News

SpaceX’s drone ship fleet spied prepping for future rocket recoveries

Published

7 years ago

March 26, 2018

Eric Ralph

Just shy of three weeks since SpaceX’s last launch and the better part of half a year since the last successful ocean recovery, both of the company’s drone ships have been spotted in recent weeks being refurbished, refitted, and prepared for a return to the ocean.

The unusual drought of drone ship landings was nearly brought to an end in early March, but that recovery attempt – following the successful launch of Hispasat 30W-6 – was precluded by extreme weather in the landing zone, forcing booster 1044 to soft-land in the Atlantic with a swan call of landing legs and titanium grid fins. Several weeks before 1044’s demise, the inaugural launch of Falcon Heavy also saw the first failed booster recovery attempt since June 2016, ending a successful streak of 17 flawless Falcon 9 recoveries – though both side boosters did manage a spectacular, synchronized landing at LZs 1 and 2.

Before the Falcon Heavy attempt, East coast drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) successfully recovered a Falcon 9 booster for the last time in late October 2017, a handful of weeks after the successful recovery of SES-11 – the source of a small fire that famously destroyed SpaceX’s robotic stage securer, nicknamed Roomba or Octagrabber. Over the several months, since it was damaged, Octagrabber has gradually undergone refurbishment at SpaceX’s Port Canaveral berth, most recently appearing back on OCISLY for post-refurb testing.

With the introduction of Falcon 9 Block 5 presumably a month or less away, the days of expending once flight-proven boosters will almost certainly be over, aside from missions that truly require the booster’s full performance. As discussed yesterday, regardless of whether Block 5 is truly ready for the limelight, SpaceX is no more than two months away from effectively running out of all older boosters: the once-flown B1045 (TESS) will likely be the only flight-worthy heritage booster remaining by early May. In other words, every single SpaceX launch in the second half of 2018 is all but guaranteed to attempt recovery, either by land or sea.

: OCISLY as seen by Tom Cross on March 5, readying for a busy future of rocket recoveries. (Tom Cross)

: Roomba was spied aboard OCISLY for the first time in months earlier this month. (Instagram /u/grimlok77)

OCISLY is effectively prepared to support these upcoming recovery attempts, and its Octagrabber may be as well. However, OCISLY was reportedly damaged by Falcon Heavy’s center core, despite the fact that it quite visibly missed the drone ship. Presumably, the forlorn booster acted as a sort of depth charge, thus damaging beyond repair the drone ship’s sensitive maneuvering and station-keeping thrusters. Before Falcon Heavy, it’s likely that the same fire that burned Octagrabber also damaged the hydraulic systems of one or several of OCISLY’s thrusters. These conclusions are supported by the fact that SpaceX’s West coast drone ship, Just Read The Instructions (JRTI), has visibly been stripped of its functional thrusters, presumably used to keep OCISLY operational in anticipation of Falcon Heavy and later Hispasat 30W-6.

Mr Steven, SpaceX’s only current fairing recovery vessel, has also been spotted conducting some sort of sea trials just off the shore of Port of San Pedro and LA, presumably honing recovery operations and giving its pilots time to practice catching fairings. Following the launch of PAZ and SpaceX’s own prototype Starlink satellites, the company managed its first-ever intact fairing recovery, although it missed Mr Steven’s net by a few hundred feet. As stated by Musk, it should be relatively easy to go from missing by a few hundred feet to successfully catching the fairing, and it’s likely that the imminent launch of Iridium-5 (7:19 am PDT, March 29) will attempt to close that gap and actually catch a fairing halve. On the other hand, the booster – flight-proven during the October 2017 launch of Iridium-3 – will likely soft-land in the Pacific Ocean because JRTI is currently unable to support ocean recoveries, lacking two of its four thrusters.

: Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin took a trip down to Port of San Pedro to check up on JRTI, March 25. (Pauline Acalin)

: Note one of JRTI’s thrusters here, quite clearly not installed. A second one sits just out of sight on the right. (Pauline Acalin)

: SpaceX’s West coast drone ship Just Read The Instructions getting some much needed fresh paint. (Instagram, anonymous)

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News

Tesla celebrates key milestone for 4680 battery cell production cost

Tesla produces in-house 4680 battery cells at its Gigafactory in Texas, along with getting them from outside suppliers.

Published

36 minutes ago

April 6, 2025

Zachary Visconti

Credit: Tesla | X

Tesla has highlighted an important 4680 battery cell milestone in recent weeks, noting that its Texas manufacturing team for the hardware has scaled production enough to outpace the cost-effectiveness of outside suppliers.

During Tesla’s first-quarter all-hands-on-deck meeting held a few weeks ago, CEO Elon Musk shared a number of recent milestones. One of them, as was also reiterated after the meeting by Michael Guilfoy, Tesla’s Giga Texas Director of Cell Manufacturing, is the fact that the company’s in-house 4680 battery cells have earned their place as the lowest-cost battery cell produced per kWh.

Musk also pointed out during the meeting that the achievement is particularly impressive, given that many of the company’s suppliers dedicate all or most of their businesses to battery cell manufacturing, while Tesla focuses on several other business sectors and still managed to surpass the milestone.

Check out Guilfoy’s full message below, as posted on LinkedIn, or watch Tesla’s Q1 all-hands meeting below that.

Been waiting to acknowledge this great achievement by Tesla’s 4680 Cell Manufacturing team since the end of last year….but as Elon announced last night, our Cell Manufacturing team in Texas reached a huge milestone at the end of 2024 with becoming the lowest cost per kWh battery cell producer for Tesla! The grit, determination, and passion of our team is unbelievable in helping deliver our mission.

