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SpaceX drone ship to ride transport vessel through the Panama Canal
After a quick jaunt from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas, SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) has been loaded onto the deck of a much larger semi-submersible transport vessel.
Known as Mighty Servant 1 (MS1), it appears that OCISLY will be carried from the Bahamas through the Panama Canal – and possibly all the way to Port of Long Beach, California – on the back of the transport ship. That’s unlike Just Read The Instructions’ (JRTI) 2019 transit from California to Florida, which saw SpaceX remove the drone ship’s deck ‘wings’ for a tow through the Panama Canal’s older, narrower locks.
Perhaps possible because of the use of a transport ship like MS1, it appears that drone ship OCISLY will instead be allowed to transit the Panama Canal’s 55-meter-wide (180 ft) New Panama locks. With a one-time permit, SpaceX can bypass its otherwise strict 51.25m (168 ft) beam (width) limit and squeeze drone ship OCISLY through the canal with just 1-1.5m (3-5 ft) to spare on either side. As a result, SpaceX won’t have to go through the relatively laborious process of cutting off and reinstalling OCISLY’s wings and recertifying the drone ship’s seaworthiness, which can easily take a month or more.
More generally, and especially so for a payload as light as OCISLY, Mighty Servant 1 should also be able to travel significant faster than the drone ship would otherwise be able to under tow. Typically, tugboats tend to tow SpaceX’s drone ships no faster than 9 mph (13 kph). MS1 could easily average 14-15 mph with OCISLY on its deck, conceivably speeding up the 5000 mile (8000 km) journey from a bit less than four weeks to two weeks.
While convenient regardless, a substantially faster canal transit and coast-to-coast journey and the freedom to leave OCISLY almost entirely unchanged will help SpaceX begin dedicated polar Starlink launches from the West Coast as early as July 2021. SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell first put forth a goal of beginning those launches in “summer” 2021 – technically no earlier than (NET) July 2021. Spaceflight Now later confirmed that dedicated polar Starlink launches were indeed scheduled to begin as early as July.
As of June 2021, SpaceX has already delivered a well-worn Falcon 9 booster from Florida to California and the last major missing piece – a drone ship to support West Coast recovery operations – may now be just a few weeks away from Port of Long Beach. In other words, while seemingly implausible just a few weeks ago, SpaceX now has a very decent chance of launching its first dedicated batch of polar Starlink satellites within the next ~7 weeks. Stay tuned for updates on drone ship OCISLY’s Panama Canal transit aboard Mighty Servant 1.
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
