, that meshes well with an operational debut in early 2024.
Starlink is launching a new beta path for ordinary property owners and local operators to turn a single Starlink kit into a small shared-access business for passive income.
Under the Starlink for Communities program, a host installs one dish and router setup in a location with nearby demand: an apartment complex, campground, rural crossroads, or event site. Neighbors or local users can buy short-term passes rather than full individual subscriptions, giving the Starlink provider a potential path to passive income.
Hour, day, and week passes cover one device. A month pass covers up to four. Starlink handles account creation, payments, access controls, and the satellite link itself. The host’s role is mainly placement, power, and basic upkeep, with earnings tied to each paid connection.
Big news! SpaceX is introducing a new @Starlink for Communities program that lets you earn money by providing Starlink internet to your neighbors or people nearby, who can pay for access by the hour, day, week, or month.
Neighbors pay for the access they need, while the person… pic.twitter.com/DtOUs0Ekvt
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 1, 2026
The model echoes the passive-income vision long attached to Tesla’s Robotaxi plans, and it seems like it’s something Musk has hinted toward in the past as he believes AI will make the need to work relatively optional. In both cases, the platform owns the hard parts of matching, billing, and network management, while an individual supplies a physical asset that sits idle much of the time.
A Starlink host’s dish can serve multiple nearby users without each household buying and installing its own terminal. A Tesla owner, under the stated Robotaxi concept, would leave a vehicle enrolled in the fleet during unused hours so the car generates rides while the owner is at work or asleep.
Both arrangements convert under-utilized hardware into a revenue stream. They also let the company scale coverage or capacity without owning every endpoint.
Differences are practical. A Starlink kit is a fixed, relatively low-cost terminal whose main constraint is local congestion and line-of-sight. A Tesla Robotaxi is a mobile, high-value vehicle whose earnings depend on demand density, utilization rates, insurance, cleaning, and charging.
Starlink’s program is already accepting host applications in multiple countries and describes the revenue split as ongoing. Tesla’s owner-network version remains more aspirational.
The company currently operates a limited company-controlled robotaxi service in select areas and has solicited interest from fleet buyers for Cybercab vehicles, while private Full Self-Driving owners have not yet been able to dispatch their own cars for paid rides at scale.
Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration
Starlink is a satellite broadband service operated by SpaceX that uses a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to deliver internet to locations where terrestrial broadband is slow, expensive, or absent. It has grown to millions of subscribers worldwide by selling direct residential, mobile, and enterprise terminals, and have become widely available at a wide array at retail locations like Target and Best Buy.
The Communities program extends that reach by letting hosts resell short bursts of capacity to people nearby, while also providing high-speed internet access to those who are simply around a Starlink user.
Tesla just upgraded its headlights through a software update, making them even better without any physical or hardware upgrade.
Tesla’s latest software update is quietly improving nighttime driving for a small number of owners. Version 2026.38 includes a new capability called Dynamic Headlight Leveling.
The feature automatically adjusts the aim of the low beams in response to driving conditions and nearby traffic, with the goal of giving the driver more usable light on the road while reducing glare for oncoming vehicles and traffic ahead.
2026.38 just dropped.
Model 3 gets Dynamic Headlight Leveling — low beams auto-aim around traffic for max visibility, less glare. Model 3 / Y (AMD HW3) also pick up sharper Tesla visuals + an enhanced park scene on the center display.
Legacy Intel cars get Supercharger Site… pic.twitter.com/45ac4AH6Vs
— Frunk To Trunk (@FrunkToTrunk) September 30, 2026
Unlike Tesla’s matrix high-beam system, which selectively dims individual LED segments to create shadows around other cars, Dynamic Headlight Leveling physically tilts the low-beam projectors. Internal motors respond to changes in vehicle pitch.
When the car accelerates hard, climbs a steep grade, or carries extra weight in the rear, the headlights can otherwise point higher than intended. The software counters that movement in real time so the beam stays aimed at the road surface rather than into the eyes of other drivers.
Early indications reveal the update is reaching a limited set of vehicles, including certain Model 3 and Cybertruck examples in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The rollout does not appear tied to a single hardware revision, and Tesla has not published a broader schedule. It is simply a common waiting game until your car receives it.
The change arrives against a backdrop of wider complaints about headlight glare. Some earlier Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were the subject of an NHTSA recall related to excessive low-beam glare; the software adjustment offers a potential mitigation for cars equipped with the necessary leveling hardware. It does not replace adaptive high beams where those are already available, nor does it alter the basic low-beam pattern itself.
Instead, it keeps an existing beam pointed where it is most useful.
For drivers who have received the update, the system requires no new settings or user input. The headlights simply respond as road conditions and traffic change. As the feature reaches more vehicles, it adds another example of Tesla using over-the-air software to refine existing hardware rather than waiting for a new model year. Nighttime visibility and reduced glare for others are the practical results owners are expected to notice first.
Lifestyle
Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard
Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.
Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.
Halloween is coming pic.twitter.com/lM3ASUeOqX
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2026
The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.
Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents
Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.
On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a Halloween Mode.
Starlink launches Communities Program for passive income through internet sharing
Tesla just made its headlights even better through a software update
