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Starlink-1 will mark SpaceX's first attempted drone ship landing in more than five months. Starlink-1 will mark SpaceX's first attempted drone ship landing in more than five months.

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SpaceX drone ship spotted by satellite ahead of first Falcon 9 ocean landing in five months

Falcon 9 B1056 lands aboard drone ship OCISLY on July 25th. Starlink-1 will mark SpaceX's first attempted drone ship landing in more than five months. (SpaceX)

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In anticipation of SpaceX’s imminent Starlink-1 launch, drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) departed Port Canaveral on November 7th and is now on its way out into the Atlantic Ocean for Falcon 9’s first booster landing attempt in months.

In a possible first, the drone ship and its tugboat companion were spotted on their way to the landing zone coordinates by a European Earth observation satellite.

The orbital photo of OCISLY under tow by tugboat Hawk came from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel-2 spacecraft, part of an Earth observation constellation that currently has five spacecraft in orbit. Coincidentally, SpaceX won a contract in 2017 to launch the next Sentinel – a sea-level altimetry satellite known as Sentinel-6A – late next year.

It’s not much to look at, but this satellite image unequivocally shows drone ship OCISLY towed behind tugboat Hawk, on their way to recover a Falcon 9 booster. (Sentinel Hub – ESA – Harry Stranger)

In the Sentinel photo, both OCISLY and its tugboat are plainly visible, with the satellite’s resolving power just slightly too low to render the drone ship’s iconic ‘X’ and bullseye as more than a blob. Of note, OCISLY measures approximately 300 feet by 170 feet (91m x 51m), which happens to almost perfectly mesh with the 100m scale bar on the image.

Hawk and OCISLY departed Port Canaveral on the morning of November 7th, giving the pair just shy of four days to reach Falcon 9’s Atlantic Ocean landing coordinates. Just like Falcon 9’s dedicated Starlink launch debut in May 2019, drone ship OCISLY will be stationed a bit more than 600 km (375 mi) northeast of SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) pad. Starlink v0.9’s drone ship recovery happened ~621 km offshore, while Starlink-1’s landing is planned ~628 km downrange.

Starlink-1 will feature two major firsts for reusable rocketry: it will mark the first reuse of a Falcon payload fairing and the first time a Falcon 9 booster has flown four orbital-class launches. Additionally, it will likely be the first time that SpaceX attempts to catch both parasailing halves of a Falcon 9 fairing, made possible by the recent acquisition and modification of GO Ms. Chief, now almost identical to GO Ms. Tree (formerly Mr. Steven).

Falcon 9 B1048 returned to Port Canaveral on February 24th after its third successful launch and landing. (Teslarati)
SpaceX completed its first Starlink launch on May 23rd, flying B1049 for the third time. SpaceX's next Starlink launch will very likely mark the first time a booster has flown four orbital-class missions. (SpaceX)
Assigned to SpaceX’s Starlink v0.9 mission, Falcon 9 B1049 completed its third launch and landing in May 2019. (SpaceX)

Aside from being the first orbital SpaceX launch in more than three months, Starlink-1 will also mark SpaceX’s first attempted Falcon 9 landing since July 25th and the first drone ship recovery attempt since June 25th, respectively more than 4.5 and 5.5 months ago. Either Falcon 9 B1048 or B1049 will support the mission and hopefully become the first SpaceX booster to successfully launch and land four times.

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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 begins Robotaxi certification push in Arizona: report

Tesla seems serious about expanding its Robotaxi service to several states in the coming months.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has initiated discussions with Arizona transportation regulators to certify its driverless Robotaxi service in the state, as per a recent report from Bloomberg News. The move follows Tesla’s launch of its Robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas, as well as CEO Elon Musk’s recent comments about the service’s expansion in the Bay Area.

The Arizona Department of Transportation confirmed to Bloomberg that Tesla has reached out to begin the certification process for autonomous ride-sharing operations in the state. While details remain limited, the outreach suggests that Tesla is serious about expanding its driverless Robotaxi service to several territories in the coming months.

The Arizona development comes as Tesla prepares to expand its service area in Austin this weekend, as per CEO Elon Musk in a post on X. Musk also stated that Tesla is targeting the San Francisco Bay Area as its next major market, with a potential launch “in a month or two,” pending regulatory approvals.

