News
NASA wants SpaceX to dock Dragons at new Russian space station ‘node’
State media agency RIA says that NASA and Roscosmos are negotiating an agreement that would eventually allow SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and other future visiting vehicles to dock to a new Russian ‘node’ module recently installed on the International Space Station (ISS).
Prichal – Russian for “pier” – was successfully launched into orbit on a Soyuz 2.1 rocket on November 24th. A tug derived from the space agency’s uncrewed Progress resupply ship delivered the decade-old module to the ISS two days later, culminating in a successful docking on November 26th. Weighing almost four tons (3890kg/8600lb), Prichal is a 3.3m (~11ft) wide spherical pressure vessel whose sole purpose is to receive visiting cargo and crew vehicles and (in theory) enable further expansion of the space station’s Russian segment.
It remains to be seen if Roscosmos will be able to complete and launch any of several new planned space station modules in time for doing so to still make sense. Aside from a significant amount of uncertainty as to whether Russia will actually continue to support its ISS segment beyond 2030, Roscosmos has had a nightmarish time preparing the last two “new” segments – Prichal and Nauka. Nauka, a habitation and laboratory module, was originally planned to launch in 2007. Only fourteen years later – in July 2021 – did Roscosmos finally manage to finish and launch the module, which then proceeded to perform a long, uncommanded thruster firing that could have easily damaged or destroyed the entire station on the same day it arrived.
Meanwhile, work on Prichal began in 2007 and the module was initially expected to launch in 2013. Concerted development began in 2010 and construction was completed by 2014. Planned to be an extension of Nauka, Prichal was subsequently forced to spend almost seven years in storage before it was finally brought out of the closet and launched in November 2021.
Now, while odds are firmly against Prichal ever supporting another Russian ISS module, the ‘node’ still has plenty of potential operating solely as a docking hub or (per its namesake) a pier. Outfitted with six docking ports, one of which now connects it to Nauka and the rest of the ISS, the other five ports are effectively free to be used by any arriving Russian spacecraft – including Progress cargo ships, Soyuz crew vehicles, and next-generation Orel (Eagle) spacecraft. However, according to Roscosmos and state media outlet RIA, SpaceX’s Crew and Cargo Dragons and other US spacecraft set to use the western International Docking Adapter (IDA) standard could be added to the list of possible tenants.
To allow a spacecraft fitted with IDA to dock to one of Prichal’s four radial “ASP-GB” ports, some kind of adapter would first need to be designed, constructed, launched, and installed. The specifics of that work are likely what’s being “negotiated” – namely how Roscosmos will be compensated for building its portion of that hypothetical adapter. NASA would likely procure and provide a new IDA port, while Russia would build the ASP-GB connection. As is common for the ISS program, compensation would likely come in the form of services rendered rather than a direct payment, with NASA perhaps launching an extra Russian cosmonaut or providing a larger portion of supplies for a set period.
If realized, the addition of a third IDA port at the International Space Station would make life significantly easier for NASA. Even now, with just two spacecraft (Crew and Cargo Dragon) to worry about, NASA is forced to very carefully schedule arrivals and departures and has already had to have SpaceX perform multiple Crew Dragon port relocation maneuvers to prepare for the arrival of other Dragons. In the near future, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and semi-annual private Crew Dragon missions to the ISS will also enter the fray, making the scheduling and sequencing of spacecraft arrivals and departures even more challenging.
The US ISS segment really only has two ports still available for conversion to the IDA standard and both are needed to ensure safe, redundant cargo deliveries from uncrewed Cygnus and (as early as next year) Dreamchaser spacecraft throughout the 2020s. Ultimately, that means that an agreement to place a third IDA on the Russian segment is the only clear way NASA can give itself breathing room for the next decade of IDA spacecraft operations.
Elon Musk
Ford CEO Farley says Tesla is not who to look at for EV expertise
Interestingly, Farley has been one of the most hellbent CEOs in terms of a legacy automaker standpoint to push the EV effort. It did not go according to plan, as Ford took a $19.5 billion charge and retreated from its EV push in late 2025.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a recent podcast interview that Tesla is not who Americans should look at to beat Chinese carmakers.
The comments have sparked quite a bit of outrage from Tesla fans on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
Farley said that Chinese automakers are better examples of how to beat competitors. He said (via the Rapid Response Podcast):
“If you’re an American and you want us to beat the Chinese in the car business, you’re all going to want to pay attention, not necessarily to Tesla. Nothing against Tesla—they’ve been doing great—but they really don’t have an updated vehicle. The best in the business for us, cost-wise and competition-wise, supply chain, manufacturing expertise, and the I.P. in the vehicle, was really BYD. In this next cycle of EV customers in the U.S., they want pickups and utilities and all these different body styles. But they want them at $30,000, not $50,000. Like the first inning, they want them affordably.”
Despite Farley’s synopsis, it is worth mentioning that Tesla had the best-selling passenger vehicle in the world last year, and in China in March, as the Model Y continued its global dominance over other vehicles.
Musk responded to Farley’s comments by stating:
“This is before Supervised FSD is approved in China. Limiting factor is production output in Shanghai.”
This is before supervised FSD is approved in China. Limiting factor is production output in Shanghai.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2026
Interestingly, Farley has been one of the most hellbent CEOs in terms of a legacy automaker standpoint to push the EV effort. It did not go according to plan, as Ford took a $19.5 billion charge and retreated from its EV push in late 2025.
