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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship nears first orbital launch test
After roughly five years of concerted development, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has released the first official photo of the company’s Crew Dragon, a version of their orbital spacecraft designed and optimized to reliably return humans to orbit from United States soil.
Traceable back to the very beginning of SpaceX’s first Dragon development program, where the company hoped to easily modify the Cargo Dragon capsule design to support crewed missions, the results of the years of work that followed instead focused on an extensive redesign originally intended to be capable of powered landings similar to Falcon 9 boosters. However, likely the result of an immense certification burden to ever hope to have NASA okay its operational usage, SpaceX chose to kill the landing program in favor of a more traditional ocean splashdown style of return. Extendable leglets were thus removed from the design’s heat shield, a change that also ended any hopes of SpaceX’s plans to partner with NASA and land an unprecedented payload on the surface of Mars, known as Red Dragon.
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- Elon Musk: “SpaceX Crew Dragon ship in anechoic chamber for EMI [electromagentic interference] testing before being sent to @NASA Plum Brook vacuum chamber” (SpaceX)
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- CRS-14’s flight-proven Cargo Dragon captured on orbit in April 2018 by astronaut Oleg Artemyev. (NASA/Oleg Artemyev)
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- A reused orbital spacecraft, Cargo Dragon, back on Earth after its second successful resupply mission. (SpaceX)
That announcement came in the summer of 2017. Ten quiet months later, Musk confirmed April updates from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program managers with a photo of the first flight-worthy Crew Dragon in SpaceX’s anechoic chamber, ahead of shipment to NASA’s Plum Brook facility for full-up spacecraft testing in vacuum conditions.
While it may look like a completely different design, much of Crew Dragon has a significant level of heritage with the readily flight-proven Cargo Dragon spacecraft, including avionics, parachutes, heat shield expertise, and Draco maneuvering thrusters. The most obvious difference can be found in the four black bays spaced evenly around the edge of the capsule – these contain two SuperDraco thrusters each (eight total) that together act as an integrated launch abort system, capable of launching the capsule and trunk to safety in fractions of a second in the event of Falcon 9 failure at any point during launch. A test of this hardware was first completed almost exactly three years ago, demonstrating acceleration from stand-still to 100 mph in less than a single second.
The hardware shown in Elon Musk’s photo is not intended to carry humans (not on its first flight, at least), instead aiming to be the first Crew Dragon article to make it into Earth orbit, where SpaceX technicians and engineers will conduct and observe a vast fleet of tests with the intent of proving the craft’s capabilities. If successful, this mission (known as DM-1) will be the final step SpaceX needs to complete before DM-2, the upgraded spacecraft’s first real crewed mission.
As of now, DM-1 and DM-2 are officially scheduled for no earlier than (NET) August 31 and December 31 respectively. However, those dates are very unlikely to hold. Per sources with knowledge of Crew Dragon’s progress, DM-2 is currently scheduled for launch NET 2019, likely sometime in the first or second quarter. DM-1, while certainly not ready for an August 31 launch, does appear to be tracking towards a launch later this year, most likely in Q4 2018. SpaceX technicians are working around the clock to ready this groundbreaking hardware for its trip to Plum Brook and eventually to space, spending long shifts in the belly of the Dragon to ensure everything is working as intended.
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- Falcon 9 Block 5 completed its first launch on May 11, carrying the Bangabandhu-1 communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. (Tom Cross)
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- SpaceX’s first successfully launched and landed Block 5 Falcon 9, May 2018. (Tom Cross)
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- B1046 returned to Port Canaveral shortly after its May 4 debut, and is now being carefully analyzed as pathfinder hardware. (Tom Cross)
Falcon 9 Block 5, which successfully completed its inaugural launch earlier this month, is another critical path for SpaceX’s first crewed mission (DM-2). As of now, NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) has advised NASA to require seven full-up successful launches of the Block 5 iteration before allowing crew to fly on the rocket. In order for SpaceX to achieve that milestone in time for a crewed launch in early 2019, Falcon 9 Block 5 will need to fly (and refly) flawlessly over the course of the second half of 2018. While unclear if ASAP will accept flight-proven launches of the upgraded rocket for its fairly arbitrary “seven launches” requirement, SpaceX will need to rely heavily on Block 5 reflights if they hope to complete as many as 30 launches total this year.
