News
SpaceX to launch quartet of mini geostationary satellites in 2023
Startup Astranis has purchased a dedicated Falcon 9 launch from SpaceX for four miniature geostationary communications satellites.
Known as MicroGEO, the comparatively tiny satellites Astranis is building aim to offer prospective customers an alternative to the immense, expensive satellites that dominate modern geostationary (GEO) communications. Where those flagship satellites tend to weigh anywhere from three to seven metric tons (~6,500-15,500 lb) at liftoff, MicroGEO satellites will weigh around 400 kilograms (~900 lb) – at least a magnitude lighter. Astranis also believes it will be able to eke out about 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) of bandwidth from each tiny satellite, giving them a level of performance that could actually be proportionally comparable to or greater than much larger satellites.
While it’s not clear that Astranis is actually selling its MicroGEOs for “1/20th the cost of traditional GEO communications satellites,” as they claim, the startup has found plenty of customers.
As of March 2022, Astranis has secured contracts to build 11 MicroGEO satellites for a range of customers: one for Alaska’s Pacific Dataport, eight for in-flight and at-sea connectivity provider Anuvu, and one or two for Peru’s Grupo Andesat. Astranis says its deal to launch one satellite for Andesat – with an option for a second – is worth more than $90 million. At that price tag, MicroGEO might cost about half as much as a more traditional entry-level GEO satellite but will only offer 10 Gbps for the money. For twice the price, a prospective customer could easily buy a satellite with at least five to ten times the throughput.
In that sense, MicroGEOs are actually more expensive relative to the performance they offer. Their main benefits appear to be a lower cost of entry, significantly lower launch costs, and the ability to dedicate a whole satellite to a relatively small region or niche service. In that sense, MicroGEO’s draw might be comparable to the reason some launch customers prefer a more expensive dedicated launch on a small rocket over a much cheaper launch as one of many rideshare payloads on a large rocket. For that premium, dedicated launch customers don’t have to worry about the logistics of juggling dozens of other satellites, the risk of related launch delays, or the general need to compromise with other passengers.
While MicroGEO satellite might be significantly less cost-efficient than larger alternatives, smaller customers may find paying a premium preferable to having to find or compromise with other customers to avoid wasting any leftover bandwidth. Additionally, in some unique situations, dedicated MicroGEO satellites may actually be several times cheaper for customers. CEO John Gedmark says that for Peru’s Andesat, MicroGEO offers a “factor of three or a factor of four cost decrease…compared to what they’re paying today [to lease less capacity on existing satellites].”
It’s clear that Astranis’ customers see significant value in MicroGEO. On top of Astranis’ current backlog, Gedmark recently revealed that the company is working on deals for “dozens” of additional satellites and believes that “there will be more than 100 Astranis satellites in active service” by 2030. That means that Astranis’ unique Falcon 9 contract is likely to be the first of many. For perhaps as little as $50 million, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch four MicroGEO satellites at once. The relatively tiny payload – likely less than two tons (~4400 lb) – will allow Falcon 9 to launch into a more energetic geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), significantly reducing the amount of time the MicroGEOs will need to reach operational orbits.
Elon Musk
Tesla Semi finally has an FSD timeline and it’s waiting on the Cybercab
Elon Musk told investors Semi self-driving should start working by early 2027, per today’s earnings.
During Wednesday’s’ Tesla Q2 earnings call, an analyst asked Elon Musk when Tesla would look at autonomy for the Semi. His answer set a real timeline for the first time, noting that self-driving on the Tesla Semi is expected to start working “around the end of this year or early next year”.
Musk framed the delay as a matter of priority, not capability. Tesla’s self-driving team is currently focused on Model 3, Model Y, and Cybercab, the vehicles that make up the overwhelming majority of Tesla’s fleet. Since Semi trucks on the road remain a small fraction of that total even after the recent Nevada factory ramp, Musk said it made more sense to keep the software team’s attention on what he called “the march of nines of safety” for the higher volume vehicles first. Autonomous Semi development is “taking a bit of a backseat for the next six months or so,” he said, before adding that it “will definitely be working next year and in time for the scale-up to high production of the Tesla Semi.”
Tesla Semi’s official battery capacity leaked by California regulators
The timeline lines up with what’s already been showing up on public roads. In June, a Tesla Semi was spotted in Sunnyvale wearing a full validation rig, the same rooftop sensor array Tesla mounts on vehicles ahead of an FSD milestone.
A second unit was seen near Fremont days later with a matching camera suite and lens washers. Separately, Tesla analyst Nic Cruz Patane posted video this month of the production Semi’s exterior camera array, ten AI4 based units built directly into the truck rather than added later.
Tesla Semi AI4 cameras. The production version has 10 cameras on its exterior.
These trucks are designed to be autonomous. pic.twitter.com/GH3BamxIBQ
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) April 14, 2026
Musk also gave the reason autonomy on the Semi matters in the first place, a persistent shortage of qualified truck drivers. “There is a really serious shortage of truckers,” he said on the call, framing a self-driving Semi as important both for addressing that shortage and for improving safety and comfort for the drivers running the truck today.
The timing also tracks with the Semi’s production reality. Tesla’s Q2 shareholder letter, dropped language promising the Semi would reach volume production this year. Musk pointed to 4680 battery cell output as the near-term constraint on Semi and Cybercab production. A software timeline landing in early 2027 gives Tesla’s autonomy team room to work while the hardware ramp catches up behind it.
It’s worth nothing that this isn’t necessarily a promise the Semi ships driverless next year. Musk’s own language, self-driving “working” by early 2027, describes internal validation catching up to hardware already riding on every production truck, not a public unsupervised rollout.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.
The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.
This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.
Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results
- Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
- Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
- Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
- Profit -$ 4.751B
Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.
Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.
In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.
Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.
You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.
Q2 2026 Earnings Call https://t.co/zZS6ii2TWK
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.
Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:
It’s coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.
Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.
Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.
The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.
Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.
Tesla Semi finally has an FSD timeline and it’s waiting on the Cybercab
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
