News
NASA, SpaceX set for historic Friday astronaut launch with reused booster and capsule
Update: NASA and SpaceX have confirmed that they are set for a historic astronaut launch with a reused Falcon booster and Dragon capsule on Friday, April 23rd.
Delayed from April 22nd by weather hundreds to thousands of miles downrange, those sea conditions – appear to have settled down – at least for now – and weather at the launch pad itself is about as good as it gets on the central Florida coast.


An official livestream hosted by NASA and SpaceX will begin around four hours prior to Crew-2’s 5:49 am EDT (09:49 UTC) liftoff. Stay tuned for updates and tune in below around 1:49 am EDT to watch all of the launch proceedings live. 
SpaceX’s second operational Dragon astronaut launch and one of the biggest milestones in the history of rocket and spacecraft reuse will have to wait until Friday after bad ‘abort’ weather tripped up an otherwise excellent Thursday launch attempt.
Aside from nature’s boundless chaos, all other elements of SpaceX and NASA’s Crew-2 astronaut launch are in excellent condition and ready for flight – now scheduled no earlier than 5:49 am EDT (09:49 UTC) on Friday, April 23rd.
As previously discussed on Teslarati, both Falcon 9’s first stage and Crew Dragon’s recoverable capsule are flight-proven, making Crew-2 the first time in history that a private company – or anyone, for that matter – has attempted to launch astronauts with a reused liquid rocket booster or flight-proven space capsule, let alone both at the same time.
“In essence, success would mean that SpaceX has unequivocally proven that a private company can develop – nearly from scratch – methods of rocket and spacecraft reusability that are so successful and reliable that perhaps the most risk-averse customer on Earth is willing to place the lives of its astronauts in the hands of those flight-proven spacecraft and rockets. If SpaceX can accomplish that feat with Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon, there is no practical reason to doubt that it can be repeated with Starship – a vehicle that has already piqued NASA’s interest.”
Teslarati.com – 15 April 2021
Thus far, both Falcon booster B1061 and Dragon capsule C206 have sailed through their prelaunch processing, most recently culminating in a flawless static fire test and ‘dry dress’ rehearsal late last week. Since then, NASA and SpaceX have continued to analyze data and inspect hardware but are otherwise simply waiting on the weather. Both on Thursday and Friday, weather at the pad itself (and in the region of the Atlantic where Falcon 9’s first stage will be landing) is about as good as it gets, offering just a 10-20% chance of conditions that could scrub the launch.
Unfortunately, things aren’t quite that easy. Due to the fact that NASA and SpaceX have to ensure that thorough contingency plans are in place in case of a launch failure and Dragon abort, Crew Dragon launches also have to take into account weather conditions and sea states across a ~3200-kilometer (~2000 mi) corridor stretching from the Central Florida coast to Ireland. With such a vast expanse of the ocean in focus, the odds that all possible abort scenarios will result in a safe splashdown and astronaut recovery start to become akin to winning the lottery. 

In the case of Crew-2, the weather somewhere along that vast tract of the Atlantic Ocean isn’t behaving, leading NASA and SpaceX to delay the launch from Thursday to Friday. If Friday’s attempt suffers the same fate, orbital mechanics will push the next launch opportunity to Monday, April 26th. As always, SpaceX will stream the launch live. Tune in around four hours before liftoff at SpaceX.com.
Elon Musk
Tesla begins production of new Model Y trim at Giga Berlin
Tesla announced on Monday that its Model Y Standard configuration was officially being built at Giga Berlin, less than one month after the company officially announced the configuration early last month.
														Tesla has begun production of the new Model Y trim at Gigafactory Berlin, the company’s production plant in Germany.
Tesla announced on Monday that its Model Y Standard configuration was officially being built at Giga Berlin, less than one month after the company officially announced the configuration early last month.
On October 7, Tesla announced the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard trim levels, its answer to the call for affordable EVs within its lineup and its response to the loss of the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit.
On October 3, Tesla started production of the vehicles in Germany:
Model Y Standard says „Hello World“ – Production at Giga Berlin has started today! pic.twitter.com/p37JIfJDIB
— Tesla Manufacturing (@gigafactories) November 3, 2025
The Standard iteration of the Model Y is void of many of the more premium features that are available in the Rear-Wheel-Drive, All-Wheel-Drive, and Performance trims of the vehicle are equipped with.
A few of the features of the Model Y Standard are:
- Single Motor configuration
 - No rear touchscreen
 - Textile seats with vegan leather, instead of all vegan leather
 - 320-mile range
 - No glass roof
 
