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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket aces first launch of dozens planned this year
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has aced the first launch and landing of dozens planned by the company in 2021, kicking off what could be an unprecedentedly productive year.
Lifting off at 9:15 pm EST around 45 minutes into a four-hour window, SpaceX’s first mission of the year was tasked with delivering the ~3500 kg (7700 lb) Turksat 5A communications satellite to an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) measuring roughly 200 km (~125 mi) to 36,000 km (22,500 mi) above the Earth’s surface.* Designed and built almost entirely by Europe’s Airbus Defence and Space for Turkey, the satellite is meant to expand and upgrade communications services over wide swaths of Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Turkey itself.
*SpaceX actually appears to have delivered Turksat 5A to what is known as a supersynchronous GTO, meaning that the apogee (furthest point from Earth) is much higher than geostationary orbit. In the case of Turksat 5A, thanks to its relatively low launch mass, Falcon 9 was able to deploy the satellite into a healthy ~290 km by ~55,000 km (180 mi x 34,000 mi) transfer orbit. In doing so, SpaceX will have substantially cut the amount of time and/or delta V (propellant) Turksat 5A will take to circularize into its operational orbit (35,786 km x 35,786 km).
It’s believed that Turksat 5A will be used to some extent for Turkish military communications, raising controversy in light of the country’s conscious decision to directly aid the aggressor responsible for igniting the brief but bloody 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. Controversy aside, Turksat 5A will now spend the next several months gradually raising its perigee (the lowest point of its orbit) until the satellite arrives at an operational geostationary orbit, where its health will be verified before entering service.
Although a key ground station used for telemetry, tracking, and communications (TT&C) was down during most of the second half of the mission, Falcon 9’s autonomous upper stage performed flawlessly. The orbital vehicle confirmed the completion of a successful orbit-raise maneuver once contact was made with SpaceX’s next ground station, followed by a smooth deployment of the Turksat 5A satellite around 33 minutes after liftoff.
For Falcon 9, Turksat 5A was booster B1060’s fourth launch in six months and represented the SpaceX’s 50th booster reuse since March 2017. B1060 performed as expected throughout the launch, shutting down and separating from the second stage two and a half minutes after liftoff traveling 2.3 km/s (1.5 mi/s), coasting to an apogee well above the Karman Line (100 km/62 mi), reentering Earth’s atmosphere, and touching down on drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) after 8.5 minutes in flight.
The Turksat 5A mission also marked the second time SpaceX has used a flight-proven Falcon payload fairing on a commercial satellite launch, while it was also the first time in several months that both twin fairing recovery ships Ms Tree and Ms Chief were deployed on the same mission. SpaceX says only Ms Chief was scheduled to attempt a fairing catch, while Ms Tree would instead try to scoop its assigned half out of the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX has three more Falcon 9 launches scheduled this month, including its first dedicated Smallsat Program mission – known as Transporter-1 – NET January 14th and two Starlink missions – V1 L16 and V1 L17 – sometime in the second half of the month.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.
The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.
This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.
Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results
- Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
- Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
- Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
- Profit -$ 4.751B
Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.
Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.
In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.
Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.
You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.
Q2 2026 Earnings Call https://t.co/zZS6ii2TWK
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.
Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:
It’s coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.
Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.
Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.
The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.
Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.
Tesla is starting to prepare for the launch of the Optimus robot in its smartphone app, new coding strings show. Elon Musk has referred to Optimus as what will be the greatest-selling product of any kind of all time, and now, Tesla is getting ready for its launch.
Tesla’s smartphone app had several first-time mentions of the Optimus program, according to Tesla App Updates, who intially reported on the appearance. Here’s what they found:
A Dedicated “Robot” Phone Key Authentication
Tesla is working on a Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, authentication that is specifically for robots. This does not only apply to Optimus, though, as Robotaxi, which is Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing platform, might also identify vehicles within the fleet as robots as well.
Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont
Essentially, pairing your phone as a key to anything Tesla identifies as a robot to a “whitelist” of authorized devices. Optimus, Robotaxi, or other products that fall into this category will only respond if the device trying to communicate with it is authorized.
This is a great security feature that will eliminate at least face-value and low-level threats.
Home Data Collection and System Alerts
This appears to be somewhat of a neural network for Optimus within your house. There will be a dedicated screen that asks for consent to collect both video and spatial data while Optimus performs in-home tasks. Everything from vacuuming, washing dishes, dusting, and other activities will be tracked.
There will also be a comprehensive alert system that will track everything from low battery to mechanical issues.
Other Changes
Most of the changes tracked in this particular app update are related to Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, and include things such as image assets for new features, a preview of the new custom wraps feature, and other unique features.
You can check out our coverage on what is included with the 2026 Summer Update here:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever
