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SpaceX completed its first Starlink launch on May 23rd, flying B1049 for the third time. SpaceX's next Starlink launch will very likely mark the first time a booster has flown four orbital-class missions. (SpaceX) SpaceX completed its first Starlink launch on May 23rd, flying B1049 for the third time. SpaceX's next Starlink launch will very likely mark the first time a booster has flown four orbital-class missions. (SpaceX)

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SpaceX ready for 60-satellite Starlink launch debut: third time’s the charm?

SpaceX is just hours away from its third attempt at Starlink's dedicated launch debut. (SpaceX)

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SpaceX is approximately two hours away from its third Starlink v0.9 launch attempt, an ambitious batch of 60 satellites that will also be the company’s heaviest payload ever.

As hinted at by the name “Starlink v0.9”, these sixty satellites are not quite the final design. More a beta test at an unprecedented scale, several critical new technologies and strategies will be put to the test on this launch, ranging from a seriously unorthodox satellite deployment method to the near-final krypton-fueled electric thrusters. Same as SpaceX’s May 15th and 16th launch attempts, Starlink v0.9’s third try has a 90-minute window that opens at 10:30 pm EDT (02:30 UTC), this time on Thursday, May 23rd.

Third time’s the charm ?

May 23rd’s Starlink v0.9 launch attempt will be the mission’s third, preceded by May 15th – scrubbed by high-altitude wind shear – and May 16th, cancelled before fueling began in order to troubleshoot and update the software aboard the 60 Starlink satellites. After a week of concerted effort from SpaceX technicians and software developers, those issues have been more or less dealt with and the first batch of Starlink satellites are once again ready for orbit.

The second phase of Starlink testing – 60 advanced satellites – in a single fairing. (SpaceX)

According to SpaceX, the massive payload of 60 flat-packed Starlink satellites weighs approximately 18.5 tons (16,800-18,500 kg, unclear if short or metric tons). Either way, it will easily break SpaceX’s previous record – likely Crew Dragon’s DM-1 debut – and become the heaviest payload the company has ever attempted to launch. Despite the sheer size and mass of the payload, Falcon 9 booster B1049 – launching for the third time – will still be able to land aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) some eight minutes after launch.

If the recovery goes well, B1049 will become the third SpaceX booster to successfully complete three orbital-class launches and landings, paving the way for a series of fourth flights (and beyond) later this year.

Cubesats, meet Flatsats

Aside from the mission’s impressive rocket performance requirements, Starlink v0.9 will also serve as a huge beta test of a dozen or more new technologies. The most visible of those has to be each satellite’s truly unique flat, rectangular form factor, as well as SpaceX’s use of flat-packing in place of a dedicated structure for holding and dispensing the satellites. It’s unclear if there is some additional reinforcement or if the satellites themselves provide all of the stack’s strength. If the latter is true, the satellites at the bottom must survive massive forces – ranging from ~7000 kg at rest to 35,000+ kg at the end of Falcon 9’s second stage burn.

Aside from their exotic structure, each Starlink satellite also carries a single-panel ~3 kW solar array using one of two experimental deployment mechanisms. Each satellite’s main propulsion comes from an unknown number of Hall Effect thrusters (i.e. electric/ion thrusters) fueled by krypton instead of the usual xenon. SpaceX’s internally-developed krypton thrusters are the only known examples to have been tested in orbit.

Aside from thrusters, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also believes that the company’s space-based phased array antennas – also developed in-house – are more advanced than any operational competitor on Earth. Musk also revealed that SpaceX would attempt to use a bizarre and largely untested method of satellite deployment, spinning Falcon 9’s upper stage and releasing the satellites with inertia instead of traditional springs or pushrods.

Regardless of whether everything works as planned, the launch is going to be a spectacular one and the webcast may even include views of the bizarre satellite deployment. Catch SpaceX’s live coverage of the mission – likely to include new details about the Starlink constellation – at the link below. Coverage will begin ~15 minutes prior to liftoff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfbIMknNWks

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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 Robotaxi app update now tells riders if Cybercab is the better choice

Tesla’s Robotaxi app now shows ETAs, wait times and availability for Cybercab and Model Y.

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Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

Tesla has rolled out a new vehicle selection screen in its Robotaxi app, and it puts the numbers riders care about most in front of them before they book.

Version 26.11.0 of the app shows the estimated arrival time, the expected wait and current availability for each vehicle option on a single screen, according to a video shared by @gheeunit  on X on November 7. Riders deciding between a Cybercab and a Model Y Robotaxi can now compare those figures side by side instead of picking a car first and learning how long it will take afterward.

Tesla first gave riders that choice on September 3, the day paid Cybercab rides began in Austin. The original version of the screen listed the Cybercab, which seats two, next to the Model Y, which seats four. A later build, 26.8.2, added a seating capacity indicator so groups knew which car would fit them. What it did not show was whether choosing the Cybercab meant standing on the curb a few extra minutes.

