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NASA, SpaceX set for historic Friday astronaut launch with reused booster and capsule

NASA has confirmed that SpaceX is on track for its second operational astronaut launch on Friday, April 23rd. (Richard Angle)

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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.

Flight-proven Falcon 9 booster B1061 and Crew Dragon capsule C206 are ready for their second astronaut launch. (Richard Angle)

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.

https://twitter.com/Astro_Jessica/status/1384944630484111360

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

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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.

At least for now, SpaceX is unable to guarantee the safety of Dragon astronauts in more than moderate swell and surface wind conditions. (NASA)

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.

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Watch the first true Tesla Robotaxi intervention by safety monitor

Watch the first Tesla Robotaxi intervention by a safety monitor.

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Credit: Dave Lee

Nearly 60 hours into the launch of the Tesla Robotaxi platform, it appears we have our first true intervention that required the in-car safety monitor to intervene.

We’ve seen and heard about a handful of minor issues with the Robotaxi fleet thus far, one of which included a risky, but very human-like behavior of navigating across yellow lines to a turn lane after missing a turn.

While that is not necessarily a legal maneuver, it is something that you’d see commonly from human drivers, and although aggressive, it is sometimes reasonable to perform depending on traffic conditions.

For what it’s worth, the car seemed very confused by the situation, and while the safety monitor did not get involved and the car handled the situation with no real issue, it is something as a rider you’d like to see less of.

First Look at Tesla’s Robotaxi App: features, design, and more

As previously stated, that specific example did not require any intervention by a safety monitor. On Tuesday, we saw a video of the first true intervention that required the safety monitor who sits in the passenger seat to intervene by pressing a button on the center touchscreen.

During a ride that Tesla investor and YouTuber Dave Lee was taking in Austin in a Robotaxi, the vehicle seemed to get a little confused by a UPS truck that was parallel parking in front of it. The monitor pressed the “Stop in Lane” button on the touchscreen:

This appears to be one of the first errors shared by Tesla Robotaxi Early Access Program users that required the monitor to actually intervene. We have not seen any of it yet. You could also see the UPS truck is also a bit at fault here, as the space it pulled into did not seem even remotely large enough to fit the entire vehicle.

The car may not have anticipated that the truck would park there. You can see how the UPS truck was parked below, and it seems reasonable that the Tesla might not have thought it would attempt to fit there:

Credit: Dave Lee

The Model Y’s steering wheel was also turning sharply right into this spot, it appears. Dave ended his ride here, and stated that this was his dropoff spot. The UPS truck might have just cut off the Tesla, which led to the intervention.

It is a testament to Tesla’s strategy with this Robotaxi rollout. The company is obviously confident enough in the Full Self-Driving suite that it does not feel a human needs to be in the driver’s seat. However, it is still requiring someone, as of now, to sit in the passenger’s seat for instances just like this one.

Safety is the company’s priority with the launch of Robotaxi, and CEO Elon Musk has reiterated that. It is expected that we’d eventually see some kind of intervention that requires a monitor to step in. Everyone was safe.

Obviously, these things happen with autonomous vehicles. We’ve seen Waymos get stuck at intersections in very strange scenarios at times:

It is proof that autonomous tech is still in a growth phase and engineers are still learning about its capabilities. Tesla and other companies will learn from these rare cases and become better companies, and offer safer technologies because of it.

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Tesla removed from Charlotte’s approved EV list due to ‘safety issues’

City reps say it’s not because of Elon Musk’s political involvement, but instead because of safety issues.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has been removed from the Charlotte, North Carolina, City Council’s list of pre-approved electric vehicles that the city can purchase.

It’s not because of Elon Musk, Democratic council member LaWana Mayfield said, who urged her colleagues to remove Tesla. Instead, she claims it is because of “safety issues.”

She said (via WFAE):

“So it is not just the particular owner of this product. It is the fact that this product has been in multiple lawsuits because of safety issues, and there are multiple concerns.”

Recent data from Tesla shows that its vehicles are about half as likely to be involved in an accident when being driven normally. When Autopilot technology is used, it is about ten times safer than the average driver in the U.S., statistically.

Tesla Vehicle Safety Report shows Autopilot is 10x better than humans

Republican City Council member Ed Driggs stood up for Tesla, saying that:

“I think we just set a dangerous precedent if we have reasons that aren’t related to the cost and the performance of purchased items for excluding them. We already have Teslas in the fleet.”

If they’re so dangerous, why are they already in the fleet?

The NHTSA also shows that Ford is the most recalled car company in 2025, with 81 total recalls. Tesla has just five for the year.

Driggs said to Mayfield during the meeting:

“We are not identifying names on this list. You are singling out one name on this list for political reasons. You don’t have enough data on Tesla compared to the other car companies to suggest they shouldn’t be here. I object to trying to disguise this as anything other than a politically motivated desire to not have this name on this list.”

Tesla was successfully removed by a 6-3 vote. Democrats Danté Anderson, Malcolm Graham, Renee Johnson, Victoria Watlington, and Tiawana Brown supported Tesla’s removal. Republican Edwin Peacock, along with Driggs and Democrat Dimple Ajmera, all voted no on removing Tesla.

The City of Charlotte will buy 45 new electric vehicles, and Teslas would likely be the best option. Many local law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have utilized them and have shown that the vehicles contribute to massive maintenance and cost of ownership reductions due to the lack of overall upkeep.

Tesla police fleet is saving taxpayers $80k per year on fuel costs: report

This is not the first time that a city in the U.S. has chosen to go in a different direction with its EV fleet plans. Tesla was chosen over Ford by the City of Baltimore for a $5 million expenditure that would bolster its fleet with EVs.

However, earlier this year, Baltimore said it “decided to go in a different direction,” and although it was not directly confirmed, the move seemed to be political.

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Tesla threatened in France with claims of ‘deceptive’ practices

Tesla has been threatened by the Competition, Consumer Affairs, and Fraud Control Office in France after the agency said it is participating in “deceptive business practices” related to its semi-autonomous driving capabilities.

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tesla side repeater camera
(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla has been threatened by the Competition, Consumer Affairs, and Fraud Control Office in France after the agency said it is participating in “deceptive business practices” related to its semi-autonomous driving capabilities.

Investigators in the government office said that Tesla has engaged in deceptive commercial practices over the capabilities of its cars. In the past, other agencies and even some skeptics have said that Tesla’s use of the phrases “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” is inaccurate in terms of its capabilities.

Tesla Autopilot gets stone cast in its direction by Pete Buttigieg

However, Tesla has been transparent with consumers and regulatory agencies that its cars are not yet fully autonomous, meaning drivers could sleep, play on their phones, or pay no attention to the road. The car would take care of steering and speed.

Tesla has never maintained that its cars are capable of this. On its website and in its Owner’s Manuals, it says that drivers are required to pay attention and be prepared to take over in case of an emergency.

The office began the investigation back in 2023 and, this week, ordered Tesla to comply with regulations within the next four months. If it does not, it will face fines of €50,000 per day.

This is not the first time Tesla has had some pushback from regulators regarding the naming of its semi-autonomous driving platforms. Back in 2023, then Secretary of Transportation in the United States, Pete Buttigieg, said the name “Autopilot” was not accurate because it is still a hands-on system:

“I don’t think that something should be called, for example, an Autopilot, when the fine print says you need to have your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road at all times. We call balls and strikes. I view it as something where it’s very important to be very objective. But anytime a company does something wrong or a vehicle needs to be recalled or a design isn’t safe, we’re going to be there.”

He then said that Autopilot and its interaction with the person operating the car is a “real concern.”

 

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