Big thank you to our entire engineering and production teams for making this happen!! It’s the greatest honor of my career to lead this team and make such an impact in our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

And we aren’t done yet! 2025 will have more big milestones with fully ramped dry battery electrode manufacturing to deliver even more cost efficiency. Exciting teams continue to be ahead. Cheers to this world-class team!

READ MORE ON TESLA’S 4680 BATTERY CELLS: Tesla working on four dry cathode 4680 battery variants: The Information

Although Tesla also sources its 4680 batteries from multiple other suppliers, including Panasonic and LG Energy Solution, the company has also been working to scale up in-house production of the cells over the past few years. In September, Tesla officially surpassed a milestone of producing 100 million 4680 battery cells, after surpassing 50 million last June, and exceeding 20 million in October 2023.

Tesla initially unveiled the 4680 battery cell during a 2020 “Battery Day” event, during which it explained the cost and efficiency benefits of the battery size in comparison with the 2170 form factor.

Tesla loses battle to keep 4680 battery tech under wraps

News

Tesla Europe shares FSD test video weeks ahead of launch target

Tesla aims to launch Supervised Full Self-Driving in European markets in the coming weeks, though engineering tests are well underway.

Published

19 hours ago

April 5, 2025

Zachary Visconti

Credit: Tesla Europe and Middle East | X

Tesla has shared a new video showing off some of its tests of Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) in Europe, as the company aims to gain regulatory approval in the region in the coming months.

In a post on the Europe and Middle East X account on Saturday, Tesla shared a video of some of its tests in what appears to be Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Although Tesla is aiming to launch the software in new markets across Europe and the Middle East this year, the video notes that the drives are still “engineering test drives,” rather than the system being launched yet in those markets.

“FSD Supervised in Europe, pending regulatory approval,” the account writes.

In fine print at the beginning of the video, Tesla also writes the following disclaimer:

FSD (Supervised) engineering test drive – these recordings were made in a prototype vehicle driven by a safety driver during test phase. Features on display require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous. Activation and use is subject to regulatory approval.

You can see the full two-minute video below.

FSD Supervised in Europe, pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/PYkcATjSUN
— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) April 5, 2025

READ MORE ON TESLA FSD IN EUROPE: Tesla’s Full Self-Driving faces a new hurdle in UK rollout plans

Tesla has been performing closed testing of FSD systems in Europe for years, and Elon Musk said during the company’s Q4 earnings call that it’s expecting to gain approval during an upcoming assembly.

In order to start deploying the system publicly, Tesla will ultimately have to be approved by the Dutch RDW, the transportation division overseeing self-driving vehicle regulation, which will then present the company’s permit submission to the European Union (EU) in May.

You can see a few details on the Netherlands government’s approach to and management of self-driving vehicle permits here.

The video also comes after Tesla launched FSD Supervised in China and Mexico over the past few months, and after Elon Musk and others have highlighted how many regulations the company is subject to in European markets.

Upon his departure from Tesla in October, former Global Vehicle Automation and Safety Policy Lead Marc Van Impe said that certain features of a regulation expected to accelerate the regulation of self-driving vehicles could be delayed, “possibly until 2028,” going on to warn that this could significantly delay the launch of FSD Supervised.

Former Tesla executive warns of delays to European ADAS regulations

News

This Tesla executive is leaving the company after over 12 years

Tesla’s top software engineering executive has left, though he hasn’t commented on his plans or reasoning for the departure.

Published

1 day ago

April 5, 2025

Zachary Visconti

Credit: Andrea Conway/X

One Tesla software executive is set to depart after nearly 12 years with the company, as detailed in a report this week.

Tesla’s VP of Software Engineering David Lau is expected to be leaving the company, according to a report from Bloomberg that was published on Friday. Lau has worked on the company’s vehicle software as well as its cloud services, manufacturing systems, and more, as detailed on his LinkedIn page.

His vehicle software efforts included creating firmware for the powertrain, traction and stability systems, as well as being in charge of software needs such as battery management, vehicle body control, and the user interface included for navigation, and mobile apps.

The now-former executive started as a Senior Manager of Firmware Engineering, before being promoted multiple times to the recent position of VP, and after receiving a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Prior to his time at Tesla, he also worked at chip manufacturer Altera.

In the past, Lau has also detailed a few high-level concepts for the press at media events, including in 2023 when he spoke on how to cultivate good engineers and the approach to making Tesla’s Model S “Plaid Mode” a reality. When the Cybertruck was released, he also appeared alongside other executives in a video with Sandy Munro, talking about the electric vehicle’s (EV’s) unique “Etherloop” system hardware.

At the time of writing, Lau has not responded to Teslarati‘s request for comment on the reasoning behind his departure or his time at Tesla.

READ MORE ON TESLA PERSONNEL: Tesla VP of Finance and Business Operations departs after 11-year tenure

Others have departed from the company in recent months, most recently including Tesla’s former Principal CAE Crash Safety Engineer, Petter Winberg, who left a few weeks ago following a 14-year stint. In October, Tesla’s former Global Vehicle Automation and Safety Policy Lead, Marc Van Impe, also departed from the company with a warning about attempts to advance Full Self-Driving in Europe, along with the departure of Chief Information Officer Nagesh Saldi, to name just a few.

The news of Lau’s departure also comes as Tesla has faced widespread protests and vandalism events in response to CEO Elon Musk, following his alignment with President Donald Trump and his work to gut several federal agencies as part of the administration’s government efficiency division.