Connect with us

News

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, Falcon 9 likely ready for astronaut launch debut in 10 weeks, says Musk

Crew Dragon capsule C203 and Falcon 9 booster B1046 arrived in Florida around October 3rd ahead of SpaceX's critical In-Flight Abort (IFA) test. (SpaceX)

Published

on

According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket meant to support the company’s first-ever astronaut launch should be ready for flight as early as December 2019.

His implication is clear: after Crew Dragon’s In-Flight Abort (IFA) test and flight preparations are complete and the hardware is integrated in Florida, ready for launch, the bulk of delays beyond that point will rest heavily on how expeditiously NASA is willing and able to complete the paperwork and reviews still in the way.

Perhaps the single biggest point of uncertainty for Crew Dragon’s astronaut launch debut (Demo-2) is the completion of the spacecraft’s crucial IFA test, a high-altitude, high-velocity abort meant to demonstrate safe crew escape capabilities even at the most stressful point of launch. Assuming Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon perform flawlessly during that challenging test and NASA concurs after reviewing the results, the only major obstacles remaining for Demo-2 will be the pace of NASA’s reviews and paperwork completion.

Confirmed by a recent NASA tweet with photos of the hardware, the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon assigned to the IFA arrived in Florida in the first few days of October, right on schedule. As Musk notes, thrice-flown Falcon 9 booster B1046 must first complete a routine static fire test, while SpaceX also needs to prepare Pad 39A for flight after several months of downtime.

Additionally, SpaceX is deep into the process of constructing dedicated Starship launch facilities at Pad 39A, meaning that loose construction equipment and materials are scattered across a large section of the pad’s apron. Much of that may have to be relocated or secured before Falcon 9 can safely introduce its own form of storm-force winds to the area.

According to NASA, the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule that will support SpaceX’s In-Flight Abort (IFA) test both arrived in Florida within the last several days. (SpaceX)

Meanwhile, SpaceX confirmed more than a month ago that the Falcon 9 booster assigned to support Crew Dragon’s inaugural astronaut launch has already completed a routine static fire acceptance test in McGregor, Texas. On September 28th, CEO Elon Musk also stated that the Demo-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft would likely arrive in Florida in November 2019, likely a strong estimate given that he also forecast the IFA Crew Dragon’s arrival in October. The latter capsule arrived in Florida approximately five days after Musk’s statement.

Traditionally, one might assume that NASA’s flight-readiness is closer to the truth than SpaceX’s, owing to the space agency’s decades of experience and (in)famously methodical approach to spaceflight safety. However, at this point in time, it’s impossible to accurately conclude that NASA or SpaceX’s due diligence is superior. Crew Dragon capsule C201 suffered a massive explosion in April 2019, ripping the spacecraft to pieces as a result of a valve’s fault design, a failure that would have almost certainly killed any astronauts onboard.

SpaceX’s first spaceworthy Crew Dragon capsule prepares for its first Falcon 9-integrated static fire and a post-recovery test fire three months later. (SpaceX)

Neither NASA or SpaceX foresaw that failure mode, despite dozens of agonizingly detailed reviews over years of work, (supposedly) constant NASA oversight, and months upon months of delays to Crew Dragon’s Demo-1 launch debut as NASA and SpaceX worked to completed yet more reviews and paperwork. This is all to say that it remains as frustratingly unclear as ever whether NASA’s reviews and paperwork – likely to delay Crew Dragon’s astronaut launch debut well into Q1 or even Q2 2020 – are worth more than the trouble

Check out Teslarati’s Marketplace! We offer Tesla accessories, including for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Model 3.

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.

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

SpaceX just combined Grok, Cursor, and X into one mega plan

SpaceXSI merges Grok, Cursor, and X Premium into one plan, raising questions for Tesla owners.

Published

on

By

SpaceX Super Intelligence has rolled out The X Subscription, a single plan that combines Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor, and X Premium.

There are five levels, including a free plan that includes daily Grok access and a starter allowance for Cursor’s coding agents. Plus is $8 per month, Premium is $30, Super is $100, and Ultra is $200. Usage scales as you move up, with Premium offering four times the Plus allowance, Super 15 times, and Ultra 50 times. Annual billing brings the prices down a bit further, with Premium at $300 per year.

