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SpaceX continues water landing test in latest Space Station resupply mission

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8 years ago

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SpaceX has completed their second launch in less than four days, and the company’s 14th Cargo Dragon mission has successfully made it to a safe parking orbit where it will make its way to the International Space Station over the next two days.

Carrying nearly 5,800 pounds of perishables, experiments, and scientific equipment to be bolted to the outside of the ISS, this particular Cargo Dragon flew once before in 2016, while the booster that lifted it above Earth’s thin atmosphere was tasked with launching CRS-12 in August 2017. According to Jessica Jensen, SpaceX’s Director of Dragon Mission Management, this particularly Dragon capsule was the first to fly with upgraded water sealing, meaning that it was considerably easier (and thus cheaper) for SpaceX to refurbish and refly. The only items that had to be replaced this time around were the heatshield, trunk, and parachutes, and this experience will undoubtedly translate into Dragon 2 (Cargo Dragon), likely ensuring exceptional reuse characteristics for that the company’s next-gen capsule.

Sadly, CRS-14’s doubly flight-proven launch also marked yet another expended booster – B1039 happened to be the first Block 4 version of Falcon 9’s stage to fly a mission. Jensen described that SpaceX – accustomed to making these decisions on a case-by-case basis – had chosen to expend this particular booster after concluding that the benefits of testing extreme booster trajectories and recovery profiles outweighed the difficulty (and cost) of refurbishing a Block 4 booster for a third launch. In this case, B1039 would have been the best option if SpaceX had any desire to fly a booster more than twice before the introduction of the purpose-driven, next-generation Block 5 reusability upgrade – Block 4 was clearly not built to fly more than twice without an uneconomical amount of refurbishment.

https://twitter.com/_TomCross_/status/980912458280947722

While no specific details were given and live coverage shown of the soft-landing, it’s presumed that B1039 continued in the footsteps of water landings that followed GovSat-1 and Hispasat 30W-6 in January 2018 and March 2018. These uniquely aggressive landing attempts are all believed to have ignited three Merlin 1D engines rather than the single engine typically ignited for landing burns, providing a more efficient use of propellant reserves at the cost of extreme acceleration (G) forces and far slimmer margins of error. The ultimate promise of these tests, if successful, is to allow SpaceX the option of recovering boosters during missions with heavier payloads and higher orbits.

SpaceX continues a cautious regiment of tests for the newest Falcon 9 upgrade, Block 5. (Reddit /u/HollywoodSX)

The imminent NET April 24 inaugural launch of SpaceX’s rapid reuse Falcon 9 “Block 5” will mark the beginning of a new era of rocketry for SpaceX, where expendable missions are likely to become a rarity. Expending a single Block 5 booster could fairly be perceived as throwing away the potential revenue and income from anywhere from 5-100 future re-flights. As such, SpaceX has every reason to expend non-Block 5 boosters with the hope of ensuring that fewer new-generation rockets end up expended after launch.

Intriguingly, Jensen also noted in a prelaunch briefing that SpaceX’s Cargo Dragons are certified for as many as three orbital reuses – a possibility as SpaceX steps towards completing all 20 of its contracted CRS-1 missions, the final five of which are scheduled to resupply the ISS between now and early 2020. After the final CRS-1 launch, NASA has already awarded SpaceX and Orbital ATK contracts for CRS-2, a second Commercial Resupply Services contract that will begin in 2020 and fly on OATK’s upgraded Cygnus and SpaceX Dragon 2, potentially repurposing recovered Crew capsules in the case of SpaceX.

Up next on the SpaceX calendar are a number of conferences and presentations over the next two or three weeks, followed by SpaceX NASA TESS mission on April 16 and the debut of Falcon 9 Block 5 for the launch of Bangabandhu-1, April 24. SES-12 may be launched sometime in early May or late April, and the next West coast launch of Iridium-6/GRACE-FO is expected to occur NET May 10.

Follow us for live updates, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and a sea of beautiful photos from our East and West coast photographers.

Teslarati   –   Instagram – Twitter

Tom Cross – Twitter

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Pauline Acalin – Twitter

Eric Ralph – Twitter

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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 Roadster event gets delayed due to unfavorable weather

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15 minutes ago

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September 28, 2026

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is delaying its event for the Roadster, moving it from this Thursday, October 1, to Thursday, October 15, due to unfavorable weather.

The company has said it has been tracking the weather for this Thursday closely with local meteorologists, and because the event can only be held outside, Tesla is making the call to delay it:

“We’ve been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted & because this event can only be held outdoors, we’ve made the difficult decision to reschedule. New date is October 15. Additional details to follow.”

We are sure that this is bringing back PTSD for some Tesla fans, and we know it is not ideal, but this also reveals some things about the event. Tesla said that this can only be held outdoors, meaning it bodes well for the rumors that the vehicle could potentially hover.

