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SpaceX’s next step towards airplane-like Falcon 9 reusability expected in 2018

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Speaking at an impromptu IAC 2018 talk, Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability Hans Koenigsmann confirmed earlier this month that SpaceX is aiming to conduct its first triple reuse of a Falcon 9 booster before the year is out.

While not entirely confident on the specific mission it would end up flying on, Koenigsmann floated the company’s next Vandenberg, CA launch – Spaceflight Industry’s SSO-A rideshare – as a prime candidate, tentatively targeting November 19th.

B1048’s second launch and landing, captured from the same camera perspective. (Pauline Acalin)

As of November 19th, only two Falcon 9 Block 5 boosters will be candidates for a third reuse – B1046 and B1048. Falcon 9 B1048 launched for the second time just days ago, placing Earth observation satellite SAOCOM 1A in orbit before performing the first return-to-launch-site (RTLS) recovery on the West Coast, also marking the debut of SpaceX’s long-dormant LZ-4 landing zone. Aside from playing a role in one of the most spectacular launch-related light shows ever created, B1048 is noteworthy for being SpaceX’s second-fastest Falcon 9 booster turnaround, taking just 74 days to go from its first launch and landing to its second operational use.

While B1046 – launched first on May 11th and again on August 7th – will have had more than three months of potential refurbishment by SSO-A’s Nov. 19 launch target, both of its two launches involved relatively high-energy profiles with heavy payloads, resulting in higher (and thus more damaging) heating during reentry. B1048, on the other hand, has launched a heavy set of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into a low-energy orbit and then launched the much lighter SAOCOM 1A spacecraft into an equally low orbit, translating to much more forgiving reentries and thus much easier refurbishment.

Later at IAC 2018, Hans spoke in more detail about the leading challenges facing SpaceX in this relatively mature stage of reusable rocketry optimization. Most notably, he seemed to imply that the most difficult aspect of refurbishing Falcon 9 boosters was damage caused to its nine Merlin 1D engines while taking the brunt of Falcon 9’s reentry inertia, not hugely surprising given the awkward geometry and sheer force behind a booster traveling more than 2000 meters per second.

 

It’s possible that SpaceX will set B1046 up as the pathfinder for all future reusability milestones, including the 3rd, 4th, and 5th booster flights and beyond. However, B1048 may well be in better condition, is already directly stationed at its refurbishment facility, and will have another relatively low-energy launch ahead of it if assigned to SSO-A. Critically, flying for the third time on SSO-A – as few as 43 days after its second orbital launch – will require B1048 to break SpaceX’s record for faster Falcon 9 booster turnaround by more than 50%, despite the fact that it would have two full operational missions under its belt.

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It may sound more mundane than other crowning SpaceX achievements, particularly with the focus on numbers that might seem arbitrary and unimportant at first glance, but it’s actually difficult to overstate just how important the third reuse of a Falcon 9 booster is, particularly if that pathfinder happens to break refurbishment records at the same time.

SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to build and launch rockets with airplane-like reusability and reliability, eventually flying boosters and other components upwards of 100-1000 times each, and the jump from two flights per core to three will be the best evidence yet that the company is making rapid progress in that direction.


For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!

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 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.

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“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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EVgo taps Tesla Superchargers for mass charging expansion

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Credit: EVgo

EVgo has tapped Tesla Superchargers for its most recent efforts to expand its charging presence in the United States, a move that seems logical based on the effectiveness of the automaker’s own infrastructure.

EVgo opened its first Supercharger site in Illinois, a 12-stall station near downtown Chicago at 3145 South Ashland Avenue in the Riverside Square & River’s Edge center, right beside a grocery store. This marks the start of the company’s plan to deploy hundreds of Supercharger stalls across the United States, primarily at grocery-anchored Regency Centers properties where drivers can shop, eat, or run errands while they charge.

The new location uses Tesla’s Magic Dock technology so both NACS and CCS vehicles can plug in natively without drivers needing to carry their own adapters. Peak power reaches 325 kW at this site, with pricing set between $0.25 and $0.35 per kWh depending on the hour—the same rate for Tesla and non-Tesla drivers.

The stalls also appear in Tesla’s in-car navigation and Trip Planner, making them easy for Tesla owners to find and route to. Illinois has seen EV registrations rise nearly 60 percent over the past two years, and EVgo’s broader network has experienced more than 700 percent growth in charging demand over three years, so the timing fits the market’s trajectory.

Choosing Tesla hardware through the Supercharger for Business program turns out to have been a smart, practical move.

Tesla’s V4 stalls and cabinets deliver high, reliable power with a proven track record of strong uptime, while Magic Dock delivers true dual-standard compatibility in one package. Because the sites show up in Tesla’s navigation tools, EVgo instantly gains visibility among millions of existing Tesla drivers, which should raise utilization and help the company double its addressable market as more vehicles adopt NACS. EVgo still owns the stations and sets pricing, yet benefits from Tesla’s established hardware, longer cables, and operational support.

The result is faster, lower-risk infrastructure expansion that serves every EV driver—Tesla or otherwise—with convenient, high-power charging at everyday retail locations. For drivers, that means fewer adapters, more predictable stops, and a denser network just as electric vehicles become everyday transportation.

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