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NASA to retry Artemis I Moon rocket launch on Saturday
NASA says it has alleviated issues that arose during its first Space Launch System (SLS) Moon rocket launch attempt and will try again as early as Saturday, September 3rd.
Measuring around 98 meters (~322 feet) tall and capable of launching up to 95 tons (~210,000 lb) to low Earth orbit, the SLS rocket’s first launch – Artemis I – will attempt to send NASA Orion spacecraft on its way to lunar orbit. If all goes to plan, a partial prototype of the deep space crew transport vehicle will enter orbit spend several weeks around the Moon, where it will attempt to prove that Orion is safe and ready to launch NASA astronauts.
Approximately six years behind schedule and tens of billions of dollars over budget, the combined Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket were originally expected to debut in 2016 when Congress legally required NASA to develop the combined system in 2011. It would be difficult for the stakes to be much higher.
Now, after an unsuccessful August 29th launch attempt that turned into a wet dress rehearsal test as a result of poor planning, NASA is ready to try again.
SLS is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) LC-39B pad no earlier than (NET) 2:17 pm EDT (18:17 UTC) on Saturday, September 3rd. Like the first, the window lasts for two hours, providing some flexibility for NASA to troubleshoot any other minor problems that might crop up during the second launch attempt.
During the first SLS launch attempt, several problems arose, including a possible crack in Core Stage foam insulation, a misbehaving vent valve, a hydrogen fuel leak, and weather concerns that delayed the start of propellant loading by more than an hour. The most important problem, causing NASA to abort its first attempt at T-40 minutes to liftoff, involved Core Stage engine chill systems.
At the time, available data suggested that one of the Core Stage’s four modified and flight-proven Space Shuttle Main Engines (known as RS-25) was unable to chill down to the temperatures required for safe ignition. In a September 1st press conference, after more analysis, NASA now says that the rocket was, in fact, correctly trickling liquid hydrogen fuel through all four engines and that all engines were likely ready to go. The agency and its contractors say they are confident that the true cause of the unfavorable readings was a faulty temperature sensor.
In an earlier press conference, senior officials noted that the Boeing-built SLS Core Stage is designed in a way that makes those faulty temperature sensors virtually inaccessible without major work – and certainly not while the rocket is still at the launch pad. A rollback to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) could easily delay the next SLS launch attempt by 4-6 weeks, if not longer.
Perhaps as a result of the looming consequences of another rollback, instead of sending the rocket back to fix the newly discovered sensor issue, NASA officials now say they never actually needed the broken sensor and can get by without it working properly. That doesn’t entirely explain why NASA fully aborted an SLS launch attempt as a direct result of not liking the data produced by said sensor a few days prior. Nonetheless, the officials say that by analyzing several other unspecified telemetry readings within the RS-25s and SLS plumbing, they can effectively infer that the engines have been chilled to the right temperature.
In theory, if no other issues arise in the remaining 40 minutes leading up to launch, that should allow NASA to confidently launch SLS without having to replace components deep within the rocket.
NASA will begin live coverage of its next SLS launch attempt on NASA TV at 5:45 am EDT (09:45 UTC), followed by a separate hosted broadcast (the agency’s first attempt at a 4K launch webcast) beginning at 12:15 pm EDT (16:15 UTC).
Elon Musk
SpaceX just got pulled into the biggest Weapons Program in U.S. history
SpaceX joins the Golden Dome software group, deepening its role in America’s most expensive defense program.
SpaceX has joined a nine-company group developing the core operating software for the Golden Dome, America’s next-generation missile defense system. According to a Bloomberg report, SpaceX is focused on integrating satellite communications for military operations and is working alongside eight other defense and artificial intelligence companies, including Anduril Industries, Palantir Technologies, and Aalyria Technologies, to build software connecting missile defense capabilities.
The Golden Dome concept dates back to President Trump’s 2024 campaign, and on January 27, 2025, he signed an executive order directing the U.S. Armed Forces to construct the system before the end of his term. The system is planned to employ a constellation of thousands of satellites equipped with interceptors, with data centers in space providing automated control through an AI network.
FCC accepts SpaceX filing for 1 million orbital data center plan
Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, director of the Golden Dome initiative, has described the software layer as a “glue layer” that would enable officers to manage and control radars, sensors, and missile batteries across services. The consortium is aiming to test the platform this summer.
Trump selected a design in May 2025 with a $175 billion price tag, expected to be operational by the end of his term in 2029, though the Congressional Budget Office projected the cost could reach $831 billion over two decades.
The Golden Dome role is only the latest in a string of military wins for SpaceX. As Teslarati reported, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million task order on April 1, 2026 to launch missile tracking satellites for the Space Development Agency, covering two Falcon 9 launches beginning in Q3 2027. That came on top of more than $22 billion in government contracts held by SpaceX as of 2024, per CEO Gwynne Shotwell, spanning NASA resupply missions, classified intelligence satellites through its Starshield program, and military broadband.
