News
SpaceX ready for back to back astronaut, Starlink launches
Two SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets remain on track to attempt back-to-back astronaut and Starlink satellite launches later this week.
Both SpaceX East Coast drone ships Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) and A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) and two new support and fairing recovery ships (Bob and Doug) are all headed northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, where they’ll soon reach landing zones stationed just ~50 km (~30 mi) apart. As early as 9:03pm EST Wednesday, November 10th (02:03 UTC 11 Nov), the first of those Falcon 9s is scheduled to lift off on its second mission for NASA, sending a new Crew Dragon and four international astronauts on their way to the International Space Station (ISS).
If all goes to plan, less than a day and a half later, a second Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from SpaceX’s other East Coast launch site as part of “Starlink 4-1” – the company’s first dedicated Florida Starlink launch in almost six months.
Starlink 4-1 is scheduled to launch NET 7:40am EST (12:40 UTC) on Friday, November 12th with Falcon 9 booster B1062, a new expendable upper stage, a (likely) reused fairing, and 53 Starlink V1.5 satellites – likely the first of their kind to launch from the East Coast. While the mission profile will be almost identical to all 29 of SpaceX’s dedicated East Coast Starlink launches, it will be targeting a slightly lower and different orbit to kick off the second of five constellation ‘shells’.
Unlike the ~1700 Starlink V1.0 satellites SpaceX launched over the last two years, the Starlink V1.5 satellites the company recently began launching feature a partially upgraded design but are mainly distinguished by the addition of several ‘space lasers’. More officially known as optical interlinks, those lasers will allow Starlink satellites to connect to each other and route communications entirely in orbit, exploiting the vacuum of space to create what amount to wireless fiber-optic links with bandwidth on the order of tens or hundreds of gigabits per second (Gbps). As a result, there’s a good chance that SpaceX will eventually replace the first-generation Starlink V1.0 constellation as soon as possible, leaving an upgraded and laser-linked copycat in their place.
If SpaceX interlinks most or all of its constellation with lasers, it could drastically simplify Starlink ground station operations and cut down on the bureaucratic work required to license and build those stations in virtually every country Starlink wants to operate in. It would also make it far easier for SpaceX to serve unprecedentedly high-quality internet to aircraft and ships – a captive market practically begging for disruption.
In a prelaunch briefing late on November 9th, SpaceX vice president Bill Gerstenmaier revealed that drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) – originally meant to support Crew-3’s booster landing – had gotten “beat up” by the Atlantic, forcing it to swap places with A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG). It’s unclear if the damage JRTI may or may not have received is enough to require a return to port, which could trigger a week or more of Starlink 4-1 launch delays. For now, though, there are no signs of a delay.
Crew-3
Prior to Starlink 4-1, SpaceX is set for its fifth astronaut launch since May 2020 and third operational NASA ‘crew rotation’ mission on Wednesday, November 10th. Crew-3 will also host the 15th through 18th astronauts launched by SpaceX, nominally sending Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron (NASA), and Matthias Maurer (ESA) on their way to an ISS docking on November 11th.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just got the green light Starship has waited years for
The FAA has cleared Starship Flight 14, setting up SpaceX’s first orbital attempt on Monday.
SpaceX has cleared the last regulatory hurdle standing between Starship and its first trip to orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration issued the launch license for Starship Flight 14 late Saturday, keeping the mission on track for liftoff Monday, September 28, from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas.
The 75 minute launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. Central, and Boca Chica Beach closures are also scheduled for September 29 and 30 as backup dates. This will be Starship’s first revenue generating mission.
The license was the missing piece after SpaceX completed a full wet dress rehearsal with Booster 21 and Ship 41 on September 24. At the time, the company said the flight remained on track pending regulatory approval. Because Flight 14 flies an orbital profile, the FAA had to sign off on a modified license that met its safety, payload and financial responsibility requirements.
Observers combing through the new FAA paperwork also noticed that lightning no longer appears among Starship’s listed launch hazards. If that holds, it matters more for where Starship is headed than for Monday’s attempt. Florida and Louisiana, home to LC-39A and the planned Starbase Louisiana site, see some of the most frequent lightning in the United States.
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
Flight 14 is the mission SpaceX has been building toward for months. Ship 41 will carry 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational V3 units to be deployed, and attempt roughly six orbits at about 275 kilometers over a flight lasting just under 10 hours. SpaceX says the ship will only perform its orbital insertion burn after flight controllers confirm enough hardware redundancy remains for the deorbit burn at the end of the mission. Ship 41 is targeting a splashdown in the Pacific west of Chile, while Super Heavy will return to the Gulf of Mexico.
The date carries some symbolism as well. A Monday launch would come 10 years and one day after Elon Musk first presented the Interplanetary Transport System, the design that became Starship, at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.
SpaceX has not announced what comes next, but air traffic planning slides reported this week, list Flight 15 no earlier than October 19 and a first Starship launch from LC-39A in Florida no earlier than October 30. Both dates depend on how Monday goes.
