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SpaceX docks two Dragons to the space station for the first time

Captured here by a Russian cosmonaut, Cargo Dragon 2's inaugural ISS docking was a spectacular one. (Sergey Kud-Sverchkov)

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For the first time, SpaceX has successfully docked two Dragons to the International Space Station (ISS) at the same time.

Carrying roughly three metric tons (~6600 lb) of cargo, SpaceX’s first upgraded Cargo Dragon aced its inaugural orbital flight and docking attempt on the first try, safely latching itself to the space station around 1:45 pm EST (UTC-5) on Monday, December 7th.

For the second time, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov thankfully managed to pick up some of the slack from the inexplicably tiny handful of NASA photos published from two historic Dragon arrivals, capturing both Crew-1 and CRS-21 in spectacular detail.

Admittedly, the single official photo of CRS-21 thus far published by NASA offers the first screenshot-free view of SpaceX’s Crew-1 Crew Dragon and CRS-21 Cargo Dragon in the same frame, succinctly capturing the historic milestone.

The first upgraded Cargo Dragon bears down on the first human-certified Crew Dragon. (NASA)
Cargo Dragon (center) and Crew Dragon’s nosecone are also visible in this webcast screenshot. (NASA)

During NASA’s docking webcast, both retractable Cargo and Crew Dragon nosecones were also visible simultaneously, serving as a reminder that Cargo Dragon 2 is essentially a tweaked version of Crew Dragon. According to NASA, the space agency has officially signed contracts for at least nine Cargo Dragon 2 launches total, meaning that – barring additional contracts or an extension of the ISS lifespan – the final uncrewed Dragon flight could be CRS-29 in 2023 or 2024.

SpaceX itself uploaded a timelapse of Cargo Dragon 2’s first ISS docking taken from the spacecraft’s own camera not long after the milestone, offering some of the best live views of an ISS cargo or crew arrival in recent memory.

Ultimately, according to SpaceX officials, Crew-1 – launched on November 15th – kicked off what the company believes will be at least a year of a continuous Dragon presence on orbit, also meaning that all future Dragon launches (beginning with CRS-21) will see two Dragons simultaneously operating in orbit for at least a month or two. In the two-decade history of the International Space Station, only Russia’s national space agency has managed such a feat, serving as the sole provider of crew transport from 2011 to 2020 while simultaneously performing routine cargo launches.

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As Cargo Dragon 2 approached the ISS, SpaceX’s Crew-1 Crew Dragon (bottom center) was easily visible for almost the entire docking. (SpaceX)
The space station’s view of Cargo Dragon at roughly the same time as the onboard camera view above. (Sergey Kud-Sverchkov)

In 2021 alone, SpaceX has plans for at least five – and maybe six – Dragon launches, including the first astronaut launch to use a flight-proven spacecraft and booster and the first fully private tourist mission to orbit. Combined with Starlink, the back-to-back operational debuts of Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon 2 arguably make SpaceX the world-leader in the production and operation of satellites and reusable spacecraft.

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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Starlink launches Communities Program for passive income through internet sharing

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

Starlink is launching a new beta path for ordinary property owners and local operators to turn a single Starlink kit into a small shared-access business for passive income.

Under the Starlink for Communities program, a host installs one dish and router setup in a location with nearby demand: an apartment complex, campground, rural crossroads, or event site. Neighbors or local users can buy short-term passes rather than full individual subscriptions, giving the Starlink provider a potential path to passive income.

Hour, day, and week passes cover one device. A month pass covers up to four. Starlink handles account creation, payments, access controls, and the satellite link itself. The host’s role is mainly placement, power, and basic upkeep, with earnings tied to each paid connection.

The model echoes the passive-income vision long attached to Tesla’s Robotaxi plans, and it seems like it’s something Musk has hinted toward in the past as he believes AI will make the need to work relatively optional. In both cases, the platform owns the hard parts of matching, billing, and network management, while an individual supplies a physical asset that sits idle much of the time.

A Starlink host’s dish can serve multiple nearby users without each household buying and installing its own terminal. A Tesla owner, under the stated Robotaxi concept, would leave a vehicle enrolled in the fleet during unused hours so the car generates rides while the owner is at work or asleep.

Both arrangements convert under-utilized hardware into a revenue stream. They also let the company scale coverage or capacity without owning every endpoint.

Differences are practical. A Starlink kit is a fixed, relatively low-cost terminal whose main constraint is local congestion and line-of-sight. A Tesla Robotaxi is a mobile, high-value vehicle whose earnings depend on demand density, utilization rates, insurance, cleaning, and charging.

Starlink’s program is already accepting host applications in multiple countries and describes the revenue split as ongoing. Tesla’s owner-network version remains more aspirational.

The company currently operates a limited company-controlled robotaxi service in select areas and has solicited interest from fleet buyers for Cybercab vehicles, while private Full Self-Driving owners have not yet been able to dispatch their own cars for paid rides at scale.

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Starlink is a satellite broadband service operated by SpaceX that uses a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to deliver internet to locations where terrestrial broadband is slow, expensive, or absent. It has grown to millions of subscribers worldwide by selling direct residential, mobile, and enterprise terminals, and have become widely available at a wide array at retail locations like Target and Best Buy.

The Communities program extends that reach by letting hosts resell short bursts of capacity to people nearby, while also providing high-speed internet access to those who are simply around a Starlink user.

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Tesla just made its headlights even better through a software update

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Credit: @jojje167 on X

Tesla just upgraded its headlights through a software update, making them even better without any physical or hardware upgrade.

Tesla’s latest software update is quietly improving nighttime driving for a small number of owners. Version 2026.38 includes a new capability called Dynamic Headlight Leveling.

The feature automatically adjusts the aim of the low beams in response to driving conditions and nearby traffic, with the goal of giving the driver more usable light on the road while reducing glare for oncoming vehicles and traffic ahead.

Unlike Tesla’s matrix high-beam system, which selectively dims individual LED segments to create shadows around other cars, Dynamic Headlight Leveling physically tilts the low-beam projectors. Internal motors respond to changes in vehicle pitch.

When the car accelerates hard, climbs a steep grade, or carries extra weight in the rear, the headlights can otherwise point higher than intended. The software counters that movement in real time so the beam stays aimed at the road surface rather than into the eyes of other drivers.

Early indications reveal the update is reaching a limited set of vehicles, including certain Model 3 and Cybertruck examples in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The rollout does not appear tied to a single hardware revision, and Tesla has not published a broader schedule. It is simply a common waiting game until your car receives it.

The change arrives against a backdrop of wider complaints about headlight glare. Some earlier Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were the subject of an NHTSA recall related to excessive low-beam glare; the software adjustment offers a potential mitigation for cars equipped with the necessary leveling hardware. It does not replace adaptive high beams where those are already available, nor does it alter the basic low-beam pattern itself.

Instead, it keeps an existing beam pointed where it is most useful.

For drivers who have received the update, the system requires no new settings or user input. The headlights simply respond as road conditions and traffic change. As the feature reaches more vehicles, it adds another example of Tesla using over-the-air software to refine existing hardware rather than waiting for a new model year. Nighttime visibility and reduced glare for others are the practical results owners are expected to notice first.

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Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard

Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.

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Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with  a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.

The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.

Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents

Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.

On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a  Halloween Mode.

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