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Rocket Lab’s reusable Electron rocket upgrade gets ready for its biggest test yet
Rocket Lab, the global leader in dedicated small satellite launches, has had quite the productive year, breaking ground on a new U.S.-based launch pad, successfully launching five orbital launches, and announcing plans to send small satellites and small payloads to lunar orbits.
The company also unexpectedly announced plans to attempt to recover and reuse Electron rocket boosters much like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, perhaps as soon as 2020. Just three months after that surprise, the company’s tenth Electron launch is on track to serve as a crucial step and flight test in pursuit of Rocket Lab’s very first booster recovery attempts.
Electron Flight 10 has slipped about a week but is now on track to lift off no earlier than 11:56 pm EST, November 28th (07:56 UTC, Nov 29).
Booster recovery – the new not new rocket version of reduce, reuse, recycle
Rocket Lab explained that recovery efforts would occur in two distinct phases. Phase 1 would involve recovering expended Electron boosters from the ocean off the coast of New Zealand and transporting back to the Rocket Lab’s headquarters for careful inspection. This process is reminiscent of previous practices completed by NASA during the shuttle era to retrieve the Shuttle’s Solid Rocket Boosters from the Atlantic Ocean. The boosters were retrieved and towed back to Port Canaveral, Florida to be inspected and refurbished at Kennedy Space Center.
Although rocket booster recovery is not new in the world of orbital rocketry, it is a new objective for Rocket Lab. In fact, founder Peter Beck stated he would have to “eat his hat” after previously and repeatedly stating that Rocket Lab would never pursue reusability for Electron. After Phase 1, Rocket Lab hopes to attempt its first true Electron ‘catches’. Unlike competitor SpaceX, whose Falcon 9 and Heavy boosters land propulsively on land or sea-based landing pads, Rocket Lab has opted to pursue Electron recovery with parachutes and grappling hook-equipped helicopters.
Electron’s upcoming tenth launch – nicknamed “Running Out of Fingers,” – will feature a new block upgrade for Electron’s first stage booster and will mark the first flight test of recovery hardware. Cold gas attitude control thrusters are the most obvious addition on the upgraded booster and will be used to orient Electron first stages in lieu of aerodynamic control surfaces like SpaceX’s iconic choice of grid fins. In a statement, however, Rocket Lab clarified that although the first stage includes new upgrades, it will only be used to gather data and inform future recovery efforts – no recovery attempts will be made after the next few launches.
Electron Flight 10 is a common rideshare mission that will place seven small satellites in orbit. Among the payloads is a rather fascinating spacecraft called the 2nd Satellite or ALE-2, built by the Tokoyo based ALE Company.
According to a statement posted to the company’s website, the spacecraft “will take on the challenge of materializing a [human]-made shooting star.” The spacecraft produced in conjunction with Spaceflight features four hundred spheres – each 1cm in diameter – that will be gradually ejected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, creating artificial shooting stars.
Behind the scenes at LC-1 and HQ
Ahead of the all-important tenth Electron launch, Rocket Lab treated its social media followers to some rare glimpses into the production process and the stunning Launch Complex-1 (LC-1) located on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. A video posted to YouTube takes viewers on a digital tour around Launch Complex -1 as well as inside the Electron Production Complex.
In the Production Complex, a revolutionary robot named “Rosie” provides a level of automation that takes over the tedious work of processing a rocket body that has been traditionally completed by humans. Rosie the Robot is able to process an entire carbon composite shell of the Electron booster in just twelve hours. The automation machine also finishes out Rocket Lab’s Kick Stage and protective payload fairings. The piece of processing machinery will assist Rocket Lab in matching production and launch frequency of the Electron rocket with the 120 launches per year that LC-1 is licensed to support.
Rocket Lab’s tenth Electron launch is currently on track for Friday, December 6th from 0756-0922 GMT (2:56-4:22 a.m. EST).
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has provided an updated estimate for the training data needed to achieve truly safe unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD).
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
10 billion miles of training data
Musk comment came as a reply to Apple and Rivian alum Paul Beisel, who posted an analysis on X about the gap between tech demonstrations and real-world products. In his post, Beisel highlighted Tesla’s data-driven lead in autonomy, and he also argued that it would not be easy for rivals to become a legitimate competitor to FSD quickly.
