Connect with us

News

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches second batch of 40 OneWeb satellites

Published

on

SpaceX has successfully completed its second launch for OneWeb, carrying another 40 of the London-based company’s small communications satellites into orbit.

Similar to SpaceX’s own Starlink constellation, OneWeb’s primary goal is to serve internet to customers almost anywhere on Earth, particularly in places where traditional high-bandwidth connectivity is currently unavailable or unlikely to ever be available.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s (CCSFS) LC-40 pad at 11:50 pm EST on Monday, January 9th. The rocket performed perfectly, extending Falcon 9’s record-breaking streak to 168 launches since its last failure. No rocket in history has launched more times between failures. Flying for the second time in 44 days, Falcon 9 booster B1076 supported the boost phase of OneWeb’s 16th launch; lifting the payload, fairing, and an expendable Falcon upper stage most of the way out of Earth’s atmosphere.

A spectacular long-exposure photo of Falcon 9’s OneWeb F16 launch, return, and landing. (Richard Angle)

Traveling about 3800 miles per hour (1.7 kilometers per second) at an altitude of 70 kilometers (44 mi), B1076 separated from the upper stage and boosted back to the Florida coast. Measuring around 48 meters (160 ft) tall and 3.2 meters (6 ft) wide, the Falcon 9 first stage gently touched down a few miles from where it lifted off at SpaceX’s LZ-1 landing pad. According to Next Spaceflight, B1076 will be converted into a Falcon Heavy side booster to support EchoStar’s Jupiter 3 communications satellite launch as early as May 2023.

Advertisement

Once in orbit, Falcon 9’s expendable upper stage was tasked with deploying 40 new OneWeb satellites in batches of three, wrapping up around 95 minutes after liftoff (1:25 am EST/06:25 UTC). Assuming all F16 satellites are healthy, OneWeb will have 540 working satellites in orbit. OneWeb needs 588 satellites in orbit to achieve full, global coverage with zero spares. Including spares, OneWeb plans to pause launches once 648 satellites are in orbit. The company has permission from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch up to 716 first-generation satellites.

OneWeb has plans for three more launches after F16, which is SpaceX’s second launch for the company. F16 and F18 will also launch on Falcon 9 rockets, while F17 will rely on India’s LVM 3 (GSLV Mk3) rocket. The constellation should be completed by mid-2023.

Falcon 9 produced an arrow-like streak in this long-exposure of SpaceX’s OneWeb F16 launch. (Richard Angle)
B1076 roars off the launch pad. (Richard Angle)

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.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla just told us twice that Model Y L is coming to the U.S.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla just told us twice that the Model Y L is coming to the U.S., and two social media posts definitely just tipped the company’s hand, as if they wanted it to be any other way.

The two social media posts basically confirm that the slightly longer version of the Model Y will be heading to the United States soon, and many have speculated that the company could launch the vehicle as soon as this weekend.

The first post was directly from Tesla, and it showed an incredibly long Dachshund, with words above that said, “Looking forward to the long weekend.”

Anyone who knows Tesla knows the company loves to troll its fans and have fun, and this is a perfect example of that. While not a direct acknowledgement, Tesla is very involved on social media, especially CEO Elon Musk’s platform X, and the company is well aware of what is being discussed within the community.

With recent sightings of Model Y L test mules in California, peeks of the vehicle at Giga Texas, and a large call for the car to come to the U.S., Tesla is simply stoking conversation with this.

However, the company also made another move that was recognized on social media. Tesla has a large gallery that includes photos of its products so media and others can use them. This gallery applies to the U.S. market specifically, unless otherwise specified.

Tesla uploaded a Model Y L to the Gallery last night:

This seems to be another indication that the Model Y L is coming to the United States.

Musk said last year that the Model Y L could make its way to the United States late this year, but it was not something that was set in stone by Tesla. The company definitely needs to establish something in the SUV market that is larger than the Model Y, and the Model Y L might be the answer.