News
SpaceX completes another secret Pentagon launch, adding to suspected Starshield buildout
SpaceX launched the classified USSF-385 mission from Vandenberg, landing its booster on a tenth flight.
SpaceX launched another classified mission for the U.S. Space Force from California early Saturday morning, and the Falcon 9 booster that carried it landed on a drone ship in the Pacific for the tenth time. The USSF-385 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:00 a.m. PT.
Booster B1100 touched down on Of Course I Still Love You roughly eight and a half minutes after liftoff. It was the booster’s tenth flight and tenth successful landing, following the NROL-95 national security mission and eight Starlink launches. Its previous flight, a Starlink Group 15 mission on August 22, came just 35 days earlier. SpaceX ended its livestream shortly after the landing, which is standard for classified payloads, and neither the company nor the Space Force has said what the rocket carried.
Watch Falcon 9 launch the USSF-385 mission from pad 4E in California https://t.co/CAdbx85Ydy
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 26, 2026
USSF-385 is the fourth Space Force launch from the same Vandenberg pad in roughly six weeks, following USSF-366 on August 15, USSF-153 on September 10, and USSF-259 on September 17. When SpaceX flew USSF-366 in August, independent trackers noted that the rocket’s stage drop zones matched SpaceX’s Starlink Group 15 missions, pointing to Starshield, the government version of the Starlink satellite bus. The Space Force later cataloged 23 satellites after both USSF-366 and USSF-153, while USSF-259 placed 17 satellites into a different orbital plane, per KeepTrack. Launch databases describe USSF-385 the same way, though the payload remains officially unidentified.
The cadence lines up with the contracts, because in July, the Space Force awarded SpaceX $1.6 billion in task orders for 18 Falcon 9 missions from Vandenberg through the end of 2027. SpaceX also holds contracts to build pieces of that same network, which pushed its Pentagon contract total for 2026 past $8 billion.
Saturday’s flight was also the sixth and final Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg in September, according to Spaceflight Now, while only one Falcon 9 flew from the East Coast this month as SpaceX shifts its Florida infrastructure toward Starship. Launch trackers list it as SpaceX’s 112th mission of 2026 and the 108th Falcon 9 flight of the year, with SLC-4E turned around about six and a half days after its previous launch.
The West Coast pad will not stay quiet for long, considering SpaceX has another Starlink mission scheduled from SLC-4E on September 30. Meanwhile, in Texas, the company is two days away from Starship Flight 14, which is targeting Monday at 7:15 a.m. CT for the vehicle’s first attempt to reach orbit.
News
Tesla hints at new Roadster design in surprise clip
Tesla ended its Semi event with a Roadster teaser revealing a new front light bar.
Tesla closed out its Semi event in Nevada on Thursday night with a nod to its own history, dropping a short Roadster teaser that suggests the production car will look noticeably different from the prototype first shown in 2017.
“We can’t have a Semi event without the Roadster,” Tesla engineering executive Lars Moravy told the crowd before the clip played. The line was a deliberate callback. Tesla first revealed the next generation Roadster in November 2017 by driving it out of the back of a Semi trailer at the truck’s original unveiling in Hawthorne, California.
The new video opens on trailer doors swinging apart in the dark. A thin white light bar glows across what appears to be the nose of the car, Tesla and SpaceX logos flash over the frame, and the Roadster name appears before the clip ends on “See you next week.” Tesla posted the nine second clip on X after the livestream wrapped.
See you next week pic.twitter.com/BT52bGVxFu
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 25, 2026
The light bar is the most concrete design detail so far. The 2017 prototype used two separate curved headlamp pods, while a connected front light strip would bring the Roadster in line with the Cybertruck, Cybercab, Semi, and refreshed Model Y. Sawyer Merritt was among the first to point out what looked like part of a SpaceX logo in the video, something Tesla has not addressed.
That logo fits the buildup around the optional SpaceX Package, which Elon Musk has long said would use cold gas thrusters to improve acceleration and possibly allow the car to briefly leave the ground. Tesla’s “Go for launch” post on September 12 set the October 1 date, and invitations sent to reservation holders place the event in Waco, Texas, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. Waco sits roughly 20 minutes from SpaceX’s McGregor rocket test site, where the FAA has put a temporary flight restriction in place from September 18 through October 2, covering a 1.5 nautical mile radius from the surface up to 10,000 feet.
Tesla is also taking money ahead of the reveal. The company reopened Roadster reservations earlier this week with a $5,000 refundable card payment, followed by a $45,000 wire transfer due within 10 days. That puts buyers at $50,000 committed before Tesla has published a price.
The original pitch set a high bar: 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds before any upgrades, 620 miles of range, a top speed above 250 mph, and production in 2020. That timeline has slipped repeatedly, and Tesla has since pointed to production at Gigafactory Texas no earlier than 2027. The company has said next Thursday’s event will include pricing, specifications, and production targets, the three details original reservation holders have been waiting on for nearly nine years.
SpaceX just got the green light Starship has waited years for
SpaceX completes another secret Pentagon launch, adding to suspected Starshield buildout
