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SpaceX’s highly reusable Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket targets early May debut

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SpaceX has confirmed that its next-generation Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket will debut in early May, according to statements from Bangabandhu project director Md Mesbahuzzaman.

This slight shift from late April to early May follows shortly after an email interview SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell gave to AviationWeek, where she confirmed that Bangabandhu-1 would in fact be launched by the first Block 5 Falcon 9 booster and sketched out a rough outline of the highly-reusable rocket’s future.

“US company SpaceX, who will put Bangabandhu-1 into orbit, has sent us a letter confirming the new [May 4] schedule.”

While Shotwell largely rehashed previously-known information about the next-generation  Falcon 9, she reiterated features expected to debut with Block 5, including a bolted (rather than welded) octaweb structure, retractable landing legs, titanium grid fins, and an upgraded thermal protection system, as well as “upgraded…operational capability of components across the board.”

Most importantly, Shotwell confirmed that the thermal protection system upgrades have already been flight-tested on Falcon 9 Block 4, seven boosters of which were produced. Aside from B1044, which was sadly expended with the launch of Hispasat 30W-6 due to bad weather in the Atlantic, six of those seven have already flown, five of those six were recovered after launch, and two of those five recovered boosters have since completed a second mission.

The final Block 4 booster is expected to complete a static fire test on Wednesday at Cape Canaveral’s LC-40 pad, ahead of the launch of NASA’s TESS, an exoplanet surveyor. Excitingly, TESS’ launch is expected to feature what will likely be the first drone ship landing attempt in nearly six months. The last drone ship landing occurred in October 2017. Success is presumed due to Falcon 9 Block 4’s flawless history of booster recovery, and strengthened the relatively lightweight payload the rocket will be tasked with launching. After months of down-time, Of Course I Still Love You and its famous Octagrabber (Roomba) companion may well get their first taste of rocket recovery in far too long.

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OCISLY and Octagrabber spied on March 20 by Reddit user 360_forever. (Reddit /u/360_forever)

If all goes smoothly leading up to its launch, the first Falcon 9 Block 5 will also find itself aboard OCISLY just three weeks later, after a (fingers crossed) successful launch of the 3700 kg Bangabandhu-1 geostationary communications satellite.

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

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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 eyes two new states for Robotaxi

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Credit: @TerrapinTerpene/X

Tesla has officially shown that it is eyeing two new states for Robotaxi operation in the U.S., as it hopes to add the new areas to its ever-growing list of places where the suite is either active or in the testing phase.

Tesla first launched its Robotaxi suite in Austin, Texas, in late June. It expanded the suite to the San Francisco Bay Area just a month later. Since then, it has not launched any public rides in any other states, but it has gained several approvals for early testing.

Tesla officially launches Robotaxi service with no driver

In preparation for operation in new states, Tesla routinely lists job postings on its Careers website, which helps align potential employees with opportunities ahead of regulatory approvals. This is a strategy that allows Tesla to start operations immediately upon licensing for testing.

Tesla started hiring Vehicle Operators for Autopilot in Arizona and Nevada months before the company gained any sort of approvals from state governments for Robotaxi. However, those approvals eventually came in the form of testing licenses, which allow the company to perform validation ahead of its public launch.

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Tesla begins validating Robotaxi in a new area, hinting at expansion

Now, Tesla has posted job listings for Vehicle Operators for Autopilot in two new states: Colorado and Illinois. The Colorado job listing is located in Aurora, a suburb of Denver. Tesla is looking for Robotaxi operators in Chicago as well.

These postings hint toward Tesla’s continuing efforts to expand Robotaxi to new places. Earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk said the company would like to have Robotaxi available to at least half of the U.S. population.

It has expanded significantly since its initial launch in late June, but it is still a far way off from where Tesla would like it to be by year’s end.

So far, Tesla has job listings for Autopilot Vehicle Operators in Arizona, California, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Nevada, and Illinois.

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Tesla launched an ad for Elon Musk’s pay package on Paramount+

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s advertising strategy has taken a drastic turn as the company’s upcoming Shareholder Meeting will feature perhaps the most crucial vote in its history: the approval of CEO Elon Musk’s new pay package.

For years, the issue of Tesla’s advertising and marketing strategy has been a major point of conversation for investors in fans. It seems to be split right down the middle, with half wanting Tesla to set aside some money for advertising. The other half, just the opposite.

Tesla has been transparent that the money it would spend on advertising, marketing, and public relations is better set aside for the development of future products.

However, it has recently adopted a different tone in advertising, pushing some commercials on social media platforms like X and Instagram.

For the first time, an ad was seen on streaming services like Paramount+, but it wasn’t promoting Tesla’s products directly. Instead, it was more of a message for shareholders to vote on Musk’s pay package, something Tesla feels is a necessity:

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“The future of Tesla is in your hands,” the ad reads at the end. It seems as if Tesla is taking whatever steps it needs to accomplish the task of getting Musk a new pay package and retaining him as its CEO.

On September 5, Tesla officially outlined its plans for a CEO Performance Award for Musk. It would require him to lift Tesla’s market capitalization to about $8.5 trillion, up from the $1.36 trillion it sits at today.

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Elon Musk’s new pay plan ties trillionaire status to Tesla’s $8.5 trillion valuation

It is obvious that Tesla is really hoping to get the pay package passed and is willing to shift some of its budget to encourage shareholders to vote.

However, there are some interesting perspectives on the move, and it’s sort of strange to see Tesla not advertising its vehicles or products, but only its pay package that would get its CEO paid.

Some of those who saw the ad are questioning the strategy:

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Tesla Robotaxi testing in Arizona is ramping up quickly

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is validating Robotaxi in a new area, and as the company has continued to gain some additional permissions to begin testing in new states, it seems its Full Self-Driving-based ride-hailing project is moving toward a larger footprint.

Two Robotaxi units with LiDAR validation equipment were spotted in Gilbert, Arizona, recently, showing that Tesla is aiming to launch its ride-hailing service in the state soon:

Another unit was spotted in Tempe, Arizona:

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These types of validation vehicles have been spotted in several areas ahead of their launch as a public ride-hailing service for passengers. Tesla first launched Robotaxi in Austin, Texas, back in late June, and since then, it has expanded to the Bay Area of California.

However, Tesla has continued to attempt to expand Robotaxi to other areas as well, including Nevada and Arizona. It has also been working toward approvals in other states based on job postings, as Tesla is hiring for Autopilot Vehicle Operators in New York and Florida, as well.

The expansion of the Robotaxi ride-hailing service has been an effort that Tesla has been spending a lot of time on over the past few months. CEO Elon Musk said the expansion aims to bring Robotaxi to at least half of the U.S. population by the end of the year, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

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Tesla Robotaxi heads to a new major Texas city for the first time

Tesla did make its Robotaxi app public in recent months, allowing more members of the public to experience the suite for themselves, as long as they could get to Austin or the Bay Area.

In the coming months, it seems more apparent that Tesla will take a broader focus on expanding Robotaxi, especially with the fact that these validation vehicles are being spotted throughout different parts of the United States.

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