News
SpaceX scrubs Falcon 9’s seventh-flight debut for more “mission assurance”
Update: SpaceX has scrubbed Falcon 9’s seventh-flight debut and the 14th Starlink launch this year to allow more time for “data reviews” and “additional mission assurance” and is now scheduled to launch Starlink-15 no earlier than (NET) 9:34 pm EST (02:34 UTC) Monday, November 23rd.
In a tweet shortly after the decision was made, SpaceX said that both the Falcon 9 rocket and Starlink payload were still healthy, adding a bit of mystery to the decision. On SpaceX’s official mission control audio stream, the Starlink-15 launch director (LD) – most likely Ricky Lim – announced the scrub around T-35 minutes, effectively the deadline for the start of Falcon 9 propellant loading. For whatever reason, SpaceX was not confident enough to commit to launch and LD stated that the scrub had been called to allow for “additional mission assurance” – the second time in recent memory that the company has used that particular industry euphemism.
Regardless of the reason, the first seventh flight (sixth reuse) of a Falcon 9 booster is certainly cause enough for caution, as it means that SpaceX is very literally pushing the envelope of orbital-class rocket reusability. Thus far, the company’s record of success during similar first-flight reuse milestones remains flawless – the preservation of which will likely go far to salve the anxieties of more conservative customers like NASA and the US military.
SpaceX says that Starlink-15’s November 23rd backup date may not hold per the threat of bad weather at Falcon 9 B1049’s Atlantic Ocean landing zone several hundred miles downrange. Stay tuned for updates as the company tracks towards what could be its first four-launch month ever.
SpaceX has static fired a record-breaking Falcon 9 booster and says it’s ready to launch its 14th Starlink mission this year just a day and a half after sailing past the company’s previous annual launch record.
Set in 2018, SpaceX’s previous annual launch record stood at 21 missions – 20 Falcon 9s and one Falcon Heavy. Now, a little over halfway through November, SpaceX has easily bested itself, launching for the 22nd time to deliver oceanographic satellite Sentinel 6A to a polar orbit on November 21st.
Back on the East Coast, SpaceX fired up six-flight Falcon 9 booster B1049 just five hours after Sentinel 6A’s successful launch, setting the rocket up for its seventh flight – a first for SpaceX and reusable rocketry – in support of Starlink v1.0 Flight 15 (Starlink-15).
Following an apparent November 20th static fire abort and a brief 24-hour delay, B1049 is now scheduled to lift off no earlier than 9:56 pm EST (02:56 UTC), November 22nd with some 16 metric tons (~35,000 lb) of Starlink communications satellites in tow. Designed to ultimately blanket the Earth in affordable high-quality broadband internet, SpaceX has already begun to roll out a public beta test to what looks like one or several thousand users across the northern US and southern Canada.
Speaking on a November 21st Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread, one of the SpaceX Starlink engineers participating revealed that the company is targeting a “wider beta” rollout as early as late-January 2021. Despite having some 820 functioning Starlink satellites in orbit, approximately a third were recently launched and are still raising their orbits or waiting in phasing orbits to properly orient themselves and maximize Starlink internet coverage.
While it’s effectively impossible to predict which orbital ‘plane’ a given batch of Starlink satellites is targeting, it’s likely that the ~300 spacecraft still making their way to operational orbits will complete their journeys within the next 60 days. In general, it takes roughly 2-3 months from any given Starlink launch for all ~60 satellites to reach their operational 550 km (~340 mi) orbits, a process usually performed in batches of 22 – each essentially representing one evenly-space ring of internet coverage a few hundred miles wide.
Despite SpaceX tracking towards a truly record-breaking year of ~25+ launches, CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company is pushing to achieve as many as 48 launches in 2021, more than half of which would likely be Starlink missions.
Tune in below to catch SpaceX’s Sunday Starlink launch live later tonight.
A Tesla Semi caught fire in Hayward, California, which caused both directions of traffic to shut down for hours before being completely reopened early on Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol said.
The fire occurred just after 5:30 local time in Hayward on Tuesday, as the Semi caught fire in the southbound lanes of I-880 before CHP officials made the decision to shut down both lanes of traffic due to potential risks from hazardous chemical smoke.
There were no injuries reported.
🚨 A Tesla Semi reportedly caught fire, with California Highway Patrol confirming. The Semi was on I-880 SB
An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 semi-truck and large commercial vehicle fires occur on U.S. roadways every year
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2026
The cause of the fire is currently unknown, as neither Tesla nor the CHP have not determined a cause.
However, some images taken before the Semi was completely destroyed by the fire seem to indicate this might have been an older unit, as it appears to be one of the designs that Tesla shipped as part of its pilot program, before revising it and starting mass production just a month ago.
