News
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronaut mission officially extended by NASA
With less than a month to go before NASA’s first crewed launch in nearly a decade, the space agency is still mulling over the details. On May 27, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will strap into their Crew Dragon spacecraft and blast off towards the International Space Station. During their stay, the duo will assist fellow NASA astronaut, Chris Cassidy, in maintaining the station as well as conducting several research experiments.
But how long the duo will remain on the station is still up in the air. NASA held a series of briefings on Friday, May 1, detailing the historic mission and how it would work. Hurley and Behnken will launch from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 4:32 p.m. EDT (20:32 UTC), and dock with the space station 24 hours later.
The exact length of that mission will be determined during their time in space. “It is a trade-off,” Kirk Shireman, NASA ISS program manager said during the news briefing, “between getting the spacecraft back quickly to complete its certification and providing additional crew time on the station for maintenance and research.”
The Demo-2 mission is a test flight. NASA and SpaceX will be using the mission to certify the Crew Dragon spacecraft for regular use to and from the station. So during this flight, the crew will try their hands at manual control and will test and monitor on boars systems during the significant phases of flight: launch, on orbit, and during re-entry.
Once the vehicle has completed its objectives successfully, it will be certified for a crewed flight. Currently, SpaceX is nearing completion on the next Dragon spacecraft, which will ferry four astronauts to the station for a long-duration mission. During the news briefings, SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell announced that the spacecraft for that mission is nearing completion and should arrive in Florida in the next couple of months.
Shireman said that the length of the Demo-2 mission was directly tied to that vehicle’s progress. “What we would like to do, from a station perspective, is to keep them on orbit as long as we can until that Crew-1 vehicle is just about ready to go, bring Demo-2 home, allow that certification work to be completed and launch Crew-1,” he said.
Steve Stich, NASA’s deputy manager of the commercial crew program, said that at minimum, the DM-2 crew would stay on orbit about a month. Their maximum stay would be no more than 119 days, due to the potential degradation of the Dragon spacecraft’s solar panels.
Solar panels are how spacecraft get their power while on orbit, and the sensitive components within the hardware degrade over time thanks to the harshness of the space environment. While it’s on orbit, ground control teams will “wake up” the spacecraft once a week to perform health checks and test the solar array’s performance.
“We would like to fly a mission that is as long as we need to for a test flight, but also support some of the space station program needs,” Stitch said.
Originally, Behnken and Hurley were expected to have a much shorter time on orbit. However, NASA officials said they started to explore the possibility of extending their mission six months ago to ensure there were enough astronauts onboard the space station to keep the orbital outpost in top shape. This year the agency is celebrating 20 years of continuous human presence on the space station, and NASA would like to ensure its continuation into the future.
To that end, Behnken and Hurley have spent significant time training to refresh themselves on station systems as well as prepare the potential spacewalks. A new shipment of batteries is scheduled to arrive on station a few days before Behnken and Hurley, and it’s possible that Behnken could be asked to conduct a spacewalk, along with Chris Cassidy.
The top priority for Behnken and Hurley will be to thoroughly check out the Crew Dragon’s systems, followed closely by relieving Chris Cassidy. “There’s a lot of work and activity that can be done in the U.S. segment; certainly more than one person can accomplish on their own,” Behnken explained during a later briefing.
News
Tesla expands global FSD (Supervised) testing with Abu Dhabi trials
The program marks the emirate’s first formal testing framework for Tesla’s supervised autonomous driving technology.
Tesla has started its first Full Self-Driving (Supervised) road trials in Abu Dhabi under the oversight of the Integrated Transport Centre, also known as Abu Dhabi Mobility.
The program marks the emirate’s first formal testing framework for Tesla’s supervised autonomous driving technology.
FSD (Supervised) road trials are being conducted with the support of the Smart and Autonomous Systems Council and in coordination with the Legislation Lab at the General Secretariat of the UAE Cabinet.
Dr. Abdulla Hamad AlGhfeli, Acting Director General of the Integrated Transport Centre (Abu Dhabi Mobility), highlighted the agency’s regulatory role in overseeing the FSD (Supervised) tests in a press release.
“The supervision of the Integrated Transport Centre (Abu Dhabi Mobility) over the commencement of Tesla’s advanced autonomous driving technology tests reflects its regulatory and legislative role. These tests represent a qualitative step to evaluate the technology’s performance in a real-world operating environment and to collect the necessary data to verify its readiness before any future expansion in usage.
“Through this organized framework, and in cooperation with strategic partners, we seek to achieve a balance between supporting innovation and encouraging the adoption of smart solutions on one hand and ensuring the safety of road users on the other, in line with the emirate’s direction to develop an advanced, safe, and sustainable transport system,” he said.
