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How SpaceX is able to achieve its amazing rocket landing accuracy

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After SpaceX’s successful and uniquely exciting launch of Taiwan’s Formosat-5 remote sensing satellite, Elon Musk took to Twitter to reveal some fascinating details about the launch and recovery of the Falcon 9 first stage.

Unabashedly technical, the details Musk revealed demonstrate the truly incredible accuracy of Falcon 9’s recovery, honed over 20 landing attempts and numerous modifications to the launch vehicle. The accuracy is best understood within the context of Falcon 9’s scale and the general scope of orbital rocketry.

The first stage of Falcon 9 Full Thrust, currently the active version of Falcon 9, stands 140 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter. If you can, for a moment, picture a 737 airliner, the plane most people have likely flown aboard on domestic flights. The first stage of Falcon 9 is the same length or greater and the same diameter as Boeing’s workhorse airliner. If you are now imagining a 737 landing on its tail aboard an ocean-going barge, that is a great start. The most common version of the 737, the -800, has an empty weight of 91,000 lb, while Falcon 9’s empty first stage is a bit more than half as heavy. With a full load of fuel, Falcon 9 S1 (first stage) weighs nearly three times as much as the 737-800. A single Merlin 1D engine out of Falcon 9’s namesake nine rocket engines has nearly ten times the thrust of the airliner. In short, Falcon 9’s first stage is massive, both extremely light and extremely heavy, and has a mind-boggling amount of thrust.

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Falcon 9’s ability to land as accurately as it does is due to a combination of multiple technologies and vehicle modifications. Most visible are S1’s cold gas maneuvering thrusters and aluminum or titanium grid fins, both of which are designed to provide some level of control authority and maneuverability to the first stage during its trip within and without Earth’s atmosphere. At the peak of its trips, the first stage is often completely outside of the vast majority of the atmosphere, meaning that aerodynamic forces are no longer relevant or useful for the vehicle. This is where the cold gas thrusters come in: by carrying their reaction mass with them (the gas), Falcon 9 can maneuver outside of the atmosphere. Once the stage descends into thicker atmospheric conditions, the grid fins deploy and are used like wings to guide the stage down to its landing location, be that on land or at sea. While the gas thrusters lose a lot of their utility once in the atmosphere, they can still be used to add a small amount of control authority when needed. They were famously seen fighting a futile battle to save a first stage aboard OCISLY in 2015.

With this in mind, we can take a closer look at Musk’s technical details. First off, we have a photo of the landed booster, Falcon 9 1038, clearly almost dead center on the droneship Just Read The Instructions. More specifically, Musk reports that 1038 landed less than a single meter off the center of the target, and it landed with less than a single meter per second of latent velocity. The first stage thus managed both a soft and deadly accurate landing after traveling to a height of 150 miles – well into what is technically “space” – at a maximum speed of 1.5 miles per second. Without delving further into the details, this is best summarized as “insanely fast”, and is a bit faster than the X-15 rocketplane’s fastest recorded speed. To better put this into context, Falcon 9 1038 traveled to an altitude of 240,000 meters at a top speed of 2,400 meters per second, turned around, and landed on an autonomous barge about two feet off of its optimal target. It is truly difficult to describe how impressive that kind of accuracy is.

The hypersonic X-15 and Falcon 9 S1, with a 737-800 on the right. All vehicles are to scale. (Wikipedia, SpaceX)

Mr. Musk nevertheless did not let 1038 steal all the fanfare, and revealed that the first stage responsible for launching BulgariaSat-1, 1029, had the honor of being the fastest first stage yet, clocking in at at a truly staggering Mach 7.9, or 2,700 meters per second. That speedy mission marked the stage’s second flight and was SpaceX’s second successful reuse of a Falcon 9. Indicative of the intense speed and heat the core experienced, one of the vehicle’s grid fins was noted to have almost completely melted through. Aluminum’s melting point begins at 1,221°F.

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla launches new feature that cold climate drivers will love

Tesla’s steering wheels are getting better with this simple yet effective software update.