Tesla first launched its autonomous ride-hailing program on June 22 in Austin with a small fleet of Model Y vehicles, accompanied by a Tesla employee in the passenger seat to monitor safety. While still classified as a test, Musk has said the program will expand to about 1,000 vehicles in the coming months. Tesla will later upgrade its Robotaxi fleet with the Cyercab, a two-seater that is designed without a steering wheel.

Sightings of Cybercab castings around the Giga Texas complex suggests that Tesla may be ramping the initial trial production of the self-driving two-seater. Tesla, for its part, has noted in the past that volume production of the Cybercab is expected to start sometime next year.

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In California, Tesla has already applied for a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the state’s Public Utilities Commission. The company is reportedly taking a phased approach to operating in California, with the Robotaxi service starting with pre-arranged rides for employees in vehicles with safety drivers.

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Tesla sets November 6 date for 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting

The automaker announced the date on Thursday in a Form 8-K.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has scheduled its 2025 annual shareholder meeting for November 6, addressing investor concerns that the company was nearing a legal deadline to hold the event. 

The automaker announced the date on Thursday in a Form 8-K submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company also listed a new proposal submission deadline of July 31 for items to be included in the proxy statement.

Tesla’s announcement followed calls from a group of 27 shareholders, including the leaders of large public pension funds, which urged Tesla’s board to formally set the meeting date, as noted in a report from The Wall Street Journal

The group noted that under Texas law, where Tesla is now incorporated, companies must hold annual meetings within 13 months of the last one if requested by shareholders. Tesla’s previous annual shareholder meeting was held on June 13, 2024, which placed the July 13 deadline in focus.

Tesla originally stated in its 2024 annual report that it would file its proxy statement by the end of April. However, an amended filing on April 30 indicated that the Board of Directors had not yet finalized a meeting date, at least at the time.

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The April filing also confirmed that Tesla’s board had formed a special committee to evaluate certain matters related to CEO Elon Musk’s compensation plan. Musk’s CEO performance award remains at the center of a lengthy legal dispute in Delaware, Tesla’s former state of incorporation.

Due to the aftermath of Musk’s legal dispute about his compensation plan in Delaware, he has not been paid for his work at Tesla for several years. Musk, for his part, has noted that he is more concerned about his voting stake in Tesla than his actual salary.

At last year’s annual meeting, TSLA shareholders voted to reapprove Elon Musk’s compensation plan and ratified Tesla’s decision to relocate its legal domicile from Delaware to Texas.

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Grok coming to Tesla vehicles next week “at the latest:” Elon Musk

Grok’s rollout to Tesla vehicles is expected to begin next week at the latest.

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Credit: Tesla China

Elon Musk announced on Thursday that Grok, the large language model developed by his startup xAI, will soon be available in Tesla vehicles. Grok’s rollout to Tesla vehicles is expected to begin next week at the latest, further deepening the ties between the two Elon Musk-led companies.

Tesla–xAI synergy

Musk confirmed the news on X shortly after livestreaming the release of Grok 4, xAI’s latest large language model. “Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon. Next week at the latest,” Musk wrote in a post on social media platform X.

During the livestream, Musk and several members of the xAI team highlighted several upgrades to Grok 4’s voice capabilities and performance metrics, positioning the LLM as competitive with top-tier models from OpenAI and Google.

The in-vehicle integration of Grok marks a new chapter in Tesla’s AI development. While Tesla has long relied on in-house systems for autonomous driving and energy optimization, Grok’s integration would introduce conversational AI directly into its vehicles’ user experience. This integration could potentially improve customer interaction inside Tesla vehicles.

xAI and Tesla’s collaborative footprint

Grok’s upcoming rollout to Tesla vehicles adds to a growing business relationship between Tesla and xAI. Earlier this year, Tesla disclosed that it generated $198.3 million in revenue from commercial, consulting, and support agreements with xAI, as noted in a report from Bloomberg News. A large portion of that amount, however, came from the sale of Megapack energy storage systems to the artificial intelligence startup.

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In July 2023, Musk polled X users about whether Tesla should invest $5 billion in xAI. While no formal investment has been made so far, 68% of poll participants voted yes, and Musk has since stated that the idea would be discussed with Tesla’s board.

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