@Tslachan From on of the videos looks like it’s an old Semi (not the refresh version that recently started production) https://t.co/KzwmR2kXow
— Area Under The Curve 🎗️ (@AreaUnderCurve) October 28, 2026
At the time of publication, CHP had not returned our request for a comment for additional details, including the Semi involved and any potential collaboration on an investigation between the CHP and Tesla. We will update this story when we hear back from them.
The southbound lanes were reopened at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, with the northbound lanes opening last night a few hours after the fire began. The CHP did state that the lithium batteries were “incredibly difficult to extinguish,” according to NBC Bay Area.
The truck’s driver said that the Semi caught fire, but he did not have an explanation.
An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 semi-truck and large commercial vehicle fires occur on U.S. roadways every year.
Tesla’s launch of the “Emergency Drive Away” function a few months back offered owners a safe option to evacuate an area if they were in reasonable danger. The function finally got its first use in the real world, but it appears it was by mistake.
A video shared by u/Joshalander in the r/TeslaLounge subreddit recorded the instance from his vehicle and said the incident took place in Austin this past weekend during the city’s F1 Race.
“Was charging around 6 AM this past Sunday in Austin before heading to the F1 race and heard a pop. Looked over and saw the new emergency drive-away feature in action. Genuinely felt bad for the dude when he got out and realized what happened, since he looked exhausted and only seemed to half-read the prompts.”
🚨 Here’s the first look at Tesla’s Emergency Drive Away function in action:
Apparently this driver accidentally enabled it and drove forward; you can see the Supercharger pull with the car.
Tesla said previously this would cost up to $25k if not used properly. https://t.co/B4qQRrsO6B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2026
Emergency Drive Away unlatches the Supercharger connector from the vehicle, but still causes damage to both the car and the Supercharger. Tesla has said that it will cost up to $25,000 in repairs to have everything fixed back to normal.
Additionally, the company said that if it were not used in an emergency situation, the driver of the vehicle who activated the Emergency Drive Away feature would be responsible for all repair costs.
Tesla constitutes the following situations as reasonable justifications for activating the feature:
- You face an immediate threat to your life or personal safety.
- You must leave the area immediately.
- Exiting the vehicle is unsafe.
- Unplugging the charge connector would unreasonably delay your departure or expose you to a risk to your personal safety.
After using the feature, Tesla requires the driver to schedule Service so the car can be inspected.
News
Tesla’s Cybercab battery design could make robotaxis even cheaper
Tesla built the Cybercab’s battery pack with spare room for a future switch to LFP.
Tesla built the Cybercab’s battery pack with empty space inside it on purpose, and the reason points to a cheaper robotaxi down the road.
Robert Sumpf, Tesla’s director of mechanical design engineering for battery modules and packs, said the extra room beside and beneath the Cybercab’s modules was left there so the company can move to lithium iron phosphate cells later. “So, we protected this pack to go to an even lower energy dense chemistry as we scale and need to bring LFP into the platform,” Sumpf said in a Cybercab deep dive with Munro Live.
The Cybercab runs on Tesla’s own 4680 cells with a nickel chemistry today. LFP cells store less energy for their size, so a straight swap would cut range. The reserved space lets Tesla add more LFP cells to make up the difference. In return, Tesla would get cells that cost less, run cooler and survive more charge cycles. LFP became the most used EV battery chemistry in the world last year.
Not all of that room was planned for a chemistry change. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, said part of it exists because “we didn’t need as many batteries as we thought we did.” Tesla told Sandy Munro in early 2025 that it was targeting a Cybercab pack under 50 kWh with close to 300 miles of range.
The pack also breaks from the structural design Tesla used in some Model Y and Cybertruck builds. Instead of potting hundreds of cells into one block, the Cybercab uses four separate, individually sealed modules, so a bad module can be replaced without scrapping the whole pack. Sumpf was blunt about the older approach, giving the Model Y structural battery “a grade D” because it was hard to build and nearly impossible to repair. He estimated a fully structural pack gains about 10% more cell volume, but said “the issue is the service cost.”
That cost matters more for a car that rarely sits parked. Cybercab chief engineer Eric Earley said replacing an entire pack “before half a million miles is a killer on cost,” which is why remanufacturing and serviceability were built into the design from the start.
The same Munro Live tour produced Moravy’s admission that the Cybercab line at Giga Texas is now outpacing Robotaxi deployments, along with a look at the robotaxi’s unorthodox paint process. Tesla is aiming to deliver the first Cybercabs to outside customers by the end of 2026, though Elon Musk has said the vast majority will stay owned by Tesla and run as a transport service.
Sumpf did not give a date for an LFP version, name a cell supplier or say how a chemistry change would affect range. For now, the 4680 cars keep piling up: Texas DMV records from Tuesday list 544 Cybercabs authorized for Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet, more than the 507 Model Ys on the same roster for the first time.
Tesla Semi catches fire in California: what we know
Tesla’s ‘Emergency Drive Away’ function gets its first use in the real world
