News
Rocket Lab’s 12th Electron mission “Don’t Stop Me Now” ready for launch
During the height of the global coronavirus pandemic, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) missions from Florida were deemed “critical infrastructure” by the US federal government. This allowed the launchers to create safe working environments supporting rocket production and steady launch cadences. However, the nation’s most prominent launcher of smallsats, Rocket Lab, headquartered in Long Beach, California took a different approach halting all production and launch related operations. Although headquartered in the US, Rocket Lab manufactures its Electron rocket in Auckland, New Zealand, and launches from its Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.
Soon after the New Zealand government initiated a strict nationwide Level 4 lockdown requiring all residents, except essential workers, to remain at home on March 23rd, Rocket Lab stood down from operational missions. Unlike in the United States, the launching and production of rockets were not deemed critical in New Zealand and could not proceed. The lockdown went into place just five days ahead of the company’s scheduled twelfth launch of Electron on March 30th. Rocket Lab announced that the “Don’t Stop Me Now” launch (named in honor of a Rocket Lab board member that recently passed away) would be postponed but did not announce a new launch date as, at the time, it was unknown just how long the nationwide Level 4 lockdown would last.
In early May, Rocket Lab was allowed to return to operational status as pandemic restrictions began to lift in New Zealand. Company founder and chief executive officer, Peter Beck, announced on Twitter that the Electron rocket had returned to LC-1 to complete a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) ahead of announcing a new targeted launch date. Rocket Lab then confirmed that all WDR objectives had been successfully met and the twelfth Electron mission would be proceeding to a targeted launch date in early June.
That's a perfect wet dress rehearsal done and dusted for our 12th Electron mission! We're excited to be back on the pad and launching soon for @NatReconOfc, @NASA, and UNSW Canberra Space. Stay tuned for launch window dates soon! pic.twitter.com/o8oM4fe5jO— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) May 7, 2020
Rocket Lab was quick to return to launch procedures as the Electron vehicle and LC-1 remained in “a state of readiness throughout the COVID-19 lockdown.” In a statement issued soon after the successful WDR, the company assured that “enhanced health and safety processes will be implemented for this launch in line with government health advice to protect Rocket Lab personnel. These measures include physical distancing, split shifts, maintaining contact tracing registers, and enhanced cleaning procedures.”
pic.twitter.com/N9x9saYPEe— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) June 9, 2020
The twelfth “Don’t Stop Me Now” Electron mission is designated as a rideshare which will carry multiple smallsat payloads to orbit for NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra Space. Electron’s Kick Stage propelled by the 3D-printed Curie engine will deliver the ANDESITE (Ad-Hoc Network Demonstration for Extended Satellite-Based Inquiry and Other Team Endeavors) spacecraft developed by teams at Boston University under NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). It will use a series of minisatellites to measure the electrical currents of the Earth’s magnetic field from low Earth orbit. The payload carried for the NRO, Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract vehicle, follows a previously NRO-dedicated mission launched in January 2020. Finally, the twelfth launch of the Electron will also support the M2 Pathfinder (M2PF) communications satellite to low Earth orbit UNSW Canberra Space.
The next mission from #UNSWCBR Space, M2 Pathfinder, is launching on @RocketLab's Mission 12 “Don’t Stop Me Now” on June 11.
M2PF is a significant next step in flight heritage for our program of developing intelligent space systems and the development of Australian capability. pic.twitter.com/dseWRUzhzP— UNSW Canberra (@UNSWCanberra) May 29, 2020
“Don’t Stop Me Now” has a fourteen day launch widow extending from June 11th to June 24th with a daily launch opportunity during a two-hour window 04:43 – 06:32 UTC (00:43 – 02:32 EDT). The Rocket Lab team is currently counting down to the first launch attempt scheduled for Thursday, June 11th at the top of the window at 04:43UTC (00:43 EDT) from LC-1 in Mahia, New Zealand. Fifteen minutes ahead of the launch attempt, a live stream will be posted to Rocket Lab’s social media accounts and made available on the company’s website: www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream.
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News
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explains difference between Tesla FSD and Alpamayo
“Tesla’s FSD stack is completely world-class,” the Nvidia CEO said.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has offered high praise for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system during a Q&A at CES 2026, calling it “world-class” and “state-of-the-art” in design, training, and performance.
More importantly, he also shared some insights about the key differences between FSD and Nvidia’s recently announced Alpamayo system.
Jensen Huang’s praise for Tesla FSD
Nvidia made headlines at CES following its announcement of Alpamayo, which uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the development of autonomous driving solutions. Due to its focus on AI, many started speculating that Alpamayo would be a direct rival to FSD. This was somewhat addressed by Elon Musk, who predicted that “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.”
