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Rocket Lab aces first Electron rocket launch from US soil
After many delays, Rocket Lab has successfully launched an Electron rocket from US soil for the first time.
The company’s small Electron rocket lifted off at 6 pm EST (23:00 UTC), January 24th, from a pad built at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. About nine minutes later, the Electron upper stage reached low Earth orbit (LEO) and shut down its Rutherford Vacuum engine. 90 minutes after liftoff, the rocket finished deploying three new Hawkeye 360 Earth observation satellites, marking the successful completion of Rocket Lab’s first American launch.
Rocket Lab’s workhorse rocket is relatively unique. Electron is the only rocket in the world to successfully reach orbit with structures built almost entirely out of carbon fiber composites. It’s also the only orbital-class rocket in the world that uses engines with battery-powered pumps. Electron measures 18 meters (59 ft) tall, 1.2 meters (4 ft) wide, and weighs about 13 tons (~28,500 lbs) at liftoff, making it one of the smallest orbital rockets ever. It sells for about $7.5 million and can launch up to 200 kilograms (440 lb) to a sun-synchronous orbit or 300 kilograms (660 lb) to LEO.
The update that's rolling out to the fleet makes full use of the front and rear steering travel to minimize turning circle. In this case a reduction of 1.6 feet just over the air— Wes (@wmorrill3) April 16, 2024
Electron is by far the cheapest widely-available option for a dedicated rocket launch. Although a fully-utilized Electron costs more than $25,000 per kilogram, Rocket Lab has found a decent number of customers that find the benefits worth the cost premium. SpaceX currently offers rideshare launch services for just $5,500 per kilogram. But a dedicated Electron launch buys customers white-glove service and control over the exact timing and target orbit, among other perks.
Many companies are developing orbital transfer vehicles (space tugs) to combine the affordable cost of rideshare launches with customized orbits and deployment timing, but rideshare payloads will always have to grapple with inflexible launch timing. SpaceX will not delay a launch carrying 50-100+ other payloads because one satellite is running behind schedule.
Rocket Lab’s history shows that plenty of companies are willing to pay far more for the convenience of a direct launch. Electron’s first launch from US soil was the rocket’s 30th successful launch and 33rd launch since its May 2017 debut. In 2022, Rocket Lab managed to launch eight times in eight months and nine times overall. Had bad winter weather not conspired to delay its first US launch, the company would have broken into the double digits for the first time and likely kept its monthly launch streak alive.
Sisyphean delays
Rocket Lab’s first American launch is no stranger to delays. The company announced plans to build a US launch site in October 2018. At the time, Rocket Lab hoped to launch its first Electron out of Virginia’s NASA Wallops Flight Facility as early as Q3 2019. For a number of reasons, many of which were outside of Rocket Lab’s control, that didn’t happen.
Rocket Lab began constructing its Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) pad in Virginia in February 2019 and finished construction by the start of 2020. At that point, the then-private company stated that LC-2 was on track to host its first Electron rocket launch as early as Q2 2020. In Q2, Rocket Lab even shipped an Electron to Virginia and completed a range of pad shakedown tests, including a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and static fire test.
Rocket Lab isn’t entirely free of fault. However, nearly all of the blame for that delay appears to lie with NASA, who required that Rocket Lab use the agency’s own software for a new kind of “flight termination system.” Rocket Lab had already successfully developed and repeatedly flown its own autonomous flight termination system for use at its New Zealand launch site. AFTS replaces a human-in-the-loop with software that monitors a rocket and decides if it needs to protect populated areas by triggering explosive charges that will destroy the vehicle.
NASA’s software was plagued by years of delays, causing the payload assigned to Electron’s US launch debut to change repeatedly. In 2019, it was supposed to be a Space Test Program (STP) mission for the US Air Force. From 2020 to 2021, it was supposed to be NASA’s CAPSTONE mission to the Moon. Both missions were ultimately launched at Rocket Lab’s primary launch site in New Zealand.
Only in January 2023, almost three years after Rocket Lab was first ready to go, did Electron finally lift off from US soil with a trio of Hawkeye 360 radio surveillance satellites in tow. The mission was the first of Electron launches purchased by Hawkeye 360 to launch 15 satellites. Rocket Lab intends to launch again from LC-2 in the near future and has already shipped a second Electron rocket to Virginia.
