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SpaceX Crew Dragon to perform first space station “flyaround” in November
A member of a NASA safety advisory panel says that SpaceX’s second operational Crew Dragon spacecraft will perform the first International Space Station (ISS) “flyaround” in years.
In the days of the Space Shuttle, similar flyaround maneuvers were extremely common as the US and Russia slowly but surely assembled the ISS from nothing in low Earth orbit (LEO) – mainly serving to document that undeniably historic process. In 2011, NASA and Roscosmos planned what would become the last flyaround in seven years to capture Shuttle Discovery on its last mission (also the first of the Shuttle’s last three launches) and the more-or-less completed space station. While the occasional partial flyaround still occurred during rare spacecraft relocation maneuvers, it would be more than seven years until the next flyaround – again by a Soyuz spacecraft – was completed in October 2018, capturing excellent photos of the ISS ahead of its 20th anniversary in orbit.
Now, more than three years after Soyuz’s MS-08 flyaround, SpaceX is reportedly set to continue the tradition as early as November 2021, making Crew Dragon the third of three crewed visiting vehicles to do a full flyaround survey of the ~450 ton (million-pound) orbital outpost.
Barring changing plans, twice-flown Crew Dragon Endeavor (C206) will perform the maneuver immediately after it undocks from the space station for the second time (including one relocation maneuver) with Crew-2 ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur. According to the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) meeting where news of the flyaround was first broken, Crew-2’s ISS departure remains on track to occur in early to mid-November.
In the 5-6 weeks between then and now, SpaceX is scheduled to undock Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft C208 and return it to Earth, completing the CRS-23 resupply mission and capsule C208’s second trip to orbit and freeing up one of the ISS’ two American docking ports. Then, SpaceX is scheduled to launch yet another batch of astronauts to the ISS as part of Crew Dragon’s third operational crew transfer mission (Crew-3). Crew-3 remains on track to launch no earlier than (NET) October 31st, where it and astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer will briefly join Crew-2 and their Dragon at the ISS.
Hand-off complete, Crew-2 and Dragon Endeavor will then be free to depart the ISS, perform the first 360-degree flyaround survey in years, and return to Earth after more than six months in orbit. Due to years of continued technical and programmatic delays, Boeing – NASA’s other Commercial Crew partner – is unlikely to be ready to support operational astronaut launches until late 2022 at the earliest, likely guaranteeing that one or even two more Dragon-to-Dragon crew handoffs will occur before Starliner can give Dragon a break. SpaceX, in other words, is on track to singlehandedly ensure continuous NASA access to the International Space Station for two full years – and maybe even longer.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles dominated the company’s global usage rankings after just one year, proving the concept is more than just a one-off novelty location that will fade away.
The performance could incite the company to build more locations, something that CEO Elon Musk has hinted at for some time.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner delivered 21.2 GWh of energy in its first year of operation, the company’s head of Charging, Max de Zegher, revealed on X. Of the top 10 most utilized Supercharger locations in Tesla’s global infrastructure, the Diner in Los Angeles was the most used by drivers, and it wasn’t particularly close:
Tesla Diner opened exactly 1 year ago. Inspiring that futuristic places like this exist.
It’s our highest usage Supercharger in the world: 21.2 GWh delivered in a year, 1.6k sessions/day.
Top 10 Superchargers by energy delivered: https://t.co/9YvJ8lw696 pic.twitter.com/koB3AUJHws
— Max (@MdeZegher) July 21, 2026
On its launch day one year ago, nobody was too sure what the Tesla Diner would be about. It seemed like an interesting concept, and considering it had been in the works for years, it was a highly anticipated launch that many were looking forward to.
Based on its success, we could see additional Diners with Superchargers built throughout the United States, and potentially beyond. Musk has said on several occasions that the company would be willing to bring the Diner idea to more markets.
Tesla makes major change at Supercharger Diner amid epic demand
Of the markets that Musk has mentioned, both Palo Alto and Austin have come to be perceived as ideal selections. However, there are no concrete plans as of now to build new Supercharger Diners anywhere; the location on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain the exclusive spot to pick up Tesla-inspired eats, at least for the time being.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
Tesla’s long-standing saga regarding its door handles and a manual release has entered its latest chapter, and as a result, a big change is coming.
On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied Tesla’s petition that was seeking a defect investigation into roughly 180,000 Model 3 vehicles for an issue involving the emergency mechanical door release.
🚨 The NHTSA denied a petition from Tesla that would have thrown out concerns regarding its door handles.
NHTSA said Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect warranting an investigation. The agency said a rulemaking process would be a better strategy. pic.twitter.com/j6PzUBM1mT
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 24, 2026
NHTSA said that Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect in the door handles or their emergency releases. Instead, the agency determined that it would rather solve the issue of the lack of labeling or location of emergency mechanical door releases and the federal safety rules that govern them.
Essentially, the NHTSA wants to create and enforce rules that would require automakers to make emergency door latch releases more clearly labeled in a car. Despite a Tesla having manual door releases on all four passenger doors, many people do not know they exist or how they work.
Tesla addresses door handle complaints with simple engineering fix
In recent times, Tesla has faced some criticism involving its door handles, specifically because some occupants have reported that they are unable to exit their vehicles after losing power. The door handles on a Tesla are electronically operated, but in the event that the 12V battery dies, there is a manual release that can be used.
The NHTSA only identified a single complaint involving the mechanical door releases: a 2022 Model 3 owner said the release was concealed and unlabeled after the vehicle lost power after a front-end collision. It has also already started to create a separate rulemaking process to make emergency door-egress systems more obvious.
It should be noted that all Teslas have mechanical emergency door releases, but they are placed in various locations as the vehicles have aged and been redesigned from year to year. Refer to the safety manual for your vehicle if you have any confusion about where the emergency releases are and how they work.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