During his Q&A, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was asked about the difference between FSD and Alpamayo. His response was extensive:
“Tesla’s FSD stack is completely world-class. They’ve been working on it for quite some time. It’s world-class not only in the number of miles it’s accumulated, but in the way it’s designed, the way they do training, data collection, curation, synthetic data generation, and all of their simulation technologies.
“Of course, the latest generation is end-to-end Full Self-Driving—meaning it’s one large model trained end to end. And so… Elon’s AD system is, in every way, 100% state-of-the-art. I’m really quite impressed by the technology. I have it, and I drive it in our house, and it works incredibly well,” the Nvidia CEO said.
Nvidia’s platform approach vs Tesla’s integration
Huang also stated that Nvidia’s Alpamayo system was built around a fundamentally different philosophy from Tesla’s. Rather than developing self-driving cars itself, Nvidia supplies the full autonomous technology stack for other companies to use.
“Nvidia doesn’t build self-driving cars. We build the full stack so others can,” Huang said, explaining that Nvidia provides separate systems for training, simulation, and in-vehicle computing, all supported by shared software.
He added that customers can adopt as much or as little of the platform as they need, noting that Nvidia works across the industry, including with Tesla on training systems and companies like Waymo, XPeng, and Nuro on vehicle computing.
“So our system is really quite pervasive because we’re a technology platform provider. That’s the primary difference. There’s no question in our mind that, of the billion cars on the road today, in another 10 years’ time, hundreds of millions of them will have great autonomous capability. This is likely one of the largest, fastest-growing technology industries over the next decade.”
He also emphasized Nvidia’s open approach, saying the company open-sources its models and helps partners train their own systems. “We’re not a self-driving car company. We’re enabling the autonomous industry,” Huang said.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk confirms xAI’s purchase of five 380 MW natural gas turbines
The deal, which was confirmed by Musk on X, highlights xAI’s effort to aggressively scale its operations.
xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, has purchased five additional 380 MW natural gas turbines from South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility to power its growing supercomputer clusters.
The deal, which was confirmed by Musk on X, highlights xAI’s effort to aggressively scale its operations.
xAI’s turbine deal details
News of xAI’s new turbines was shared on social media platform X, with user @SemiAnalysis_ stating that the turbines were produced by South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility. As noted in an Asian Business Daily report, Doosan Enerbility announced last October that it signed a contract to supply two 380 MW gas turbines for a major U.S. tech company. Doosan later noted in December that it secured an order for three more 380 MW gas turbines.
As per the X user, the gas turbines would power an additional 600,000+ GB200 NVL72 equivalent size cluster. This should make xAI’s facilities among the largest in the world. In a reply, Elon Musk confirmed that xAI did purchase the turbines. “True,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
xAI’s ambitions
Recent reports have indicated that xAI closed an upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, exceeding the initial $15 billion target to fuel rapid infrastructure scaling and AI product development. The funding, as per the AI startup, “will accelerate our world-leading infrastructure buildout, enable the rapid development and deployment of transformative AI products.”
The company also teased the rollout of its upcoming frontier AI model. “Looking ahead, Grok 5 is currently in training, and we are focused on launching innovative new consumer and enterprise products that harness the power of Grok, Colossus, and 𝕏 to transform how we live, work, and play,” xAI wrote in a post on its website.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s xAI closes upsized $20B Series E funding round
xAI announced the investment round in a post on its official website.
xAI has closed an upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, exceeding the initial $15 billion target to fuel rapid infrastructure scaling and AI product development.
xAI announced the investment round in a post on its official website.
A $20 billion Series E round
As noted by the artificial intelligence startup in its post, the Series E funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group, among others.
Strategic partners NVIDIA and Cisco Investments also continued support for building the world’s largest GPU clusters.
As xAI stated, “This financing will accelerate our world-leading infrastructure buildout, enable the rapid development and deployment of transformative AI products reaching billions of users, and fuel groundbreaking research advancing xAI’s core mission: Understanding the Universe.”
xAI’s core mission
Th Series E funding builds on xAI’s previous rounds, powering Grok advancements and massive compute expansions like the Memphis supercluster. The upsized demand reflects growing recognition of xAI’s potential in frontier AI.
xAI also highlighted several of its breakthroughs in 2025, from the buildout of Colossus I and II, which ended with over 1 million H100 GPU equivalents, and the rollout of the Grok 4 Series, Grok Voice, and Grok Imagine, among others. The company also confirmed that work is already underway to train the flagship large language model’s next iteration, Grok 5.
“Looking ahead, Grok 5 is currently in training, and we are focused on launching innovative new consumer and enterprise products that harness the power of Grok, Colossus, and 𝕏 to transform how we live, work, and play,” xAI wrote.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explains difference between Tesla FSD and Alpamayo
Elon Musk confirms xAI’s purchase of five 380 MW natural gas turbines