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Credit: Weibo (via YYDS on X)

Tesla is launching another new feature in its cars, this time it will cater to those in colder climates, and those drivers will love it.

Perhaps one of the best things about Teslas is that they routinely receive over-the-air software updates that either improve the ownership experience, add features, or make their performance more robust.

Every update offers some sort of bug fix or new feature that simply makes the cars better than they were before. For example, earlier this week, we reported on a new third-party charger latch release feature that will help those with non-Tesla home charging plugs.

Tesla adds useful Model 3/Y feature home chargers will love

Now, Tesla is releasing a new improvement to its heated steering wheel system, which has been around for several years. The new feature is one that will improve its performance and have your wheel nice and toasty the next time you get in, and it is a bit chilly outside.

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According to Not a Tesla App, Tesla rolled out the Heated Steering Wheel improvements with the 2024.14 software update:

“If the steering wheel heater is set to Auto, the steering wheel will now heat up based on the cabin temperature, even if the climate system is set manually.

Previously, the climate system needed to be set to Auto for the steering wheel heater to turn on automatically.”

The change impacts all five Tesla models, the release notes state.

The heated steering wheel is one of the features that Tesla has used to help cater the vehicle’s overall performance to those in colder climates.

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Tesla Model 3 with heated steering wheel begins US deliveries

Just as the air-conditioned and cooling seats are beneficial during the Summer months, the heated steering wheel is incredibly beneficial to those drivers in colder parts of the globe.

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Tesla announces massive new achievement with 8 million cars produced

Tesla’s 8 millionth car comes just 8 months after it built its 7 millionth car.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla announced a massive new achievement in relation to its automotive division as it has officially built 8 million cars globally.

The 8 millionth car rolled off production lines at Gigafactory Berlin on Friday, the company announced. The car was an Ultra Red Model Y, images show:

The car comes just about eight months after Tesla built its 7 millionth car at the Fremont Factory last October, a major accomplishment considering the claims of a lack of demand from the media.

Tesla celebrates 7 million vehicles produced

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Additionally, Tesla was able to achieve this major threshold with a stoppage in production at each of its four production facilities earlier this year. The manufacturing halt was attributed to a production line changeover for the new Model Y crossover.

The car has been the best-selling vehicle in the world for two consecutive years, and the company pausing production for two weeks, yet still managed to produce one million cars in eight months is impressive.

Tesla currently only produces the Model Y at Gigafactory Berlin, but the car is also manufactured at Gigafactory Shanghai, Gigafactory Texas, and the Fremont Factory.

It is the only model to be produced at all four of Tesla’s global manufacturing plants, which span across three different continents.

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Elon Musk and Donald Trump to speak with each other Friday: report

White House aides have scheduled a call between the CEO and U.S. President on Friday.

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The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
President Donald J. Trump purchases a Tesla on the South Lawn, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s feud seems to be thawing, at least to some degree.

As per a recent Politico report, White House aides have scheduled a call between the CEO and U.S. President on Friday.

Musk vs. Trump

Musk turned into a staunch critic of Trump amidst the administration’s efforts to pass the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which the CEO claimed would add trillions to the country’s deficit. Trump, for his part, claimed that Musk turned on him due to the adverse effects of the proposed bill on his companies.

The spat between the two powerful men became so notable that Musk called for the impeachment of Trump on X. He also claimed that Trump was in the Epstein list. The U.S. President, for his part, threatened to cancel billions of dollars worth of government contracts with Musk’s companies such as SpaceX.

Potential Truce

As per Politico, however, White House aides have stepped in to temper the tensions and broker peace between the two powerful men. When asked by the outlet about his ongoing feud with the CEO, Trump reportedly stated that “it’s okay” and that “it’s going very well, never done better.” The U.S. President also highlighted his favorability ratings, stating that his “numbers are through the roof.”

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While the CEO was very aggressive against Trump in his X posts, he did back down somewhat after some time. When hedge fund manager Bill Ackman argued that Trump and Musk should make peace for the benefit of the United States, the CEO responded with, “You’re not wrong.” Musk also walked back on his decision to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is essential to NASA’s operations.

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