News
It’s official: SpaceX takes aim at Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile
SpaceX is buying 800 MHz spectrum from Grain to turn Starlink Mobile into a carrier.
SpaceX has agreed to buy a nationwide block of low band wireless spectrum, a deal the company says will let Starlink Mobile operate as a full US carrier rather than a satellite add-on for someone else’s network.
The company announced the agreement on X on Thursday afternoon, saying it will “pave the way for @Starlink to become a major mobile carrier in the US.” The seller is Grain Management, a private investment firm that confirmed in a statement that SpaceX will acquire 100% of its nationwide 800 MHz portfolio. That covers up to 14 MHz of paired spectrum in the 817 to 824 MHz and 862 to 869 MHz bands. Neither side disclosed a price, and the deal still needs FCC approval.
We announced an agreement to acquire a nationwide low-band spectrum license portfolio that will pave the way for @Starlink to become a major mobile carrier in the US.
With this new spectrum and our Gen2 constellation, Starlink Mobile can ensure Americans have access to high-speed mobile broadband no matter where they are → https://t.co/1Uaf48v5pm
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 8, 2026
Grain only recently picked up the licenses itself. It bought the portfolio from T-Mobile in a transaction that closed in August, paying cash plus its own 600 MHz spectrum. Rival AST SpaceMobile had been testing satellites on the same bands before SpaceX stepped in.
SpaceX said its 2 GHz spectrum will handle high bandwidth capacity, while the new 800 MHz layer “ensures Starlink Mobile’s signal penetrates through obstacles, such as walls, and can provide service to customers’ devices even when they are in buildings.” The company added that most existing phones already support the band, so customers would not need new hardware to use it.
That 2 GHz spectrum came from SpaceX’s EchoStar acquisition last year, which gave the company exclusive S band rights in the US and global Mobile Satellite Service licenses. The Grain spectrum is different in an important way: it is tailored for service from ground towers, not satellites. SpaceX said that combination would make Starlink Mobile “the first network operator to deploy both satellite and terrestrial spectrum.”
The announcement also follows a key regulatory win. Earlier this week, the FCC approved SpaceX’s plan to deploy 15,000 second generation Starlink Mobile satellites, which the company has said will carry up to 100 times the data density of the current system, as Teslarati previously reported.
Shares of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile fell in extended trading after the announcement. T-Mobile is currently SpaceX’s launch partner for Starlink Mobile in the US, which makes its position the most complicated of the three.
SpaceX has not been subtle about its plans. During the company’s August earnings call, President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said she expected Starlink Mobile to win over customers from the major carriers. “I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better,” she said, pointing to dead zone coverage and resilience during disasters. Shotwell also described plans for low cost cellular base stations that could pair with existing Starlink dishes.
SpaceX has targeted 2027 for deployment of its next generation Starlink Mobile satellites, with upgraded service expected by the end of that year. The FCC review of the Grain deal now determines when the terrestrial half of that network can come online.
Elon Musk
Trump presents Elon Musk with National Medal of Science, calls him “modern-day Thomas Edison”
Trump gave Elon Musk the National Medal of Science and compared him to Thomas Edison.
Elon Musk now has the highest honor the U.S. government gives to scientists and engineers. President Donald Trump presented him with the National Medal of Science on Thursday at the White House’s “Science: A New Golden Age” summit, held at the Institute of Peace in Washington, according to the White House.
Trump called Musk a “national treasure” and “our modern-day Thomas Edison.” “Few Americans in history have done more to advance America’s national interest than Elon in one field after another,” the president said. He also described Musk as an “industrial titan, brilliant engineer and one of the greatest technology founders to ever live.”
The official citation credits Musk “for engineering achievements of extraordinary ambition and scale that have pushed the frontiers of space exploration, intelligent systems, communications, and beyond, renewing American technological leadership and opening a new chapter in American manufacturing.” Tesla is not named in it, but “intelligent systems” and “American manufacturing” cover a lot of ground that Tesla and the Terafab chip project occupy.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su received the same medal. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell were given the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. It was the first time Trump has handed out either award in his two terms. As Teslarati noted when the list was first reported on Wednesday, the National Science Foundation says 529 people have received the Medal of Science since Congress created it in 1959.