“The notion that someone can ‘catch up’ to this problem primarily through simulation and limited on-road exposure strikes me as deeply naive. This is not a demo problem. It is a scale, data, and iteration problem— and Tesla is already far, far down that road while others are just getting started,” Beisel wrote.
Musk responded to Beisel’s post, stating that “Roughly 10 billion miles of training data is needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving. Reality has a super long tail of complexity.” This is quite interesting considering that in his Master Plan Part Deux, Elon Musk estimated that worldwide regulatory approval for autonomous driving would require around 6 billion miles.
FSD’s total training miles
As 2025 came to a close, Tesla community members observed that FSD was already nearing 7 billion miles driven, with over 2.5 billion miles being from inner city roads. The 7-billion-mile mark was passed just a few days later. This suggests that Tesla is likely the company today with the most training data for its autonomous driving program.
The difficulties of achieving autonomy were referenced by Elon Musk recently, when he commented on Nvidia’s Alpamayo program. As per Musk, “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.” These sentiments were echoed by Tesla VP for AI software Ashok Elluswamy, who also noted on X that “the long tail is sooo long, that most people can’t grasp it.”
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Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla emerged as one of the most recognized automakers at MotorTrend’s 2026 Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) Innovator Awards.
As could be seen in a press release from the publication, two key Tesla employees were honored for their work on AI, autonomy, and vehicle software. MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla leaders and engineers recognized
The fourth annual SDV Innovator Awards celebrate pioneers and experts who are pushing the automotive industry deeper into software-driven development. Among the most notable honorees for this year was Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Vice President of AI Software, who received a Pioneer Award for his role in advancing artificial intelligence and autonomy across the company’s vehicle lineup.
Tesla also secured recognition in the Expert category, with Lawson Fulton, a staff Autopilot machine learning engineer, honored for his contributions to Tesla’s driver-assistance and autonomous systems.
Tesla’s software-first strategy
While automakers like General Motors, Ford, and Rivian also received recognition, Tesla’s multiple awards stood out given the company’s outsized role in popularizing software-defined vehicles over the past decade. From frequent OTA updates to its data-driven approach to autonomy, Tesla has consistently treated vehicles as evolving software platforms rather than static products.
This has made Tesla’s vehicles very unique in their respective sectors, as they are arguably the only cars that objectively get better over time. This is especially true for vehicles that are loaded with the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which are getting progressively more intelligent and autonomous over time. The majority of Tesla’s updates to its vehicles are free as well, which is very much appreciated by customers worldwide.
Elon Musk
Judge clears path for Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit to go before a jury
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder.
A U.S. judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding nonprofit mission can proceed to a jury trial.
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder. These claims are directly opposed by OpenAI.
Judge says disputed facts warrant a trial
At a hearing in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that there was “plenty of evidence” suggesting that OpenAI leaders had promised that the organization’s original nonprofit structure would be maintained. She ruled that those disputed facts should be evaluated by a jury at a trial in March rather than decided by the court at this stage, as noted in a Reuters report.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 but left the organization in 2018. In his lawsuit, he argued that he contributed roughly $38 million, or about 60% of OpenAI’s early funding, based on assurances that the company would remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages tied to what he describes as “ill-gotten gains.”
OpenAI, however, has repeatedly rejected Musk’s allegations. The company has stated that Musk’s claims were baseless and part of a pattern of harassment.
Rivalries and Microsoft ties
The case unfolds against the backdrop of intensifying competition in generative artificial intelligence. Musk now runs xAI, whose Grok chatbot competes directly with OpenAI’s flagship ChatGPT. OpenAI has argued that Musk is a frustrated commercial rival who is simply attempting to slow down a market leader.
The lawsuit also names Microsoft as a defendant, citing its multibillion-dollar partnerships with OpenAI. Microsoft has urged the court to dismiss the claims against it, arguing there is no evidence it aided or abetted any alleged misconduct. Lawyers for OpenAI have also pushed for the case to be thrown out, claiming that Musk failed to show sufficient factual basis for claims such as fraud and breach of contract.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers, however, declined to end the case at this stage, noting that a jury would also need to consider whether Musk filed the lawsuit within the applicable statute of limitations. Still, the dispute between Elon Musk and OpenAI is now headed for a high-profile jury trial in the coming months.
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