Tesla is putting a lot of effort into expanding the rollout of FSD (Supervised) to territories outside in the United States. During a recent interview with Giga Berlin plant manager Andre Thierig, Musk stated that Tesla is looking to secure approval for FSD (Supervised) in the Netherlands this coming March.
“Tesla has the most advanced real-world AI, and hopefully, it will be approved soon in Europe. We’re told by the authorities that March 20th, it’ll be approved in the Netherlands,’ what I was told. Hopefully, that date remains the same. But I think people in Europe are going to be pretty blown away by how good the Tesla car AI is in being able to drive,” Musk stated.
Elon Musk
SpaceX considering confidential IPO filing this March: report
The filing could pave the way for a June listing at a valuation that may exceed $1.75 trillion.
SpaceX is reportedly preparing to confidentially file for an initial public offering (IPO) as soon as March. The filing could pave the way for a June listing at a valuation that may exceed $1.75 trillion, potentially making it the largest IPO in history.
The update was initially reported by Bloomberg News, which cited information shared by people reportedly familiar with the matter.
As per the publication, a confidential filing allows a company to receive regulatory feedback before publicly releasing its financials. Bloomberg’s source, however, noted that the timing of SpaceX’s IPO is still under discussion and plans could change.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A March submission would mark the clearest step yet toward bringing Elon Musk’s private space company into public markets. People familiar with the preparations said the offering could raise as much as $50 billion. That would surpass the $29 billion debut of Saudi Aramco in 2019, currently the largest IPO on record.
Major banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America Corp. are reportedly positioned for senior roles in the transaction. SpaceX is also said to be considering a dual-class structure that would allow insiders, including Musk, to retain enhanced voting control.
Satellite communications provider EchoStar Corp., which holds a stake in SpaceX, reportedly saw its shares rise following news of the potential filing.
At a valuation exceeding $1.75 trillion, SpaceX would immediately have a larger market cap than all but five of the companies traded in the S&P 500 index. That figure would place it ahead of Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. by market capitalization, trailing only a small group of mega-cap firms such as Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
The scale of the proposed valuation reflects SpaceX’s dominance in orbital launch services and its Starlink satellite network, which serves millions of users globally. The company has also outlined long-term expansion plans tied to higher Starship launch cadence, orbital infrastructure, and lunar development initiatives.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk hints Tesla investors will be rewarded heavily
“Hold onto your Tesla stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet,” Musk said.
Elon Musk recently hinted that he believes Tesla investors will be rewarded heavily if they continue to hold onto their shares, and he reiterated that in a new interview that the company released on its social accounts this week.
Musk is one of the most successful CEOs in the modern era and has mammothed competitors on the Forbes Net Worth List over the past year as his holdings in his various companies have continued to swell.
Tesla investors, especially those who have been holding shares for several years, have also felt substantial gains in their portfolios. Over the past five years, the stock is up over 78 percent. Since February 2019, nearly seven years ago to the day, the stock is up over 1,800 percent.
Musk said in the interview:
“Hold onto your Tesla stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet.”
Elon Musk in new interview: “Hold on to your $TSLA stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet.” pic.twitter.com/cucirBuhq0
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 26, 2026
It’s no secret Musk has been extremely bullish on his own companies, but Tesla in particular, because it is publicly traded.
However, the company has so many amazing projects that have an opportunity to revolutionize their respective industries. There is certainly a path to major growth on Wall Street for Tesla through its various future projects, including Optimus, Cybercab, Semi, and Unsupervised FSD.
- Optimus (Tesla’s humanoid robot): Musk has discussed its potential for tasks like childcare, walking dogs, or assisting elderly parents, positioning it as a massive long-term driver of company value.
- Cybercab (Tesla’s robotaxi/autonomous ride-hailing vehicle): a fully autonomous vehicle geared specifically for Tesla’s ride-sharing ambitions.
- Semi (Tesla’s electric truck, with mentions of expansion, like in Europe): brings Tesla into the commercial logistics sector.
- Unsupervised FSD (Full Self-Driving software achieving full autonomy without human supervision): turns every Tesla owner’s vehicle into a fully-autonomous vehicle upon release
These projects specifically are some of the highest-growth pillars Tesla has ever attempted to develop, especially in Musk’s eyes, as he has said Optimus will be the best-selling product of all-time.
Many analysts agree, but the bullish ones, like Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, are perhaps the one who believes Tesla has incredible potential on Wall Street, predicting a $2,600 price target for 2030, but this is not even including Optimus.
She told Bloomberg last March that she believes that the project will present a potential additive if Tesla can scale faster than anticipated.
Tesla expands global FSD (Supervised) testing with Abu Dhabi trials
SpaceX considering confidential IPO filing this March: report
