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NASA officially says goodbye to Mars Opportunity rover lost in massive dust storm
After 15 years roving around our neighboring red planet, NASA announced the end of its Opportunity rover mission on Mars today during a live conference held at 2 pm EST. The rover’s team of scientists spent last night sending a set of commands intended to be the last attempt at waking Opportunity, and this afternoon’s announcement confirmed the final fate of the mission. A planet-wide dust storm in summer of 2018 shut the Martian rover down due to its solar panels being blocked from debris, and the long duration spent without power apparently led to a series of failures which prevented a recovery. The last communication NASA received from Opportunity was on June 10, 2018.
#OppyPhoneHome Update
Tonight, we’ll make our last planned attempts to contact Opportunity. The solar-powered rover last communicated on June 10, 2018, as a planet-wide dust storm swept across Mars.
Want to show the team some love? Send a postcard: https://t.co/eO2SClFcYm pic.twitter.com/trDjRNf65E
— NASA Mars (@NASAMars) February 12, 2019
Over the last few months, while scientists continued to revive Opportunity, hopes were fairly high that communication would be reestablished. The rover’s batteries were in good health prior to the dust storm, and the surface temperature was relatively warm when the storm began. Also, its programming was designed with “fault modes” allowing actions to be taken automatically to maintain the rover’s health. The team at NASA had attempted to talk to Opportunity several times per week once the storm began to clear using the Deep Space Network, an international array of giant radio antennas supporting interplanetary spacecraft missions, and over 600 attempts were made without any response received. The announcement was broadcast live via NASA’s website.
Emotions were high during NASA’s mission end announcement. Associate NASA Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen began the event’s commentary: “I stand here, surrounded by the team…it’s an emotional time,” he began. “Science is a team sport, and that’s what we’re celebrating today.” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine noted that while Opportunity stopped communicating around the same time be began his service with the administration, he was still in awe at the achievements the rover and its team were able to achieve throughout their mission. “When this little rover landed, the objective was to have it move 1100 yards and survive for 90 days,” he exclaimed before reiterating the unexpected 15 years the mission eventually lasted. Michael Watkins, Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory commented on the mission’s broader contribution to society: “Spirit and Opportunity energized the public about the spirit of Mars exploration.”
John Callas, project manager of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project, provided some insight about what could have caused Opportunity to shut down for good. Earlier in Opportunity’s mission days, a heater on its robotic arm failed to turn off, draining the rover’s energy in the process. To overcome this issue, the team at NASA designed a deep sleep mode which shut down nearly everything on Opportunity, including the heater. Callas surmised that the dust storm which ended the rover’s mission may have disrupted its sleep cycle, reinstating the power draining issue and preventing recovery. He also described the quality of Opportunity’s batteries and the seasonal reliability of the Martian winds to clean its solar panels as part of the reasons it lasted as long as it did. Finally, Callas had his own farewell comments to add. “Even though it’s a machine, saying goodbye, it’s very hard and very poignant,” he remarked.
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- NASAs Mars Curiosity Rover takes a selfie in the middle of a massive storm. [Credit: Seán Doran/Flickr]
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- InSight, a NASA mission to put another spacecraft on Mars, is the first mission dedicated to investigating the deep interior of Mars. The findings will advance understanding of how all rocky planets, including Earth, formed and evolved. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Opportunity rover (nicknamed “Oppy”) launched on July 7, 2003, aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its primary mission was to search for and characterize rocks and soil while looking for indications of water activity in the Martian past. One of the better-known discoveries made by the rover was the discovery of hematite on the surface, a mineral which typically forms in water. Also found were strips of gypsum in rocks around a crater, indicating that water most likely flowed through the area at one point. The storm which finally ended the rover’s mission was intense and massive, its size is roughly the area of North America and Russia combined with Opportunity in the center.
A month prior to Opportunity’s launch, its twin rover Spirit headed for Mars with a similar mission. Both rovers lasted years longer than their 90-day expected life span, but unfortunately, Spirit’s mission ended before Opportunity’s when it became lodged in soft soil at a site called “Troy”. NASA ended its rescue effort of Spirit in May 2011. Another NASA rover named Curiosity is still crawling the planet, however. Its plutonium-nuclear power source helped it avoid the same fate that came over its predecessor, even sending back a storm-riding selfie during the event that claimed Opportunity.
NASA’s most recent mission to Mars was its InSight lander, a geological science mission sent to study the core of the planet and atmosphere. After arriving at the red planet in late November 2018 with twin CubeSat mission MarCo, it successfully landed without incident and sent a dusty photo back for Earthling enjoyment and arrival confirmation. In the months since it’s treated NASA and the public alike with selfies and the sound of Martian wind. Its instruments have recently been placed on the surface, so new planet data is expected soon.
Up next for the fourth rock from the Sun will be Mars 2020, an advanced rover dedicated to high-priority science missions including the search for habitable conditions and microbes in the ancient past. NASA plans to launch this rover in July 2020.
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