Ford cancels all-electric F-150 Lightning, announces $19.5 billion in charges
Instead, Ford is “doubling down on its affordable” EVs and said it would pivot from its previous plans.
Reaction from Tesla fans was pretty much how you would expect. Many said they have lost a lot of respect for Farley after his comments; others believe he is the last CEO anyone should be taking advice on EVs from.
Nevertheless, Farley’s plans are bold and brash; many consider Tesla the most ideal company to replicate EV efforts from. It will be interesting to see if Ford can rebound from this big adjustment, and hopefully, Farley’s plans to replicate efforts from BYD work out the way he hopes.
Elon Musk
SpaceX wins its first MARS contract but it comes with a catch
NASA awarded SpaceX a $175 million Mars rover contract while the White House proposes cutting the mission.
NASA just signed a $175.7 million contract with SpaceX to launch a Mars rover that the White House is simultaneously trying to defund. The contract, awarded on April 16, 2026, tasks SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy with launching the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosalind Franklin rover from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, no earlier than late 2028. It would mark the first time SpaceX has ever sent a payload to Mars.
Under NASA’s Rosalind Franklin Support and Augmentation project, known as ROSA, the agency is providing braking engines for the rover’s descent stage, radioisotope heater units that use decaying plutonium to keep the rover warm on the Martian surface, additional electronics, and a mass spectrometer instrument, as noted by SpaceNews.
Those nuclear heating units are the reason an American rocket was required at all. U.S. export controls on radioisotope technology mean any payload carrying them must launch on a domestic vehicle, which narrowed the field to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. Falcon Heavy’s pricing made it the practical choice.
SpaceX is quietly becoming the U.S. Military’s only reliable rocket
Falcon Heavy debuted in February 2018 and has 11 launches to its record. The rocket has not flown since October 2024, when it sent NASA’s Europa Clipper toward Jupiter. The three-core design, built from modified Falcon 9 first stages, gives it the lift capacity needed for deep space planetary missions that a single Falcon 9 cannot reach.
The Rosalind Franklin rover has been sitting in storage in Europe for years. It was originally due to launch in 2022 as a joint mission with Russia, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ended that partnership, leaving the rover built but stranded without a launch vehicle or landing hardware. NASA stepped back in through a 2024 agreement with ESA to rescue the mission. The rover is designed to drill up to two meters below the Martian surface in search of evidence of past life, a science objective no previous mission has attempted at that depth.
The contradiction at the center of this story is hard to ignore. The White House’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal included no funding for ROSA and did not mention the mission at all in the detailed congressional justification document released April 3.
Musk has long argued that reaching Mars is not optional. “We don’t want to be one of those single planet species, we want to be a multi-planet species.” Whether this particular mission survives Washington’s budget fight, the Falcon Heavy contract means SpaceX is now formally on record as the rocket that could get humanity’s next Mars science mission off the ground.
The timing of this contract carries extra weight given that SpaceX filed confidentially with the SEC in early April and is targeting an IPO roadshow in the week of June 8. It would be the largest public offering in history.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is set to hold its Earnings Call for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday, and there are a lot of interesting things that are swirling around in terms of speculation from investors.
With the company’s executives, including CEO Elon Musk, answering a handful of questions that investors submit through the Say platform, fans want to know a lot of things about a lot of things.
These five questions come from Retail Investors, who are normal, everyday shareholders:
- When will we have the Optimus v3 reveal? When will Optimus production start, since we ended the Model S and Model X production earlier than mid-year? What’s the expected Optimus production rate exiting this year? What are the initial targeted skills?
- What milestones are you targeting for unsupervised FSD and Robotaxi expansion beyond Austin this year, and how will that drive recurring revenue?
- How will Hardware 3 cars reach Unsupervised Full Self-Driving?
- When do you expect Unsupervised Full Self-Driving to reach customer cars?
- When will Robotaxi expand past its current limited rollout?
Additionally, these are currently the three questions that are slated to be answered by Institutional Firms, which also answer a handful of questions during the call:
- Now that FSD has been approved in the Netherlands and is expected to launch across Europe this summer, can you discuss your Robotaxi strategy for the region?
- What enabled you to finish the AI5 tapeout early and were there any changes to the original vision? Last week, Elon said AI5 will go into Optimus and the Supercomputer, but one month ago said it would go into the Robotaxi. Has AI5 been dropped from the vehicle roadmap?
- Given the recent NHTSA incident filings, can you update us on the Robotaxi safety data? If safety validation remains the primary bottleneck, why not deploy thousands of vehicles to accelerate the removal of the safety driver?
The questions range through every current Tesla project, including FSD expansion and Optimus. However, many of the answers we will get will likely be repetitive answers we’ve heard in the past.
This is especially pertinent when the questions about when Unsupervised FSD will reach customer cars: we know Musk will say that it will happen this year. Is Tesla capable of that? Maybe. But a more transparent answer that is more revealing of a true timeline would be appreciated.
Hardware 3 owners are anxiously awaiting the arrival of FSD v14 Lite, which was promised to them last year for a release sometime this year.
The Earnings Call is set to take place on Wednesday at market close.
Ford CEO Farley says Tesla is not who to look at for EV expertise
SpaceX wins its first MARS contract but it comes with a catch