Even still, there are consumers out there who would love Tesla to develop something even larger, like a competitor to the Tahoe or Expedition. Tesla has not really given much of an indication that it will go in that direction.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla is using vehicle microphones to improve build quality: here’s how

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla is using the vehicles’ internal microphones to improve build quality, Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy revealed recently.

It’s no secret that Tesla is always finding ways to make its manufacturing operations more efficient, accurate, and valuable. Constantly trying to make its cars better, the company has never placed any restrictions on what it will do to improve everything from panel gaps to paint.

As Teslas have been driving autonomously on the property of the Gigafactory Texas plant for a while now, Moravy revealed to Herbert Ong in a new interview that cars rolling off production lines now autonomously navigate themselves through a bumps, squeaks, and rattles (BSR) portion of the line. This helps to identify any loose or improperly installed internal parts.

The cabin’s microphones, which are used for a variety of things in ownership, simultaneously monitor any noises inside the vehicle while it rolls through the BSR portion of the production line. Moravy actually revealed that Tesla is trying to build “Full Self-Hearing,” an AI system that will detect minor imperfections so they can be corrected before delivery.

It’s no secret that build quality is something that Tesla struggled with as it scaled to a fully massive production operation that manufactures over 1.6 million vehicles per year. However, in recent years, especially, there have not been as many complaints. Tesla has truly improved upon its build quality and paint quality over the past several years, especially in the U.S.

Tesla’s ‘megacasts’ are key to massive build quality improvements

While those improvements have been evident, there are still some complaints; no automaker is perfect with this. But this step will now ensure that every single car that rolls off the production lines at Gigafactory Texas will be void of any creaks, squeaks, or squeals when it leaves the factory.

This measure is one of the most unique we’ve seen in terms of a strategy to avoid build quality issues, but it is not exclusive to Tesla.

Ford uses acoustic analysis AI to find abnormalities in seat motors, climate control units, and other components. Suppliers and OEMs will also use microphone arrays or particle velocity sensors in end-of-line stations.

The full interview with Lars Moravy is available below:

Continue Reading

Investor's Corner

Tesla crushes Wall Street expectations, beats delivery estimates by over 15 percent

Published

on

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) beat Wall Street expectations of 406,000 vehicles delivered in Q2 by reporting 480,126 deliveries for the three months ending in June.

Tesla reported it delivered 467,762  Model 3 and Model Y units, while 12,364 Model S, Model X, and Cybertrucks switched hands during the quarter. The Model S and Model X were officially sunset this past quarter and will no longer be part of the company’s Production & Delivery reports moving forward.

The quarter is a pleasant surprise and a good rebound from Q1, when Tesla slightly missed the Wall Street consensus of 365,645 cars by reporting 358,023 deliveries for the first three motnhs of the year.

Energy storage deployments also provided some strength in Tesla’s delivery report, hitting 13.5 GWh for Q2. This is a particular division of Tesla’s business that has been overwhelmingly robust over the past few years, truly being a strong point of the company’s overall model.

For the year, Tesla analysts still predict deliveries to trend in the 1.69 million unit region, a modest 3 to 5 percent increase from the 1.64 million cars the company delivered last year. Tesla will likely return to more sequential and noticeable year-over-year growth as the Cybercab project starts to ramp up considerably in the next few years.

Tesla has some other potential catalysts to spur vehicle deliveries, too. Not only is it expecting Cybercab to truly start making a change in the next few years, but other vehicles could be entering the company’s lineup.

Tesla sends production Cybercab with no steering wheel, pedals to on-road testing

The slightly longer Model Y L has been a highly speculated release candidate in the U.S. It has already done incredibly well in China, and U.S. buyers have been wanting slightly more interior space than the Model Y. Now that the Model X is gone, it is more needed than ever.

Q2 highlights a pretty stable automotive division within Tesla, and no true concerns arise from these figures, especially considering it managed to beat expectations convincingly.

Continue Reading