Some believe that this was essentially confirmed by the FAA airspace restriction they were granted, but this could have been for a drone show or to keep drones from spying on the event.

Tesla Roadster is available for order once again following brief hold

The Roadster event has been long-awaited, and it is unfortunate that the weather is going to keep us all waiting a little bit longer.

The Tesla Roadster will be unveiled in Waco, Texas.

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Elon Musk

SpaceX turned a heralding moment for Starship into its greatest

Starship reached orbit despite losing an engine, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites on Flight 14.

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2 hours ago

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September 28, 2026

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SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit for the first time on Monday, and for a few nail-biting minutes it looked like it wouldn’t. During ascent on Flight 14, one of Ship 41’s six Raptor engines shut down early, and SpaceX’s livestream host Dan Huot told viewers the team had decided not to commit to orbit. Minutes later, after what Huot described as a lot of conversation in the control room, the final poll came back in favor, and a roughly 19 second burn of a single Raptor pushed the ship into orbit about 170 miles up.

The reversal matters because SpaceX had written the exit ramp into the mission plan. The company said it would only fire the orbital insertion burn if flight controllers confirmed enough backup hardware remained for the deorbit burn, a condition Teslarati laid out ahead of the flight. Losing an engine was exactly the scenario that rule was built for.

Pressing forward fits Elon Musk’s history. Falcon 1 failed three straight times before its fourth launch reached orbit in 2008, with SpaceX nearly out of money, and Starship was developed by flying prototypes until they broke. What changed this year SpaceX going public, and with $SPCX sliding below its IPO price in July when Flight 13 slipped, the short interest climbed significantly, as Teslarati reported at the time. A Starship potentially lost today with revenue generating next-gen Starlink satellites aboard would have landed directly on shareholders.

That pressure showed up after orbit. SpaceX cut a flight planned to last nearly 10 hours to about three, moving splashdown from west of Chile to the North Pacific near Hawaii. SpaceX gave no reason, though Musk said this month the company was being extremely cautious about debris risk. The single Raptor for deorbit worked, and Ship 41 completed its flip and landing burn before breaking apart in the water, an outcome SpaceX expected. Musk has structured SpaceX’s governance to shield long term bets from market pressure.

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The payload is the bigger business story. Musk posted that all 26 Starlink V3 satellites deployed and are “operating nominally.” Each V3 is rated for about 1 Tbps of downlink and 160 Gbps of uplink, so this single launch adds roughly 26 Tbps, about 10 times what a Falcon 9 load of V2 Mini satellites adds. The V3 is too large for Falcon 9, making Starship the only vehicle that can build out the planned 100,000 satellite constellation, at up to 60 per flight once it reaches routine service. Unlike the 20 V3 units on Flight 13, which reentered on a suborbital path, these will raise their orbits and could begin serving customers within weeks and bring in hundreds of millions of additional dollars in projected Starlink revenue.

SpaceX has already begun winding down Falcon 9 Starlink launches from Florida in favor of Starship. Reported targets put Flight 15 as early as October 19, leaving about three weeks to diagnose Monday’s engine shutdown before the next orbital attempt.

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Tesla Cybercab fleet doubles to well over 100 units

Published

2 hours ago

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September 28, 2026

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(Credit: Teslarati)

Tesla quietly doubled the size of its Cybercab fleet within the Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas, over the weekend to well over 100 units.

The move not only establishes more of the steering-wheel-less and pedal-less vehicles within the ride-sharing fleet Tesla has been operating for a year, but it also solidifies a more robust Robotaxi fleet as a whole.

Riders started receiving notifications from the Robotaxi app that stated: “Cybercab fleet has doubled: more rides available.”

Tesla first launched rides in the Cybercab in early September, although the Robotaxi fleet has been active for over a year, as rides began last Summer. Cybercab is truly Tesla’s most crucial vehicle release yet, as it is the first car any company has built that is geared toward full-fledged and end-to-end autonomy, never needing human intervention for anything.

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Only available in Austin at the current time, Cybercab has two seats and has been spotted testing around various U.S. states and regions; Tesla plans to deploy the Cybercab in various U.S. cities in the coming months as a best-case scenario.

Tesla Cybercab gets initial tie-in to localized, in-house cathode plant

The availability of the Cybercab has doubled from just 58 units last Monday to 125 the following Friday. Marking a substantial increase in Cybercab availability, the additional ride-sharing units are more than welcome, as wait times for Cybercabs, especially, were quite high.

The dramatic increase is a sign that demand for Robotaxi is growing and Tesla is feeling more confident that its driverless ride-hailing suite, especially its Full Self-Driving software, is able to handle any traffic situation without explicit direction or supervision from a human being.

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