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Rocket Lab “In Focus” mission ready to launch after scrubbed first attempt
On Wednesday, October 21, Rocket Lab held a launch countdown ahead of the fifteenth mission of its small rocket, Electron. The mission nicknamed “In Focus,” was slated to take off from the company’s primary launch pad at Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Ultimately, the launch attempt was scrubbed due to an off-nominal oxygen sensor.
Rocket Lab did not immediately disclose a new targeted launch date, but did state that the launch window for the “In Focus” mission extended for nearly two-weeks. Rocket Lab founder and chief executive officer, Peter Beck, said in a Twitter post that, “the team’s taking the time to make sure it’s just the sensor and nothing else.” Beck also stated that weather moving into the area could pose a challenge for finding a new acceptable launch date.
Just two days later, Rocket Lab announced that a second launch attempt of the rideshare mission supporting ten Earth-observation satellites would occur at 5:14pm EDT (21:14 UTC) Wednesday, October 28. Should the second attempt be thwarted by uncooperative weather, daily opportunities to launch Electron are available until November 3.
What’s on board:
The fifteenth overall flight of Electron and fifth mission of 2020, is a rideshare mission that supports payloads for Canon Electronics Inc. and Earth-imaging services provider Planet. The payload, carefully mounted on the Rocket Lab Electron Kick Stage, consists of one nine SuperDove Flock 4e Planet microsatellites inside of Rocket Lab’s protective Maxwell payload dispensers. The entire stack is topped by Canon Electronics Inc.’s CE-SAT-IIB satellite procured by mission management provider Spaceflight Inc. All ten payloads are securely fixed atop the Electron Kick Stage.
The Electron Kick Stage – a capable extra stage on Electron – is designed to circularize orbits and deploy multiple payloads to independent and precise destinations. The Kick Stage is powered by a small, but powerful Curie engine. All ten of the satellite payloads aboard the “In Focus” mission are expected to be delivered to a 500km morning-crossing Sun Synchronous Orbit.
Prior to flight, the payload was encapsulated inside of the Electron’s protective payload fairing. In traditional fashion, Rocket Lab outfitted the fairing with the mission patch artwork created specifically for Electron’s fifteenth “In Focus” mission.
After encapsulation inside the fairing, the payload was integrated with the Electron first-stage booster. After a short trip from the assembly facility, Electron was raised vertically at Launch Complex 1 to complete a successful wet dress rehearsal – a standard pre-flight run-through of all launch procedures. The purpose of the wet dress rehearsal is to run through all of the launch day procedures including filling the rocket with RP-1 – a rocket grade kerosene – and liquid oxygen.
Launch teams conducted the practice launch on Thursday, October 8 proceeding through all countdown milestones right up until T-0 and engine ignition. This process ensures that the vehicle and launch teams are ready for flight. It also provides an opportunity to catch and address any anomalies that may arise prior to launch day.
What to expect on launch day:
Approximately four hours ahead of the launch attempt Rocket Lab will once again return Electron to vertical launching position at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. In the time prior to the fueling of the rocket, safety checks of the launch complex will be conducted and marine hazard zones and airspace will be closed and secured to all traffic. Fueling of the rocket will begin just two hours ahead of the launch attempt.
At T-0 Electron will be propelled to space by nine 3D-printed Rutherford electro-turbopump engines. Approximately 2 minutes and 34 seconds after liftoff Electron’s first stage will separate while the second stage engine ignites. Unique to the Electron, a “hot swap” of the batteries powering the electro-turbopump of the second stage will be performed – swapping out the power source of expelled batteries with new ones – at 6 minutes and 32 seconds after liftoff. The second stage is expected to arrive at an initial parking orbit approximately 8 minutes and 54 seconds after liftoff.
A brief ten seconds later the Kick Stage will separate from the second stage. Approximately 51 minutes and 06 seconds after liftoff the Kick Stage’s Curie engine will ignite to propel the payloads to their final circular Sun-Synchronous Orbits. Payload deployment is expected at the 60-minute mark after liftoff.
Rocket Lab will provide a live hosted webcast of the second launch attempt of the “In Focus” mission on Wednesday, October 28 on the company’s YouTube channel approximately fifteen minutes before liftoff. Should a scrub occur, Rocket Lab will announce a new targeted launch date on the company’s social media channels.
Tesla has officially launched public Robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas, without a Safety Monitor in the vehicle, marking the first time the company has removed anyone from the vehicle other than the rider.
The Safety Monitor has been present in Tesla Robotaxis in Austin since its launch last June, maintaining safety for passengers and other vehicles, and was placed in the passenger’s seat.
Tesla planned to remove the Safety Monitor at the end of 2025, but it was not quite ready to do so. Now, in January, riders are officially reporting that they are able to hail a ride from a Model Y Robotaxi without anyone in the vehicle:
I am in a robotaxi without safety monitor pic.twitter.com/fzHu385oIb
— TSLA99T (@Tsla99T) January 22, 2026
Tesla started testing this internally late last year and had several employees show that they were riding in the vehicle without anyone else there to intervene in case of an emergency.
Tesla has now expanded that program to the public. It is not active in the entire fleet, but there are a “few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors,” Ashok Elluswamy said:
Robotaxi rides without any safety monitors are now publicly available in Austin.
Starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time. https://t.co/ShMpZjefwB
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) January 22, 2026
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
The Robotaxi program also operates in the California Bay Area, where the fleet is much larger, but Safety Monitors are placed in the driver’s seat and utilize Full Self-Driving, so it is essentially the same as an Uber driver using a Tesla with FSD.
In Austin, the removal of Safety Monitors marks a substantial achievement for Tesla moving forward. Now that it has enough confidence to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis altogether, there are nearly unlimited options for the company in terms of expansion.
While it is hoping to launch the ride-hailing service in more cities across the U.S. this year, this is a much larger development than expansion, at least for now, as it is the first time it is performing driverless rides in Robotaxi anywhere in the world for the public to enjoy.
Tesla has scheduled its Earnings Call for Q4 and Full Year 2025 for next Wednesday, January 28, at 5:30 p.m. EST, and investors are already preparing to get some answers from executives regarding a wide variety of topics.
The company accepts several questions from retail investors through the platform Say, which then allows shareholders to vote on the best questions.
Tesla does not answer anything regarding future product releases, but they are willing to shed light on current timelines, progress of certain projects, and other plans.
There are five questions that range over a variety of topics, including SpaceX, Full Self-Driving, Robotaxi, and Optimus, which are currently in the lead to be asked and potentially answered by Elon Musk and other Tesla executives:
- You once said: Loyalty deserves loyalty. Will long-term Tesla shareholders still be prioritized if SpaceX does an IPO?
- Our Take – With a lot of speculation regarding an incoming SpaceX IPO, Tesla investors, especially long-term ones, should be able to benefit from an early opportunity to purchase shares. This has been discussed endlessly over the past year, and we must be getting close to it.
- When is FSD going to be 100% unsupervised?
- Our Take – Musk said today that this is essentially a solved problem, and it could be available in the U.S. by the end of this year.
- What is the current bottleneck to increase Robotaxi deployment & personal use unsupervised FSD? The safety/performance of the most recent models or people to monitor robots, robotaxis, in-car, or remotely? Or something else?
- Our Take – The bottleneck seems to be based on data, which Musk said Tesla needs 10 billion miles of data to achieve unsupervised FSD. Once that happens, regulatory issues will be what hold things up from moving forward.
- Regarding Optimus, could you share the current number of units deployed in Tesla factories and actively performing production tasks? What specific roles or operations are they handling, and how has their integration impacted factory efficiency or output?
- Our Take – Optimus is going to have a larger role in factories moving forward, and later this year, they will have larger responsibilities.
- Can you please tie purchased FSD to our owner accounts vs. locked to the car? This will help us enjoy it in any Tesla we drive/buy and reward us for hanging in so long, some of us since 2017.
- Our Take – This is a good one and should get us some additional information on the FSD transfer plans and Subscription-only model that Tesla will adopt soon.
Tesla will have its Earnings Call on Wednesday, January 28.
Elon Musk shared an incredible detail about Tesla Cybercab’s potential efficiency, as the company has hinted in the past that it could be one of the most affordable vehicles to operate from a per-mile basis.
ARK Invest released a report recently that shed some light on the potential incremental cost per mile of various Robotaxis that will be available on the market in the coming years.
The Cybercab, which is detailed for the year 2030, has an exceptionally low cost of operation, which is something Tesla revealed when it unveiled the vehicle a year and a half ago at the “We, Robot” event in Los Angeles.
Musk said on numerous occasions that Tesla plans to hit the $0.20 cents per mile mark with the Cybercab, describing a “clear path” to achieving that figure and emphasizing it is the “full considered” cost, which would include energy, maintenance, cleaning, depreciation, and insurance.
Probably true
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2026
ARK’s report showed that the Cybercab would be roughly half the cost of the Waymo 6th Gen Robotaxi in 2030, as that would come in at around $0.40 per mile all in. Cybercab, at scale, would be at $0.20.
Credit: ARK Invest
This would be a dramatic decrease in the cost of operation for Tesla, and the savings would then be passed on to customers who choose to utilize the ride-sharing service for their own transportation needs.
The U.S. average cost of new vehicle ownership is about $0.77 per mile, according to AAA. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft rideshares often cost between $1 and $4 per mile, while Waymo can cost between $0.60 and $1 or more per mile, according to some estimates.
Tesla’s engineering has been the true driver of these cost efficiencies, and its focus on creating a vehicle that is as cost-effective to operate as possible is truly going to pay off as the vehicle begins to scale. Tesla wants to get the Cybercab to about 5.5-6 miles per kWh, which has been discussed with prototypes.
Additionally, fewer parts due to the umboxed manufacturing process, a lower initial cost, and eliminating the need to pay humans for their labor would also contribute to a cheaper operational cost overall. While aspirational, all of the ingredients for this to be a real goal are there.
It may take some time as Tesla needs to hammer the manufacturing processes, and Musk has said there will be growing pains early. This week, he said regarding the early production efforts:
“…initial production is always very slow and follows an S-curve. The speed of production ramp is inversely proportionate to how many new parts and steps there are. For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being insanely fast.”
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla Earnings Call: Top 5 questions investors are asking