The accumulation of defense contracts, now including a seat at the table on the most expensive weapons program in U.S. history, positions SpaceX as the dominant infrastructure provider for American national security in space. With a SpaceX IPO still on the horizon, each new contract adds weight to what is already one of the most consequential companies in aerospace history, raising real questions about how much of America’s defense architecture will depend on a single private operator before it ever trades publicly.
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Tesla pulls back the curtain on Cybercab mass production
Tesla’s Cybercab drives itself off the Gigafactory Texas line in a striking new production video.
Tesla has provided a first look from inside a production Cybercab as it drove itself off the assembly line at Gigafactory Texas. The video footage, posted on X, opens on the factory floor with robotic arms and assembly equipment visible through the Cybercab windshield, and follows the car through a branded tunnel marked “Cybercab”, before autonomously navigating itself to a holding lot.
The first Cybercab rolled off the Giga Texas production line on February 17, 2026, with Musk writing on X, “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.” April marked the official shift to volume production. The Giga Texas line is being prepared to produce hundreds of units per week, with 60 units already spotted on the Gigafactory campus earlier this month.
Purpose-built for autonomy
Cybercab in production now at Giga Texas pic.twitter.com/Y9qG3KyWBa
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 23, 2026
The Cybercab was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event in October 2024 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk said he believed the average operating cost would be around $0.20 per mile, and that buyers would be able to purchase one for under $30,000. The two-seat design is deliberate. Musk noted that 90 percent of miles driven involve one or two people, making a compact two-passenger vehicle the most efficient configuration for a fleet-scale robotaxi. Eliminating rear seats also removes complexity and cost, supporting that sub-$30,000 target.
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once several factories reach full design capacity. The Cybercab has no steering wheel, no pedals, and relies entirely on Tesla’s vision-based FSD system. What the video shows is the first evidence of that system working not as a demo, but as a production reality, driving itself off the line and into the world.
🚗 Our first ride in Tesla Cybercab last October: pic.twitter.com/kGqIqgJPRn https://t.co/BITCXFhbVd
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 22, 2025
Elon Musk
Elon Musk talks Tesla Roadster’s future
Elon Musk confirmed the Roadster as Tesla’s last manually driven car, with a debut coming soon.
During Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call on April 22, Elon Musk made a brief but notable comment about the long-awaited next generation Roadster while describing Tesla’s future vehicle lineup. “Long term, the only manually driven car will be the new Tesla Roadster,” he said. “Speaking of which, we may be able to debut that in a month or so. It requires a lot of testing and validation before we can actually have a demo and not have something go wrong with the demo.”
That single statement is the entire Roadster update from yesterday’s call, and while it represents another timeline shift, it comes as no surprise with Tesla heads-down-at-work on the mass rollout of its Robotaxi service across US cities, and the industrial scale production of the humanoid Optimus.
The fact that Musk specifically framed the Roadster as the last manually driven Tesla is significant on its own. As the rest of the lineup moves toward full autonomy, the Roadster becomes something rare in the Tesla-sphere by keeping the driver in control. Driving enthusiasts who buy a $200,000 supercar are not doing so to be passengers. They want the physical connection to the road, the feel of acceleration under their own input, and the experience of controlling something with that level of performance. FSD, however capable it becomes, removes that entirely. The Roadster signals that Tesla understands this distinction and is building a car specifically for the people who consider driving itself the point.
Tesla isn’t joking about building Optimus at an industrial scale: Here we go
The specs for the Roadster Musk has teased over the years are genuinely unlike anything in production. The base model targets 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 250 mph, and up to 620 miles of range from a 200 kWh battery. The optional SpaceX package takes it further, rumored to add roughly ten cold gas thrusters operating at 10,000 psi, borrowed directly from Falcon 9 rocket technology. With thrusters, Musk has claimed 0 to 60 mph in as little as 1.1 seconds. In a 2021 Joe Rogan interview he went further, stating “I want it to hover. We got to figure out how to make it hover without killing people.” Tesla filed a patent for ground effect technology in August 2025, suggesting the hover concept has not been abandoned. The starting price remains $200,000, with the Founders Series requiring a $250,000 full deposit. Some reservation holders placed those deposits in 2017 and are approaching a full decade of waiting.
With production now targeted for 2027 or 2028 at the earliest, the Roadster remains Tesla’s most audacious promise and its longest-running delay. But if what Musk is testing lives up to even half of what he has described, the demo alone should be worth waiting for.
Elon Musk says the Tesla Roadster unveiling could be done “maybe in a month or so.”
He said it should be an extraordinary unveiling event. pic.twitter.com/6V9P7zmvEm
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 22, 2026
SpaceX just got pulled into the biggest Weapons Program in U.S. history
Tesla pulls back the curtain on Cybercab mass production
