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SpaceX fires up sooty Falcon booster ahead of historic astronaut launch
SpaceX says it has successfully completed the last major test standing between a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft and the company’s next historic astronaut launch.
Right on schedule, once-flown Falcon 9 booster B1061, orbit-proven Crew Dragon capsule C206, and a new expendable Falcon upper stage rolled out to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Complex 39A on Friday, April 16th, kicking off the last major steps for SpaceX’s second operational astronaut launch. Captured in great detail by NASA and SpaceX photographers, the rollout was completed without issue and the rocket was brought vertical and connected to the launch pad later the same day.
Less than 24 hours later, the fully integrated Falcon 9 was loaded with supercooled liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) and ultimately fired up its nine first-stage Merlin 1D engines – a procedure virtually identical to a normal launch flow. All systems thus fully checked out and cleared for flight, SpaceX and NASA proceeded into a “dry dress rehearsal” early on Sunday.
Much like the Saturday static fire replicated almost every rocket-related aspect of launch, Sunday’s ‘dry dress’ served a similar role for the mission’s human elements – an international group of astronauts and the SpaceX and NASA teams that prepare them for flight. For Crew-2, Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon will be carrying Japanese (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, European (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur.
Those four astronauts will be flying on Falcon 9 booster B1061, already responsible for launching Crew Dragon’s operational debut in November 2020, making Crew-2 the first time in history that astronauts will fly on a flight-proven liquid rocket booster and flight-proven private rocket of any kind.
(Quite literally) on top of that, they will also be riding in the Crew Dragon capsule responsible for enabling the United States’ first orbital human spaceflight launch in almost a decade less than a year ago. Dragon C206 successfully launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) in late May 2020 and flawlessly returned them back to earth in early August, acing the first crewed US spaceflight since the Space Shuttle’s premature July 2011 retirement.
That means that Crew-2 will make Crew Dragon C206 the first crewed space capsule in history to launch astronauts more than once – a truly historic achievement but just the latest in a long line of successful uncrewed Dragon reuses over the last four years. That NASA – a famously risk-averse spaceflight agency – is at all willing to allow its astronauts to fly on a flight-proven Dragon or Falcon 9 booster is impressive and was perceived as a highly improbable outcome just a few years ago.
For NASA to allow SpaceX to perform both feats of unprecedented crewed rocket and spacecraft reuse on Dragon’s third human spaceflight ever is nothing short of the most resounding endorsement and validation of the company’s technical expertise that the space agency could ever offer. Thanks in large part to NASA’s flexibility and seemingly boundless confidence in SpaceX, the company has been able to expedite its astronaut launch plans in order to prevent major delays hampering Commercial Crew Program’s other partner – Boeing – from disrupting NASA’s presence on the ISS.
Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch Crew-2 no earlier than (NET) 6:11 am EDT (10:11 UTC) on Thursday, April 22nd.
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
