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SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft fires thrusters to depart a space station in 4K timelapse

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The European Space Agency (ESA) has published perhaps the best footage yet of SpaceX’s storied Cargo Dragon spacecraft, in this case taking the form of an exceptionally well-produced, simple, and blindingly high-resolution series of timelapses of the most recent vehicle’s early-August departure from the International Space Station.

Placed in orbit in late June 2018 atop SpaceX’s last-ever launch of a non-Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket, Cargo Dragon CRS-15 (and capsule C111) successfully made its way to the International Space Station for the second time, marking a total of almost 5 metric tons (~11,000 lb) of cargo delivered to the ISS and its astronaut complement. After just over a month spent “on-station”, ISS crew carefully extricated Cargo Dragon from its berth using the station’s famous Canadarm, a giant external arm built by Canadian aerospace company Maxar Technologies.

After gently pushing the orbital spacecraft away from the ISS and releasing its grip, Dragon took full control of its own guidance, using four groups of 18 total Draco thrusters to orient itself and safely depart the Station, headed Earthward. Capable of producing roughly 90 lbs (~41 kg) of thrust, each thruster firing can essentially be compared to an average adult giving a stationary car a healthy push, albeit if the car in question was utterly untethered by Earthly concerns like “friction” and “gravity”.

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Whereas an average person would be lucky to move a car on flat ground more than a smidge with just their strength alone, Cargo Dragon’s array of Draco thrusters can quite easily – if gradually – jet the spacecraft about, eventually going through a series of more concerted burns to dip Dragon into Earth’s atmosphere, culminating in a successful reentry, ocean splashdown, and (hopefully) refurbishment before another orbital mission. In fact, the movement caused by Dragon’s Draco thrusters is visible in an absolutely extraordinary fashion, normally taking place on timescales only subtly perceptible to the average naked eye.

ESA astronauts appear to have been quietly producing a huge array of extraordinary orbital timelapses – including the above footage of Dragon – that very few people have viewed. Ranging from the arrival and departure of other cargo and crew spacecraft to pure timelapses of orbital sunrise and sunset, check out ESA’s hidden gems at their YouTube channel.

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Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to work around the clock to prepare its next generation Dragon 2‘s crew and cargo variants for their various launch debuts, with Crew Dragon leading the pack towards an uncrewed launch demonstration scheduled for November 2018 and a crewed flight test as early as April 2019.


For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!

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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Tesla ends Full Self-Driving purchase option in the U.S.

In January, Musk announced that Tesla would remove the ability to purchase the suite outright for $8,000. This would give the vehicle Full Self-Driving for its entire lifespan, but Tesla intended to move away from it, for several reasons, one being that a tranche in the CEO’s pay package requires 10 million active subscriptions of FSD.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has officially ended the option to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright, a move that was announced for the United States market in January by CEO Elon Musk.

The driver assistance suite is now exclusively available in the U.S. as a subscription, which is currently priced at $99 per month.

Tesla moved away from the outright purchase option in an effort to move more people to the subscription program, but there are concerns over its current price and the potential for it to rise.

In January, Musk announced that Tesla would remove the ability to purchase the suite outright for $8,000. This would give the vehicle Full Self-Driving for its entire lifespan, but Tesla intended to move away from it, for several reasons, one being that a tranche in the CEO’s pay package requires 10 million active subscriptions of FSD.

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Although Tesla moved back the deadline in other countries, it has now taken effect in the U.S. on Sunday morning. Tesla updated its website to reflect this:

There are still some concerns regarding its price, as $99 per month is not where many consumers are hoping to see the subscription price stay.

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Musk has said that as capabilities improve, the price will go up, but it seems unlikely that 10 million drivers will want to pay an extra $100 every month for the capability, even if it is extremely useful.

Instead, many owners and fans of the company are calling for Tesla to offer a different type of pricing platform. This includes a tiered-system that would let owners pick and choose the features they would want for varying prices, or even a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual pricing option, which would incentivize longer-term purchasing.

Although Musk and other Tesla are aware of FSD’s capabilities and state is is worth much more than its current price, there could be some merit in the idea of offering a price for Supervised FSD and another price for Unsupervised FSD when it becomes available.

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Musk bankers looking to trim xAI debt after SpaceX merger: report

xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. A new financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year.

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Credit: SpaceX

Elon Musk’s bankers are looking to trim the debt that xAI has taken on over the past few years, following the company’s merger with SpaceX, a new report from Bloomberg says.

xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. Bankers are trying to create some kind of financing plan that would trim “some of the heavy interest costs” that come with the debt.

The financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year. Musk has essentially confirmed that SpaceX would be heading toward an IPO last month.

SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms

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The report indicates that Morgan Stanley is expected to take the leading role in any financing plan, citing people familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley, along with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are all expected to be in the lineup of banks leading SpaceX’s potential IPO.

Since Musk acquired X, he has also had what Bloomberg says is a “mixed track record with debt markets.” Since purchasing X a few years ago with a $12.5 billion financing package, X pays “tens of millions in interest payments every month.”

That debt is held by Bank of America, Barclays, Mitsubishi, UFJ Financial, BNP Paribas SA, Mizuho, and Société Générale SA.

X merged with xAI last March, which brought the valuation to $45 billion, including the debt.

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SpaceX announced the merger with xAI earlier this month, a major move in Musk’s plan to alleviate Earth of necessary data centers and replace them with orbital options that will be lower cost:

“In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale. To harness even a millionth of our Sun’s energy would require over a million times more energy than our civilization currently uses! The only logical solution, therefore, is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space. I mean, space is called “space” for a reason.”

The merger has many advantages, but one of the most crucial is that it positions the now-merged companies to fund broader goals, fueled by revenue from the Starlink expansion, potential IPO, and AI-driven applications that could accelerate the development of lunar bases.

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Tesla pushes Full Self-Driving outright purchasing option back in one market

Tesla announced last month that it would eliminate the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving software outright, instead opting for a subscription-only program, which will require users to pay monthly.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has pushed the opportunity to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright in one market: Australia.

The date remains February 14 in North America, but Tesla has pushed the date back to March 31, 2026, in Australia.

Tesla announced last month that it would eliminate the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving software outright, instead opting for a subscription-only program, which will require users to pay monthly.

If you have already purchased the suite outright, you will not be required to subscribe once again, but once the outright purchase option is gone, drivers will be required to pay the monthly fee.

The reason for the adjustment is likely due to the short period of time the Full Self-Driving suite has been available in the country. In North America, it has been available for years.

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Tesla hits major milestone with Full Self-Driving subscriptions

However, Tesla just launched it just last year in Australia.

Full Self-Driving is currently available in seven countries: the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.

The company has worked extensively for the past few years to launch the suite in Europe. It has not made it quite yet, but Tesla hopes to get it launched by the end of this year.

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In North America, Tesla is only giving customers one more day to buy the suite outright before they will be committed to the subscription-based option for good.

The price is expected to go up as the capabilities improve, but there are no indications as to when Tesla will be doing that, nor what type of offering it plans to roll out for owners.

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