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SpaceX Crew Dragon astronauts are chasing the space station around Earth
The morning of SpaceX’s most prolific launch – the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission – began with one question on the mind of many, why did the Falcon 9 rocket have just one second, and one second only, to launch NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS)? A simplified answer is orbital mechanics and a carefully planned out 19 hour trip around the planet.
Richard Angle for Teslarati)
The launch of the Falcon 9 was a highly anticipated moment, however, it was easily the most familiar part of the Demo-2 mission. Leading up to Demo-2, SpaceX had successfully launched twenty-eight Block 5 Falcon 9 boosters – the same type of booster that the Crew Dragon carrying Behnken and Hurley would launch on. The landing of the Falcon 9 on the autonomous spaceport drone ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean was also a familiar process that SpaceX had completed successfully a number of times.
Even the Crew Dragon capsule had a launch and mission to the space station under its belt, however, launching astronauts aboard the capsule had yet to be attempted, let alone done successfully. The least familiar part of the mission was what Crew Dragon and its occupants had to achieve once free of the Earth’s gravity well.
Once past launch and separation from the Falcon 9 first stage booster, Crew Dragon would separate from the Falcon 9 second stage, enter an initial orbit, and proceed to spend the next nineteen hours chasing the ISS around the planet. The capsule had to perform a series of burns to lift its orbit high enough to match that of the ISS for autonomous docking nineteen hours later. During the trip, Behnken and Hurley had a series of items to check off prior to initiating their crew sleep aboard Crew Dragon. A few of the items included doffing – or taking off – their SpaceX pressure suits, hosting a brief media opportunity explaining the name “Endeavour” chosen for their capsule as well as the zero-G indicator named “Tremor” chosen to ride along with them and eat their first meal in space.
The Crew Dragon also had a few jobs of its own to complete. Crew and capsule would spend about two hours performing 3 different burns of the sixteen Draco thrusters outfitted all around the Crew Dragon’s outer shell. The first phasing burn was needed to insert it into the correct orbit, followed a little while later by a boost burn to raise the capsule’s orbit even more. And lastly, a close coelliptic burn to flatten out the orbit around the Earth making it more elliptical, rather than circular matching that of the ISS. These three burns were completed while the crew was awake performing any necessary tasks. Two more burns remained to be completed, but those would need to occur much closure to docking with the ISS, one while the crew slept and one just before autonomous docking procedures were set to begin.
The fourth burn – a transfer burn – is intended to raise the capsule the final ten meters in orbital space to match that of the ISS. This burn will allow the capsule to begin its final approach toward the station. It will be completed by the SpaceX mission control ground station in Hawthorne, California while the crew sleeps. It will be a gentle burn of the Dracos lasting less than a minute.
The capsule will then burn the Draco thrusters once more for the final coelliptic burn matching its orbit directly with the ISS. At this time, the crew aboard both the Crew Dragon capsule and space station will be awake for a full day of work including the meticulous process of autonomously docking the capsule to the ISS, the opening of the hatch of Crew Dragon, and welcoming Behnken and Hurley aboard the station as members of the Expedition 63 crew.
Crew Dragon is expected to meet up with the ISS nineteen hours after liftoff. Docking with the station is set to occur on Sunday, May 31st around 10:30 am EDT/14:30 UTC. Behnken and Hurley will be welcomed aboard the station during a traditional crew welcoming ceremony that should occur about two hours after docking has been confirmed.
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News
SpaceX just launched its secret Starfall saucer again
SpaceX launched its Starfall capsule again on Bandwagon-5, this time listed openly beside rideshare customers.
SpaceX launched its Starfall reentry capsule for the second time on Tuesday morning, flying it as the payload of the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission. Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida at 7:04 a.m. ET with 32 payloads, and the first stage booster, on its 19th flight, landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas about nine minutes later.
Starfall was scheduled to separate last, 2 hours and 48 minutes after liftoff. The final customer satellite on SpaceX’s mission timeline comes off the upper stage about an hour and nine minutes in, which left a long gap before the capsule was due to be released alone. SpaceX later posted that the payload deployment sequence is complete. At liftoff, the company said Starfall “enables affordable, routine access to a microgravity environment, providing unique opportunities for on-orbit manufacturing, scientific research, and testing.”
Starfall enables affordable, routine access to a microgravity environment, providing unique opportunities for on-orbit manufacturing, scientific research, and testing https://t.co/y8kJg3QDor
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 20, 2026
As Teslarati reported before the first Starfall flight, SpaceX made no public announcement about the vehicle then, and nearly everything known came from FAA and FCC filings. This time Starfall is an item name on the official mission page, listed beside paying rideshare customers. SpaceX has still not said what, if anything, is aboard this Starfall, Spaceflight Now noted.
The FAA’s environmental assessment from May describes a disk about 10.2 feet wide and 2.5 feet tall that weighs roughly 4,600 pounds and can bring 2,200 pounds of payload back to Earth.
Interestingly, the same rocket also carries a competitor’s hardware. Varda Space Industries launched its W-Series 7 capsule on Bandwagon-5, a spacecraft about three times smaller than Starfall that will test whether microgravity can improve the solubility of a cancer drug called Protac. It is Varda’s ninth reentry capsule, and W-8 and W-9 launched earlier this month on Transporter-18. SpaceX has been Varda’s launch provider since the company’s first Falcon 9 rideshare contract in 2021.
SpaceX has not published where or how this Starfall will come down. The preview we ran in June described a recovery from the Pacific Ocean, and the company has not said whether this flight follows the same plan. The launch also arrives hours before SpaceX posts its third quarter results after the market closes, a report we previewed earlier this week.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.
The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”
The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.
Using TBC tunnels to transport freight.
The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20’ shipping container.
Fits like a glove! https://t.co/VV0phWK4fc
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) October 19, 2026
Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.
Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.
The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.
The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
SpaceX just launched its secret Starfall saucer again
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
SpaceX reveals how its 1 Million AI satellite network will work and prevent space collisions
Tesla Roadster: Three configs, one can fly, 0-60 in 0.8 seconds