The $30 Premium tier is where SpaceXSI says it packs the benefits of SuperGrok, Cursor Pro, and X Premium+, which previously added up to $90 per month. Grok Bot, the agent that handles tasks like ordering food or managing a calendar, is included from Premium upward but not on Plus. Paid plans share one weekly usage pool across Grok and Cursor, and each plan includes at least twice the coding usage of the comparable Cursor plan. Third party models in Cursor remain available on Premium and above, but they are billed separately at API list prices.

That last detail matters because of what has happened around Cursor this year. SpaceX exercised its option to buy the company for $60 billion in June, and the deal closed in August. Weeks later, OpenAI said it will cut Cursor’s access to its models on November 12. Bundling Cursor with Grok usage gives SpaceXSI a reason to steer developers toward its own models.

Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant

For Tesla owners, the connection is Grok Bot. Tesla brought it into its vehicles last month, and at that point access inside the car was limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers. Grok Bot is now enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet. Neither SpaceXSI nor Tesla has said how the new plans change inside the car access for owners, or whether a $30 Premium subscription now covers Grok Bot in a personal Tesla. That is the question owners will want answered first.

The company is also changing its name along the way. The rollout follows the rebrand Musk announced on October 4, when he said SpaceXAI would become SpaceXSI, and the plan page now carries that branding.

The X Subscription is available to new customers starting now, and SpaceXSI says it will reach everyone globally over the next few days. Existing SuperGrok, Cursor, and X Premium subscribers do not have to switch. The option to move will appear gradually in billing settings, with a prorated refund for the unused time on the old plan. Switching is permanent once the accounts are unified, and old plans are closed to new sign ups.

Continue Reading

Energy

Taiwan power firm bets big on Tesla Megapacks as AI data center thirst grows

Taiwan’s Apollo Power orders 260 Tesla Megapacks, betting AI data centers will need more electricity.

Published

on

By

Concept render of Tesla Megapack farm supporting an AI Data Center in Taiwan
Concept render of Tesla Megapack farm supporting an AI Data Center in Taiwan

A Taiwanese power company has ordered 260 Tesla Megapack 2XL units, roughly 1GWh of storage, betting that electricity rather than chips will decide how fast AI data centers come online. Apollo Power signed the contract with Tesla’s Taiwan energy arm on October 8, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan stock exchange.

The filing says the units are meant for behind the meter storage and resilient grid projects, with delivery in batches from the end of 2027 and sites operating in 2028. Apollo and Tesla did not disclose a price, citing a confidentiality agreement. Apollo plans to pay for the equipment through a cash capital increase and bank financing, and it noted the purchase is not revenue and does not mean it holds firm orders from its partners.

Biggo reported that only about 33 units are under signed customer contracts, with roughly 150 more in negotiation. The same report put total project investment near NT$130 billion, but that figure includes installation work, with the equipment itself making up about 40 to 50 percent. In other words, a large share of this order is Apollo reserving supply ahead of demand. Apollo’s chairman told local media global large storage supply is tight, which is why the company locked in the units early, according to Yahoo Taiwan Finance.

Tesla Taiwan partners with Costco to sell vehicles

Apollo also launched an AI data center and grid resilience alliance with Phison, Gigabyte and Shihlin Electric. The pitch rests on a pilot at Phison’s Zhunan plant, where Apollo and Tesla Energy Taiwan installed grid forming Megapack 2XLs in June. Tesla Energy Taiwan general manager Sun Hsiao-Han said the project went from demo to 1GWh in four months, and that Tesla Energy has deployed more than 50GWh worldwide.

Taiwan’s cabinet has approved amendments that would require large energy users to install their own generation and storage, which gives enterprise storage a regulatory tailwind.

The deal fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked. Tesla’s Megablock targets 1GWh commissioned in 20 business days, a pitch aimed squarely at fast moving data center builds. Megapacks already back xAI’s Colossus in Memphis and a 400MW AI campus in Brazil. Sun Media adds that Megapack 2XL was named among the first products in Nvidia’s DSX Ready qualification for battery storage in AI factories.

Deliveries are more than a year away, so the real test is how much of that 260 unit order turns into signed customer contracts.

Continue Reading

Lifestyle

Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service

Published

on

By

Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.

Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.

Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.

Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant

Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.

This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?

If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

Continue Reading