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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.

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.

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.

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.

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Elon Musk

SpaceX just cleared a key FCC hurdle in its fight with Verizon and AT&T

The FCC accepted SpaceX’s bid for Grain’s 800 MHz spectrum, opening review for Starlink Mobile.

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A hand holds a smartphone displaying the Starlink Mobile app interface showing a strong “Connected – Direct to Cell” signal, with a Starlink satellite beaming connectivity signals down to Earth from orbit. The background features the planet’s night side glowing with city lights against the curve of the atmosphere, set above a scenic twilight landscape.

The Federal Communications Commission has formally opened its review of SpaceX’s plan to buy a nationwide block of 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management, moving Starlink Mobile one step closer to operating as a full U.S. wireless carrier.

In a public notice issued Tuesday, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau said it accepted for filing the applications to transfer control of two Grain license companies, Prism License Co. 1 and Prism License Co. 2, to Starlink Spectrum Holdings, a wholly owned SpaceX subsidiary. The deal covers 546 paired licenses across 3,224 counties, reaching roughly 100% of the U.S. population in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The proceeding sits under WT Docket No. 26-313.

Acceptance is not approval. It means the applications cleared an initial review and the public comment window is now open. Comments and petitions to deny are due December 1, and oppositions are due December 8. The bureau also said the conditions attached to Grain’s July purchase of the licenses from T-Mobile, which require rapid buildout for terrestrial and direct to device service, would carry over to SpaceX if the transfer is approved.

SpaceX announced the agreement on October 8, saying the new airwaves would let Starlink Mobile’s signal reach phones inside buildings, something its 2 GHz spectrum from EchoStar cannot do as well. The portfolio includes up to 14 MHz of paired spectrum in the 817 to 824 MHz and 862 to 869 MHz bands, which most existing phones already support. Elon Musk called it “the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America.”

According to the filing, SpaceX would hold up to 89 MHz of total spectrum in any given market after the deal closes, including up to 14 MHz below 1 GHz. That is far under the 385 MHz threshold the FCC uses to flag a transaction for closer competitive scrutiny, and well short of the roughly 300 MHz each of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile holds.

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Tuesday’s notice does not decide how SpaceX can use the spectrum from orbit. A separate application SpaceX filed on October 27 seeking authority to provide supplemental coverage from space on the same frequencies, along with related waiver requests, is still pending before the commission.

The ground network is already taking shape. Last week, SpaceX picked Qualcomm to supply radios, baseband units and software for a nationwide 5G build, with deployment across tens of thousands of U.S. cell sites starting in 2027. The FCC also voted on October 29 to advance a proposal opening another 482 MHz to direct to device service, though AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile hacritive pushed to strip nearly 300 MHz from it. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has said service on SpaceX’s own airwaves is targeted for early 2028.

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Cybertruck

Tesla upfitter offers to keep Cybertruck alive

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Credit: Unplugged Performance

A Tesla upfitter has offered to take over Cybertruck lines from the company in a last-ditch effort to save the all-electric pickup from being completely canceled in the middle of 2027.

Unplugged Performance, the Hawthorne, California-based Tesla aftermarket specialist, has publicly offered to take over Cybertruck production from Tesla, funding the effort “through a consortium of investors.”

The proposal comes as Tesla prioritizes its Cybercab Robotaxi program and prepares to wind down Cybertruck assembly at Gigafactory Texas around mid-2027.

Founded in 2013 by Ben Schaffer and located adjacent to Tesla’s Design Studio and SpaceX, Unplugged Performance has become a leading provider of premium upgrades for Tesla vehicles, including extensive Cybertruck packages under its UP INVINCIBLE line.

Through its UP.FIT division, the company has also developed purpose-built police and fleet versions of the Cybertruck, including deliveries to agencies such as the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

In an X post on Tuesday, Unplugged said:

“An open offer to Tesla: We fully support putting Cybercab first, and we’d be glad to take the Cybertruck line off your hands. We’d fund it with a consortium of investors and run it at no cost to Tesla’s floor space, headcount, or focus. All of that goes to Cybercab. Cybercab gets first call on battery cells too. We’ll wait our turn. Tesla gains incremental profit: a license fee, plus FSD and Robotaxi network revenues on every vehicle built. We’d build the Cybertruck, a three-row CyberSUV, and an unmanned CyberCargo hauler. More autonomous miles, across every surface of this planet and beyond. Worth a conversation?”

The arrangement would free Tesla resources and manufacturing capacity for Cybercab while allowing continued production of the stainless-steel pickup and expanded variants. Unplugged Performance indicated it would wait for battery cells after Cybercab needs are met and would generate ongoing revenue for Tesla through licensing and software/network services on the vehicles it produces.

Following strong initial interest, Unplugged Performance posted a follow-up inviting potential investors and strategic partners to email cyber@unpluggedperformance.com. The company clarified that the outreach is solely to gauge interest and does not constitute an offer to sell securities or acceptance of funds at this stage.

The proposal arrives shortly after Elon Musk indicated that Cybertruck production in Texas would be phased out by roughly the middle of 2027 to expand Cybercab output.

Whether Tesla engages with the offer remains to be seen, but the public overture highlights both the aftermarket specialist’s deep experience with the Cybertruck platform and the growing focus on autonomy within Tesla’s manufacturing plans.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk says Tesla Cybercab future is ‘obvious to anyone with eyes and a brain’

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Elon Musk said the Tesla Cybercab will perform “a majority of all passenger miles” where it is allowed to operate and that point is “obvious to anyone with eyes and a brain.”

Musk used the point to double down on the company’s decision to ax the cult-favorite Cybertruck, as its production space will be removed and transitioned into additional Cybercab lines. The move has catalyzed a polarizing conversation on whether its right or wrong.

Whatever side you are on — it’s happening.

Regardless, Musk seems to be getting to the point that he is done talking about the choice. At some point, you have to think that this was truly a difficult decision for him and the company as well, and this is not something he took lightly. In fact, he’s probably a little bit disappointed with it, too.

But the point remains that the Cybertruck is gone. Musk’s focus is purely on developing an autonomous platform that the world will utilize for transportation, and he’s telling you that anyone “with eyes and a brain” can see it:

Tesla is betting that all of its passengers in the future will be okay with not owning their own personal cars and will be fine with ride-hailing for the rest of their lives. Every dinner, every errand, every trip to the airport and transportation thereafter, will all be operated by ride-sharing, and in Tesla’s perfect world, it will happen in a Cybercab.

As of now, Cybercab is only active in Austin, but it has been spotted all over the country with a driver behind the wheel in those prototypes. In Austin, the car has no steering wheel or pedals for people to control the vehicle.

The Cybertruck dilemma is one that has truly come across the entire Tesla community and while it seems to be a great idea to keep it because people love it, the business side of things is steering Musk and Tesla in another direction.

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