As of now, the next launch of Falcon 9 Block 5 is likely to occur sometime in June, with three total Block 5 flights tentatively scheduled before mid-July. If SpaceX can pull those launches off, it will act as a huge bode of confidence for the future of the rocket, as well as the future of Crew Dragon.
Crew Dragon tests its SuperDraco-powered launch abort system. (SpaceX)
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Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report from this morning sent the stock on a dramatic drop on Wall Street, seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours.
Lucid’s Director of Communications, Nick Twork, responded to the report from Eletric-Vehicles.com, which stated the company’s restructuring advisor, AlixPartners, was asked to review two decisions: taking Lucid shares private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The report also claims AlixPartners told the Lucid board to “concentrate on Gravity production while improving its quality, and to temporarily hold back the Lucid Air, the sedan that has defined the company since its launch.”
Twork said:
$LCID The rumors are completely false. The company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year, as recently published in its last quarterly filings, and it has not formed any special Board committee to explore the scenarios reported today. Our focus is…
— Nick Twork (@ntwork) July 14, 2026
Shares rebounded after the response to the report, halving its losses as the trading day neared 3 p.m. Eastern.
Lucid has struggled to get its sales off the ground and into more respectable numbers, but the company is in its early years, when things are hard to begin with. It is also backed by several notable investors, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly limitless money and likely would not ditch an investment of this size so soon.
Lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time of publication, a far cry from the 55 percent its losses topped out at during the day.
A Tesla owner who purchased a Model S Signature Edition, one of the final 250 units of the all-electric flagship vehicle that the company discontinued earlier this year, is attempting to sell the car despite a no-resale clause that prohibits reselling for the first year.
The car is being sold by J&S Autohaus in Ewing, New Jersey, and is priced at $260,490, well above the $159,420 that Tesla sold it for earlier this year.
🚨 The first Tesla Model S Signature Edition is up for sale for $260,490
Tesla placed a no-resale clause on the Model S and X Signature, so it will be interesting to see if the company takes any action. https://t.co/N9rKGHnbD6 pic.twitter.com/6FZhDL1KNR
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 14, 2026
To those who do not know, the Model S Signature was a highly exclusive, limited-run farewell variant of the Model S Plaid that was produced this year to mark the end of production of both the Model S and Model X, Tesla’s two flagship vehicles.
Limited to just 250 units with invite-only sales, it serves as a collector’s item celebrating the legacy of the Model S, which helped pioneer Tesla’s electric vehicle success since its 2012 launch.
It bundles top-tier performance with bespoke cosmetic and luxury upgrades, plus Tesla’s Luxe Package. Here’s what the Model S Signature has over the typical Model S Plaid:
- Exclusive Exterior – Unique Garnet Red Paint, matching door handles, gold Tesla “T” badges upfront, gold Plaid and Signature badging at the rear.
- Premium Interior – White Alcantara upholstery with gold piping/accents, gold Plaid seat badges, Signature-marked door sills, individually numbered dashboard plaque, gold puddle lights, special interior lighting sequence, and a custom Signature key fob.
- Performance Upgrades – Carbon-ceramic brakes with gold calipers
- Bundled Luxe Package – Full Self-Driving (Supervised), four years of Premium Connectivity, free lifetime Supercharging
- Performance Metrics – ~1,020 horsepower, sub-2-second 0-60 MPH, ~390-mile range
Tesla quickly introduced a No Resale Agreement for the Signature Editions of the Model S and Model X, which would penalize the seller for “the amount of $50,000 or the value received as consideration for the sale or transfer, whichever is greater.”
