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SpaceX launches third Falcon 9 rocket in 72 hours, breaks fairing reuse record
In one fell swoop, SpaceX has successfully launched the third Falcon 9 rocket in less than 72 hours, broken payload fairing reusability record, and placed the 2000th operational Starlink satellite in orbit.
After a string of delays from January 29th to February 2nd, Falcon 9 finally lifted off at 1:13 pm EST (18:13 UTC), February 3rd with the seventh batch of Starlink V1.5 satellites on a mission coincidentally known as Starlink 4-7. Falcon 9 booster B1061 completed its sixth spaceflight and orbital-class launch without issue, successfully sending an expendable Falcon upper stage and Starlink payload on their way to orbit and touching down on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) about nine minutes after liftoff.
While one of the rocket’s two fairing (nosecone) halves flew for the fourth time, the other half completed its sixth launch – a new record for fairing reusability approximately 27 months after SpaceX’s first fairing reuse. The record-breaking half likely last supported Starlink V1 L28 in May 2021. A separate half also flew for the fifth time and was recovered in January 2022. In comparison, it took SpaceX 32 months after the first Falcon booster reuse (March 2017) to launch the same booster for the fourth time and 41 months for the sixth time, highlighting both SpaceX’s growing expertise and how much easier reusing a fairing is relative to a rocket’s entire first stage.
With any luck, both Starlink 4-7 fairing halves will have successfully reentered Earth’s atmosphere, deployed GPS-guided parafoils, gently splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, and been fished out of the water by a SpaceX recovery ship. SpaceX has never discussed its fairing reusability goals, so it’s unknown how many flights each half is nominally designed to support.
Inside that record-breaking fairing was the latest batch of 49 Starlink V1.5 satellites, which weigh about 30-40 kg (65-90 lb) heavier than Starlink V1 satellites and are mainly set apart by the addition of several laser links. Once enough laser-linked satellites are launched, SpaceX will be able to route user communications through space, precluding the need for a ground station to always be within line of sight of each satellite node. Aside from allowing Starlink to serve exceptionally remote users, laser links will also allow Starlink to break into the multi-billion-dollar aviation and maritime communications markets.
With Starlink 4-7, SpaceX has now launched 351 Starlink V1.5 satellites, 349 of which are likely functional and about 50 of which have already reached operational orbits. The mission also included the 2000th operational Starlink satellite launched by SpaceX since November 2019, likely raising the number of working Starlink satellites in orbit to just shy of 1900 (of 2016 total).
Starlink 4-7 was SpaceX’s sixth launch of 2022 less than five weeks into the year and the third successful Falcon 9 launch in 67 hours – a feat of launch cadence that only one other rocket family in history (Russia’s R-7 family) has achieved. SpaceX may have as many as 46 more Falcon launches planned this year.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