The launch of the Model Y Standard was truly a move to help Tesla get vehicles into the sub-$40,000 price point, and although many consumers were hoping to see the company get closer to $30,000 with these cars, this is a great starting point.
Deliveries in the United States have already started, and it seems it will be a vehicle that will do one of two things: either push some consumers to finally make the jump to Tesla, or it will give car buyers another reason to buy the Premium trims, as they may feel the lack of features is not a good enough deal.
This is something we saw with the Cybertruck’s Rear-Wheel-Drive configuration, which launched last year and ended up being more of the latter option listed above.
The Tesla Model Y Standard is actually a great deal in Europe
It was only a $10,000 discount from the All-Wheel-Drive Cybertruck, but it also did not have adaptive air suspension, premium interiors, or the powered tonneau cover, which many people felt was too much of a sacrifice.
The Rear-Wheel-Drive Cybertruck was discontinued only a few months later.
It does not seem as if this is the case with the Model Y Standard, which already seems to be an attractive option to some buyers.
Cybertruck
Tesla begins wide rollout of Full Self-Driving v14 to Cybertruck
														Tesla has officially begun the wide rollout of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 to the Cybertruck about a month after the company started rolling it out to other vehicles in the fleet.
On Monday, Tesla officially started rolling out v14.1.5 to Cybertruck owners, the first FSD v14 rollout for owners of the all-electric pickup.
Owners have been anxiously waiting for Tesla to begin the wide release of v14 to Cybertruck, as the company said it would refine the suite for the vehicle.
Tesla has finally started rolling out to many owners, who are reporting that their Cybertrucks are downloading Software Update 2025.38.8.5, which contains FSD v14.1.5:
Tesla Self-Driving 14.1.5 for Cybertruck rolling out now! Too bad I just left for Austin. pic.twitter.com/WdxvEaK6ma
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) November 3, 2025
So look what I just got on my @cybertruck ! FSD v14.1.5
Believe it or not @teslascope reported it about 5 minutes before it was visible on my app. That new API must be cooking! pic.twitter.com/GIiQrss4q5
— Chuck Cook (@chazman) November 3, 2025
Can confirm – arrived last night 🤝 https://t.co/0knxMK1Gfx pic.twitter.com/rqtU41pRaF
— Wes (@wmorrill3) November 3, 2025
Tesla has to be more cautious with rolling out FSD on the Cybertruck than on other vehicles for a few reasons. Initially, the Cybertruck utilizes an all-wheel steering system that turns differently than the S3XY lineup. This creates a challenge for the Tesla AI team as they have to cater to this specific maneuvering change.
Additionally, the Cybertruck is much larger, and the exterior cameras responsible for seeing the vehicle’s surroundings are placed differently than those of the other vehicles.
This requires additional calibration to ensure safety.
The full release notes for Full Self-Driving v14.1.5 are as follows:
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, in a Parking Garage, or at the Curbside.
 - Added handling to pull over or yield for emergency vehicles (e.g. police cars, fire trucks, ambulances).
 - Added navigation and routing into the vision-based neural network for real-time handling of blocked roads and detours.
 - Added additional Speed Profile to further customize driving style preference.
 - Improved handling for static and dynamic gates.
 - Improved offsetting for road debris (e.g. tires, tree branches, boxes).
 - Improve handling of several scenarios including: unprotected turns, lane changes, vehicle cut-ins, and school buses.
 - Improved FSD’s ability to manage system faults and recover smoothly from degraded operation for enhanced reliability.
 - Added alerting for residue build-up on interior windshield that may impact front camera visibility. If affected, visit Service for cleaning!
 
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 release notes for Cybertruck pic.twitter.com/fiMnjjTCY9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 3, 2025
News
Elon Musk shuts down Tesla ‘AMG’ division speculation: ‘Focus is autonomy’
“I think it’s best to leave that to the custom shops. Tesla’s focus is autonomous cars, building futuristic autonomous cars. We want the future to look like the future.”
														Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked by Joe Rogan late last week whether the company would ever consider establishing an “AMG division” like Mercedes-Benz has established for powerful, race-inspired vehicles.
However, Musk turned down any talk of that, highlighting that the company is laser-focused on autonomous vehicles, seemingly hinting that any distraction from autonomy would be a detriment to the future.
Rogan drives a Tesla Model S himself, but it is not your run-of-the-mill all-electric sedan. Already outfitted with the Plaid powertrain that Tesla developed, Rogan took his vehicle to Unplugged Performance for a true performance outfitting.
The vehicle is completely overhauled with performance parts and seats. Known as the Model S-APEX, Rogan took delivery of it from Unplugged in January.
Rogan asked Musk on Friday during his most recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast whether Tesla would ever establish an “AMG division” that would focus on catering Teslas to performance-based standards.
Musk said:
“I think it’s best to leave that to the custom shops. Tesla’s focus is autonomous cars, building futuristic autonomous cars. We want the future to look like the future.”
🚨 Elon Musk was asked by Joe Rogan if he would ever create an “AMG division” where customization and performance options are available.
Musk said:
“I think it’s best to leave that to the custom shops. Tesla’s focus is autonomous cars, building futuristic autonomous cars. We… pic.twitter.com/k7qy7UQc60
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 31, 2025
Tesla fans have said for years that the company should consider acquiring Unplugged Performance and its Upfit Tesla division, which recently outfitted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s fleet of Cybertruck cruisers.
However, it seems Tesla will keep things separate. Musk is primarily focused on autonomy, which will drive the technology forward and drive shareholder growth. Something like an outfitter for performance would be a cool thing for the owners who have the interest and the money.
It’s not a tremendous revenue driver or anything that would contribute to the financial state of the company. Mercedes-Benz, for example, is more accessible for consumers as it sold over 140,000 units from its AMG brand in 2024.
Tesla Model Y driver starts race in reverse, still wins against AMG SUV
It helps with driving revenue higher by as much as 15 percent compared to similar models that are not AMGs. However, would Tesla see this much of a benefit? Likely not, because the Performance trim already caters to many owners.
- 
																	
										
																			News2 weeks agoTesla updates fans on its plans for the Roadster
 - 
																	
										
																			Elon Musk2 weeks agoElon Musk: Grok 5 now has a 10% chance of becoming world’s first AGI
 - 
																	
										
																			News2 weeks agoTesla is ramping up its hiring for the Cybercab production team
 - 
																	
										
																			News2 weeks agoTesla rolled out a new feature with FSD v14 to fix a major complaint
 - 
																	
										
																			Elon Musk2 weeks agoElon Musk hits back at former Tesla employee who disagrees with pay package
 - 
																	
										
																			News2 weeks agoTesla just made Service even easier and more convenient
 - 
																	
										
																			News2 weeks agoTesla Model Y L becomes China’s 4th best-selling mid-to-large SUV in its first month of sales
 - 
																	
										
																			News2 weeks agoTesla Full Self-Driving’s new version officially gets a wider rollout
 

