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Rocket Lab channels SpaceX-like rapid launch capability in July 4 Electron mission

A Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle is pictured during final processing ahead of the company's 13th launch. (Credit: Rocket Lab)

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The prominent launcher of dedicated small satellite launches, Rocket Lab, looks to achieve SpaceX-like rapid launch capability of its Electron rocket. The company is targeting its shortest turn around time between missions from the same launch pad. Just three weeks ago, Rocket Lab returned to operational launch status following the easement of Covid-19 restrictions at the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The Electron rocket completed its twelfth mission nicknamed “Don’t Stop Me Now” which supported a rideshare payload of five smallsats to orbit. Now, Rocket Lab is ready for its third mission of 2020 – the second in just three weeks – with Electron’s thirteenth mission “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen.”

Rideshare mission of space cameras

The “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen” mission features a rideshare manifest consisting of seven small satellite payloads for customers Planet, In-Space Missions, and rideshare and mission manager Spaceflight Inc.’s customer Canon Electronics. The majority of payloads are Earth-imaging satellites inspiring the “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen” mission nickname. The primary payload, Canon Electronics Inc.’s CE-SAT-IB microsatellite, will demonstrate the company’s high definition and wide-angle Earth-imaging capabilities and will serve as a testbed for future opportunities of mass production. Also aboard Electron is five of Planet’s latest generation SuperDove (Flock4e) Earth-observation satellites equipped with new sensors to produce higher quality images of Earth’s landmass on a near-daily basis. The UK enterprise In Space Missions provides the final payload with its maiden Faraday-1 6U CubeSat. According to In Space Missions, Faraday-1 is “the first in a series of satellites that will provide a turnkey service for commercial customers and research organizations wanting to access to space at a competitive and affordable cost.” Currently, In Space Missions has four more satellites under contract with the Faraday service.

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Rocket Lab’s carbon composite Electron booster propelled by nine 3D-printed Rutherford sea-level engines capable of 36,000lbf (162kN) of thrust will send all payloads to a 500km sun-synchronous low Earth orbit at an inclination of 97.5 degrees.

Rapid launch capability within reach

According to Rocket Lab, a new Electron booster is produced in-house approximately every eighteen days at its production facility in Auckland, New Zeland. While Electron currently only launches from Launch Complex 1 on New Zeland’s Mahia Peninsula, Rocket Lab looks to further open small satellite access to orbit and expand its launching capabilities with two more operational launch complexes targeted to begin service later this year. The Mahia Peninsula location has recently undergone expansion, adding the neighboring Launch Complex 1B while a third launch location, Launch Complex 2, has been opened at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia.

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Rocket Lab Founder and CEO, Peter Beck, states that multiple launch locations “enables our small sat operators to do more, spend less, and get to orbit faster” and that “Rocket Lab has eliminated the small sat waiting room for orbit. We’ve focused heavily on shoring up our rapid launch capability in recent years and we’re proud to be putting that into practice for the small sat community with launches just days apart.”

With an expansive backlog of Electron boosters, Rutherford engines, and the capability to soon launch missions back-to-back from neighboring launchpads Rocket Lab aims to break into the market of rapid launch capability joining the likes of SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket which has launched 91 times (89 times successfully) since 2010. The company also looks to break into the booster recovery market also pioneered by SpaceX.

Earlier this year, Rocket Lab completed a successful mid-air recovery demonstration of a parachute equipped test article with a helicopter and a specially designed grappling hook. Beck recently revealed on Twitter that Rocket Lab is targeting the seventeenth flight of the Electron to debut fully operational recovery efforts of the first stage booster to occur at some point before year’s end.

The “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen” mission previously scheduled for July 3rd, moved to July 5th, then pushed up to July 4th is now targeting liftoff NET 21:19 UTC/5:19 pm EDT from LC-1 in New Zealand taking advantage of more favorable launch weather conditions. Rocket Lab has stated on Twitter, however, that there is a “relatively high chance” of the launch attempt scrubbing to a later date as the possibility of high ground winds still persists. Should they be needed, backup launch opportunities extend through July 16th.

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The “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen” Electron and payload are currently vertical at LC-1 ahead of the launch attempt. A Livestream of the effort will be made available approximately fifteen minutes ahead of liftoff posted to the company’s social media accounts and available on the company’s website: www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream.

Space Reporter.

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Tesla FSD (Supervised) fleet passes 8.4 billion cumulative miles

The figure appears on Tesla’s official safety page, which tracks performance data for FSD (Supervised) and other safety technologies.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system has now surpassed 8.4 billion cumulative miles.

The figure appears on Tesla’s official safety page, which tracks performance data for FSD (Supervised) and other safety technologies.

Tesla has long emphasized that large-scale real-world data is central to improving its neural network-based approach to autonomy. Each mile driven with FSD (Supervised) engaged contributes additional edge cases and scenario training for the system.

Credit: Tesla

The milestone also brings Tesla closer to a benchmark previously outlined by CEO Elon Musk. Musk has stated that roughly 10 billion miles of training data may be needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving at scale, citing the “long tail” of rare but complex driving situations that must be learned through experience.