🚨 IT’S OFFICIAL: President Trump just PERSONALLY presented Elon Musk the National Medal of Science for his INCREDIBLE contributions to our nation
I can’t think of ANYONE who deserves this honor more 👏🏻
Congratulations, @elonmusk! https://t.co/GkAaVp9wb9
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 8, 2026
The ceremony closes a loop that opened in 2025, when Musk left DOGE and criticized the “Big Beautiful Bill,” sparking a public feud. Al Jazeera noted that Musk was the largest contributor to Trump’s 2024 campaign, and CNBC reported that all of the honorees have given financially to Trump or Republican causes in some form. The reconciliation has moved quickly in recent weeks. Musk sat at Trump’s left at the September 29 White House AI lunch, was named to help lead the Pentagon’s Project Meridian study on the future of warfare, and adopted the administration’s “super intelligence” wording when he said SpaceXAI will become SpaceXSI.
For Tesla and SpaceX shareholders, the practical question is what the closer relationship means for federal approvals. Tesla’s Robotaxi and Cybercab expansion depends on national autonomy rules, and SpaceX’s Starship and Starlink plans run through the FAA, FCC and NASA. Thursday’s ceremony did not change any of that directly.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s Boring Company lands a new Middle East deal, and Nashville is about to get faster
The Boring Company signs Abu Dhabi tunnel agreement while adding more Prufrock machines in Nashville.
The Boring Company has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi to study underground transport and utility tunnels across the emirate, adding a second UAE city to its pipeline as it prepares to also scale up tunneling back home in Nashville.
The deal was signed Thursday at the Liveability and Investment Exhibition (LIVEX 2026) by Boring Company President Steve Davis and Maysarah Mahmoud Salim Eid, director general of the Abu Dhabi Projects and Infrastructure Centre (ADPIC), according to the Abu Dhabi Media Office. Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa, chairman of the emirate’s Department of Municipalities and Transport, attended the signing.
Under the agreement, the two sides will assess feasibility, delivery and operating models for tunnels that could carry passengers or utilities. They will also look at Abu Dhabi’s potential as a regional hub for tunneling work. The current phase is exploratory, and no construction commitment or project budget has been announced.
“Abu Dhabi provides an ideal environment to explore the next generation of underground infrastructure solutions, supported by its ambitious growth vision and strong commitment to advanced technologies,”
Davis said. He added that the company wants to assess how tunnels can “expand urban capacity more efficiently, and enable better use of available space.”
The timing lines up with the money, considering last month, The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D led by the UAE and affiliated investors, valuing the company at $23 billion, as Teslarati reported. That round came with a commitment to build more than 150 kilometers of tunnel across the UAE, separate from the Dubai Loop pilot already under contract with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority. That pilot covers 6.4 kilometers and four stations linking DIFC and Dubai Mall at a cost of about $154 million.
Back home, The Boring Company projects in Nashville are also scaling up, with the company telling local NewsChannel 5 that a third Prufrock machine could start digging the Music City Loop in late October. A fourth is also targeted before the end of the year. Two machines are already mining Nashville limestone at the same time, and work is underway on a new launch site for the third.
The company said it has made more than 300 design and performance upgrades to its original Nashville machine. It is also working with property owners on more than 40 planned stations, with approvals in place for a future Nashville International Airport connection, a downtown station near the Music City Center, and stops at residential towers and the JW Marriott.
Construction on the Music City Loop began the same evening Tennessee and federal regulators approved the project’s lease in February, and the company targeted its first operational segment for late 2026. Back in Las Vegas, The Boring Company has said it plans to double its Vegas Loop station count by year’s end.
It’s official: SpaceX takes aim at Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile
Trump presents Elon Musk with National Medal of Science, calls him “modern-day Thomas Edison”
Elon Musk’s Boring Company lands a new Middle East deal, and Nashville is about to get faster
The Pentagon taps Elon Musk to design the battlefield of the future
Tesla Roadster’s new patent preps white-knuckle speeds, keeping it grounded
