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Scrubtober strikes again: faulty SpaceX rocket camera aborts Starlink-14 launch

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Update: SpaceX’s next Starlink-14 launch attempt appears to be scheduled no earlier than (NET) 11:31 am EDT (15:31 UTC), Saturday, October 24th, ending the possibility of Falcon 9 booster B1060 setting a new turnaround record. If successful, the mission will still mark the first time SpaceX has complete three Starlink launches in one month.

CEO Elon Musk says that a faulty camera on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s new upper stage lead the company to abort its October 22nd Starlink-14 launch attempt around 15 minutes before liftoff.

The abort continues what has been less than affectionately termed “Scrubtober” after a relentless string of delays that actually began closer to mid September or even late August. Multiple delays for ULA’s Delta IV Heavy NROL-44 launch quickly snowballed into several SpaceX Falcon 9 launch delays, follower by additional weather-related SpaceX launch delays in September. Then, once again, additional ULA NROL-44 delays caused additional Falcon 9 delays, followed by two rare technical delays for the same SpaceX missions.

The Starlink mission in question finally launched on October 5th, while SpaceX’s third US military GPS III satellite launch was indefinitely scrubbed when an issue with several booster engines triggered a last-second abort. Thankfully, SpaceX was able to launch another Starlink mission – Starlink V1 L13 or Starlink-13 on October 18th – albeit only after more than a week of delays. Now, already delayed by 24 hours for unknown reasons, SpaceX’s Starlink-14 mission suffered its own launch abort just ~15 minutes before liftoff, continuing the plague that is Scrubtober.

Set to deliver another ~16 metric ton (~35,000 lb) batch of 60 Starlink v1.0 satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), Starlink-14 will be SpaceX’s 14th operational Starlink launch and 15th overall, as well as the 13th Starlink launch in 2020 alone.

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As usual, the mission will use SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, a two-stage, 70m (~230 ft) tall launch vehicle powered by liquid oxygen and refined kerosene (RP-1) propellant. Weighing more than 550 metric tons (1.2 million lb) fully fueled, the first stage (booster) produces more than 7600 kilonewtons of thrust (1.7 million lbf) at liftoff with nine Merlin 1D engines. On the global stage, Falcon 9 is the most reliable operational launch vehicle in the world, having consecutively completed 67 successful missions since January 2017.

Falcon 9 booster B1060 remains ready for its third launch. (Richard Angle)

Continuing to demonstrate the ironic fact that SpaceX’s flight-proven rockets have begun to be more reliable than new hardware, Falcon 9 booster B1060 – onto its third launch and landing – apparently remains ready for launch despite issues with a camera on Starlink-14’s new expendable upper stage. As previously discussed on Teslarati, B1060 was on track to set a new world record for orbital-class rocket turnaround, launching twice in 49 days if Starlink-14 had avoided today’s abort. Set by another Falcon 9 booster just three months ago, SpaceX could still break its own 51-day turnaround record if it can inspect and recycle the rocket for another Starlink-14 launch attempt on October 23rd.

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla Earnings Call: Top 5 questions investors are asking

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(Credit: Tesla)

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:

SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms

  1. You once said: Loyalty deserves loyalty. Will long-term Tesla shareholders still be prioritized if SpaceX does an IPO?
    1. 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.
  2. When is FSD going to be 100% unsupervised?
    1. 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.
  3. 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?
    1. 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.
  4. 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?
    1. Our Take – Optimus is going to have a larger role in factories moving forward, and later this year, they will have larger responsibilities.
  5. 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.
    1. 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.

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Elon Musk shares incredible detail about Tesla Cybercab efficiency

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(Credit: Tesla North America | X)

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.

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.”

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Elon Musk to attend 2026 World Economic Forum at Davos

The Tesla CEO was confirmed as a last-minute speaker for a session with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

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Elon Musk planned to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos for the first time, marking a notable shift after years of public criticism of the annual gathering. The Tesla CEO was confirmed as a last-minute speaker for a session alongside BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, signaling a thaw in Musk’s long-strained relationship with the global economic forum. Musk was confirmed as a late addition to Davos program Organizers of the World Economic Forum confirmed that Elon Musk was added shortly before the event to a Thursday afternoon session in Davos, where he was scheduled to speak with Larry Fink. The appearance marked Musk’s first participation in the forum, which annually draws political leaders, business executives, and global media to Switzerland. Musk’s attendance represented a departure from his past stance toward the event. He had been invited in prior years but declined to attend, including in 2024. His Davos appearance followed remarks from his political ally, Donald Trump, who addressed the forum earlier in the week with a wide-ranging speech. The session also underscored Musk’s expanding role beyond Tesla, reflecting his leadership across multiple ventures, including SpaceX and xAI. A previously strained relationship showed signs of easing Musk had frequently criticized the World Economic Forum in the past, describing it as elitist and questioning its influence. In earlier posts, he characterized the gathering as “boring” and accused it of functioning like an unelected global authority. Those remarks contributed to a long-running distance between Musk and WEF organizers. The forum previously said Musk had not been invited since 2015, though that position shifted as his global influence grew. Organizers indicated last year that Musk was welcome amid heightened interest in his political and business activities, including his involvement in efforts to improve government efficiency during Trump’s administration. Musk later stepped away from that role. Despite the past friction, Musk remained central to several global debates, ranging from SpaceX’s provision of satellite internet services in geopolitically sensitive regions to controversy surrounding content generated by xAI’s Grok chatbot. His decision to attend Davos suggested a pragmatic recalibration, even as his relationship with the forum remained complex.

Elon Musk is poised to attend the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos. The Tesla CEO was confirmed as a last-minute speaker for a session with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, signaling a thaw in Musk’s long-strained relationship with the event.

A late addition

Organizers of the World Economic Forum confirmed that Elon Musk was added shortly before the event to a Thursday afternoon session, where he was scheduled to speak with Fink, as noted in a Bloomberg News report. Musk’s upcoming appearance marks Musk’s first participation in the forum, which annually draws political leaders, business executives, and global media to Davos, Switzerland.

Musk’s attendance represents a departure from his past stance toward the event. He had been invited in prior years but declined to attend, including in 2024. His upcoming appearance followed remarks from his political ally, Donald Trump, who addressed the forum earlier in the week with a wide-ranging speech.

A previously strained relationship

Musk had frequently criticized the World Economic Forum in the past, describing it as elitist and questioning its influence. In earlier posts, he characterized the gathering as “boring” and accused it of functioning like an unelected global authority. Those remarks contributed to a long-running distance between Musk and WEF organizers.

The forum previously said Musk had not been invited since 2015, though that position has since shifted. Organizers indicated last year that Musk was welcome amid heightened interest in his political and business activities, including his involvement in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk later stepped away from that role.

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Despite his friction with the World Economic Forum, Musk has remained central to several global events, from SpaceX’s provision of satellite internet services in geopolitically sensitive regions through Starlink to the growing use of xAI’s Grok in U.S. government applications.

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