That question matters more now than it did two months ago. Tesla had 45 Cybercabs on the Texas DMV roster when rides started. By late October the state listed 573, alongside 631 Model Ys, and community trackers logged a record 1,576 Cybercab sightings across Austin on Halloween alone. With two large fleets sharing one service area, the closest car and the quickest pickup are not always the same vehicle.

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Inline availability also changes what happens when demand spikes. If no Cybercab is free nearby, the rider sees that on the selection screen rather than after trying to book one.

For now the comparison is mostly an Austin feature. Riders in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and the Florida markets are still matched with Model Y vehicles, though Tesla said on its third quarter earnings call that Cybercab rides would launch in Dallas this month.

The update follows a steady run of smaller changes to the rider experience. Late last month Tesla brought a quiet mode that blacks out the cabin screen to Model Y Robotaxis after first testing it in the Cybercab, and it has stretched Austin service to run from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The Cybercab side of that selection screen is about to get much busier. Elon Musk said this week that Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of 2027 to make room for more Cybercab output, and Tesla has said it is aiming to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year.

Tesla has not published official release notes for version 26.11.0.

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Tesla is ending Cybertruck production

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Credit: diagnosticdennis/Instagram and @smile__no via Tesla Owners of Santa Clarita Valley/X

Tesla is ending Cybertruck production sometime in mid-2027, according to CEO Elon Musk.

Musk made the announcement on X last night, which came as a shock to many. He said that the Cybertruck will end production “to make room for increased Cybercab production” at Gigafactory Texas.

It is a huge blow to the fans of Tesla who have come to love the Cybertruck and identify with it as a symbol of their fandom. It has been the best-selling electric pickup, but it has had an underwhelming sales performance in terms of what was expected. This is mostly due to Tesla not meeting the prices it planned to offer the Cybertruck, as its unveiling and actual release were four years apart.

Overall, the responses were mixed. Some fans understood the move toward Cybercab production, especially as Tesla is truly pushing the autonomous future through its Robotaxi platform. However, others did not understand it.

“Damn, how many Cybercabs do you guys need?” one response read. Another said it was “Sad but understandable.”Even analyst Gary Black had responded to the news, stating he hoped Tesla planned to replace it with a traditional pickup design.

It doesn’t seem like that will be the case.

Tesla is so hell-bent on delivering autonomy and eventually providing a driverless service that owning a car seems like an arbitrary idea, according to their thesis. Instead, Cybercabs will be available to pick you up and drop you off on demand, safely, without any human help.

As a result, Tesla has thinned its lineup considerably, and one can only ask where the vehicle lineup goes from here. Eventually, it seems like Cybercab could be the only vehicle that Tesla will sell.

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SpaceX’s next Starship flight set to make history on Friday the 13th

SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15 and its first ship catch.

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SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15, the mission the company plans to use for its first attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower.

SpaceX Vice President of Launch Kiko Dontchev shared the date on stage at the UP.Summit on Thursday, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger, who was in attendance. It is the first launch target to come directly from a SpaceX executive. Until now, the public schedule had relied on FAA air traffic planning slides, which listed Flight 15 for no earlier than November 8 and later November 12. SpaceX has not posted an official mission page yet, and no launch time has been shared.

The date lands inside the window Elon Musk sketched out last month. Speaking at Giga Texas on October 10, Musk said the flight would “probably launch a little bit before Thanksgiving,” as Teslarati reported. On SpaceX’s third quarter earnings call ten days later, he confirmed that Flight 15 would try to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the ship, and put the odds of a successful ship catch at “more likely than not.” SpaceX also aired an animation of the maneuver during that webcast, showing the ship swinging vertical over Starbase before dropping into the tower’s chopsticks.

The hardware is ready. Booster 22 fired all 33 of its Raptor engines for a full duration static fire at Pad 2 on October 25. Ship 42 followed with a single engine burn simulating a deorbit maneuver on October 26 and a 60 second firing of all six engines the next day, according to NASASpaceflight. Ship 42 had already rehearsed the catch in September, when the Pad 2 arms lifted it into position and crews connected the quick disconnect arm while the vehicle hung from the tower.

The remaining hurdle is regulatory. The FAA’s Starship page does not yet list a Flight 15 license. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in October that, after “significant constructive engagement with the FAA,” she expects the license to cover a return to the launch site and a tower catch for both stages. Bringing the ship home means a reentry path that heads toward land, rather than ending over open ocean as every Starship flight so far has.

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SpaceX has caught Super Heavy three times, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, but the ship comes back from orbital velocity and has never been caught. Flight 14 on September 28 was the first Starship to reach orbit, deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down despite an early engine shutdown that Musk blamed on engine computer software.

Musk has called a successful ship catch “the first time that there’s been full recovery of an orbital class rocket,” and he has already named the step after it: a Flight 16 where both the booster and the ship fly again. NASASpaceflight reports that Ship 43, the next vehicle in line, is set for static fire testing in December.

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