The company continues:
“If you sell or otherwise transfer the ownership of your Model S or Model X, the remainder of the Recommended Maintenance, Wheel and Tire Protection Plan, and Windshield Protection Plan will transfer automatically to the buyer. The Full Self-Driving (Supervised), Free Supercharging and Premium Connectivity will not transfer with the vehicle and will terminate once the ownership of the Model S or Model X is transferred.”
Tesla will likely come after the seller, especially as it has been about two months since Tesla launched deliveries.
Tesla rolled out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.3.5 yesterday, and about fifty miles of driving on the new version has given me enough time to highlight what seems to be strong about the release and what is not.
Additionally, Tesla has added a few new features with this specific update, which we’ll highlight as well.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.5 Performance
The new update is business as usual. Things seem to be running completely normal and necessary, but there are a few things that we’ve seemed to pick up on based on our own experience with v14.3.5, as well as what other users are seeing.
Initially, it seems to be more aware of its surroundings, making moves that are incredibly courteous to other drives and operating just a tad more reserved than what the suite might have done previously.
We had two instances where it showed this, the first being FSD needing to pass a Flagger Force vehicle that was placing down signage for the day. Their work truck was right at the front corner of a right-hand turn; typically where most cars travel when they take that turn.
FSD v14.3.5 recognized this, slowed down, and took the turn wide with no issues:
🚨 Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.5 takes a wide turn as flagger crews set up signage for the day https://t.co/3v0PL9qhlI pic.twitter.com/i4CKqxE16c
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 13, 2026
Additionally, v14.3.5 backed up for a semi truck that was making a wide turn onto a road my car was on. This is not new, but it seemed to be backing up for courtesy; it didn’t seem completely necessary, but it might have put some peace of mind in the truck driver’s head:
🚨 Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.5 backs up for an oncoming tractor trailer taking a wide turn https://t.co/0WuAqNMpRR pic.twitter.com/s6yZGVm5Te
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 13, 2026
X user Mike P, also a Pennsylvania native like myself, shared three clips of his Tesla running v14.3.5 performing similar maneuvers. He said:
“FSD turns right into a small alley that only fits one car at a time, sees oncoming car, reverses out of alley to make space, realizes oncoming car is actually parking, re-enters alley.”
Check it out here:
Rapidfire epic moments on FSD V14.3.5
1) FSD turns right into a small alley that only fits one car at a time, sees oncoming car, reverses out of alley to make space, realizes oncoming car is actually parking, re-enters alley.
2) Insane speed to vehicle cues. As FSD approaches… pic.twitter.com/bSnySSlFHR
— Mike P (@mikepat711) July 13, 2026
It seems like Speed Profiles are still in need of some tweaking; I am adjusting what Speed Profile I’m in frequently, constantly changing it to get it to travel at the correct speed. This was an issue for me on v14.3.4. It seems like they’re just a little inconsistent.
Terrible Parking
Parking attempts on v14.3.5 were not good. There are quite a few people who have said this:
Yeah it seems like FSD v14.3.5 is having some issues with parking early on https://t.co/Bw5ULfVmDq pic.twitter.com/RHdpjOEpIo
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 13, 2026
David Moss, the Tesla owner who has taken multiple coast-to-coast drives without any interventions, also has had some issues with parking early on with v14.3.5:
Horrible first impression v14.3.5 on my 2025 Tesla Model 3 LR RWD Premium 😭
3 terrible parking jobs in 23 min including parking on a ramp in a business park & parking perpendicular out in the road on street only parking situation.
Wish I had a better drive but I still believe… pic.twitter.com/TtyhRHAFG7
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) July 13, 2026
New Features
Tesla has added the ability to open Camera Preview at any time. Previously, it was only available in Park. Here’s what that feature looks like in action:
🚨 Here’s the new Camera Preview feature on FSD v14.3.5 pic.twitter.com/OodfZgDppy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 13, 2026
Check back later this week for a longer review of what we’ve noticed on Full Self-Driving v14.3.5.
Lucid denies rumors of bankruptcy after over 40% stock drop
Tesla owner attempts resale of Model S Signature Edition for over $260k