The growth curve of FSD Supervised’s cumulative miles over the past five years has been notable. 

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As noted in data shared by Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt, annual FSD (Supervised) miles have increased from roughly 6 million in 2021 to 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and 4.25 billion in 2025. In just the first 50 days of 2026, Tesla owners logged another 1 billion miles.

At the current pace, the fleet is trending towards hitting about 10 billion FSD Supervised miles this year. The increase has been driven by Tesla’s growing vehicle fleet, periodic free trials, and expanding Robotaxi operations, among others.

With the fleet now past 8.4 billion cumulative miles, Tesla’s supervised system is approaching that threshold, even as regulatory approval for fully unsupervised deployment remains subject to further validation and oversight.

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Elon Musk fires back after Wikipedia co-founder claims neutrality and dubs Grokipedia “ridiculous”

Musk’s response to Wales’ comments, which were posted on social media platform X, was short and direct: “Famous last words.”

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UK Government, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk fired back at Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales after the longtime online encyclopedia leader dismissed xAI’s new AI-powered alternative, Grokipedia, as a “ridiculous” idea that is bound to fail.

Musk’s response to Wales’ comments, which were posted on social media platform X, was short and direct: “Famous last words.”

Wales made the comments while answering questions about Wikipedia’s neutrality. According to Wales, Wikipedia prides itself on neutrality. 

“One of our core values at Wikipedia is neutrality. A neutral point of view is non-negotiable. It’s in the community, unquestioned… The idea that we’ve become somehow ‘Wokepidea’ is just not true,” Wales said.

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When asked about potential competition from Grokipedia, Wales downplayed the situation. “There is no competition. I don’t know if anyone uses Grokipedia. I think it is a ridiculous idea that will never work,” Wales wrote.

After Grokipedia went live, Larry Sanger, also a co-founder of Wikipedia, wrote on X that his initial impression of the AI-powered Wikipedia alternative was “very OK.”

“My initial impression, looking at my own article and poking around here and there, is that Grokipedia is very OK. The jury’s still out as to whether it’s actually better than Wikipedia. But at this point I would have to say ‘maybe!’” Sanger stated.

Musk responded to Sanger’s assessment by saying it was “accurate.” In a separate post, he added that even in its V0.1 form, Grokipedia was already better than Wikipedia.

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During a past appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show, Sanger argued that Wikipedia has drifted from its original vision, citing concerns about how its “Reliable sources/Perennial sources” framework categorizes publications by perceived credibility. As per Sanger, Wikipedia’s “Reliable sources/Perennial sources” list leans heavily left, with conservative publications getting effectively blacklisted in favor of their more liberal counterparts.

As of writing, Grokipedia has reportedly surpassed 80% of English Wikipedia’s article count.

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Tesla Sweden appeals after grid company refuses to restore existing Supercharger due to union strike

The charging site was previously functioning before it was temporarily disconnected in April last year for electrical safety reasons.

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Credit: Tesla Charging

Tesla Sweden is seeking regulatory intervention after a Swedish power grid company refused to reconnect an already operational Supercharger station in Åre due to ongoing union sympathy actions.

The charging site was previously functioning before it was temporarily disconnected in April last year for electrical safety reasons. A temporary construction power cabinet supplying the station had fallen over, described by Tesla as occurring “under unclear circumstances.” The power was then cut at the request of Tesla’s installation contractor to allow safe repair work.

While the safety issue was resolved, the station has not been brought back online. Stefan Sedin, CEO of Jämtkraft elnät, told Dagens Arbete (DA) that power will not be restored to the existing Supercharger station as long as the electric vehicle maker’s union issues are ongoing. 

“One of our installers noticed that the construction power had been backed up and was on the ground. We asked Tesla to fix the system, and their installation company in turn asked us to cut the power so that they could do the work safely. 

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“When everything was restored, the question arose: ‘Wait a minute, can we reconnect the station to the electricity grid? Or what does the notice actually say?’ We consulted with our employer organization, who were clear that as long as sympathy measures are in place, we cannot reconnect this facility,” Sedin said. 

The union’s sympathy actions, which began in March 2024, apply to work involving “planning, preparation, new connections, grid expansion, service, maintenance and repairs” of Tesla’s charging infrastructure in Sweden.

Tesla Sweden has argued that reconnecting an existing facility is not equivalent to establishing a new grid connection. In a filing to the Swedish Energy Market Inspectorate, the company stated that reconnecting the installation “is therefore not covered by the sympathy measures and cannot therefore constitute a reason for not reconnecting the facility to the electricity grid.”

Sedin, for his part, noted that Tesla’s issue with the Supercharger is quite unique. And while Jämtkraft elnät itself has no issue with Tesla, its actions are based on the unions’ sympathy measures against the electric vehicle maker. 

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“This is absolutely the first time that I have been involved in matters relating to union conflicts or sympathy measures. That is why we have relied entirely on the assessment of our employer organization. This is not something that we have made any decisions about ourselves at all. 

“It is not that Jämtkraft elnät has a conflict with Tesla, but our actions are based on these sympathy measures. Should it turn out that we have made an incorrect assessment, we will correct ourselves. It is no more difficult than that for us,” the executive said. 

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