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SpaceX shifts Falcon 9 booster from landing pad to drone ship after anomaly
SpaceX officially confirmed that it will move the location of a Falcon 9 booster’s post-launch recovery in order to better preserve the site of Crew Dragon’s catastrophic April 20th failure.
Instead of returning the booster to one of SpaceX’s two Cape Canaveral Landing Zones (LZs), SpaceX has applied for an FCC permit to land the rocket less than 20 miles (~30 km) off the coast of Florida on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY). The culprit for the last-second change of plans is a catastrophic failure of Crew Dragon that spread debris throughout SpaceX’s Landing Zone facilities, debris that will now be critical for the process of anomaly resolution. Landing a Falcon 9 booster at LZ-1 or 2 would invariably spread Crew Dragon’s debris and complicate the failure investigation even further.
Much like a tornado passing through a crime scene would likely hamper the value of that crime scene and any related investigations, a Falcon 9 booster landing at the scene of a fresh accident investigation would be an extremely unwelcome complication. Even with just one Merlin 1D engine firing during a Falcon 9’s landing burn, the engine exhaust departs the nozzle traveling approximately 2.7 km/s (1.7 mi/s) and could easily send Crew Dragon remnants hundreds or even thousands of feet away and incinerate smaller debris. Given that Crew Dragon’s explosion appears to have been highly energetic, many, many pieces will already be spread many hundreds – and perhaps thousands – of feet around the incident.
Crew Dragon is an extremely complex spacecraft. Even the tiniest of fragments could potentially be critical to the successful completion of the explosion investigation, especially if the fault began somewhere in capsule C201’s many hundreds of feet of plumbing. The pipes, valves, and pumps that make up Crew Dragon’s propellant management system have many hundreds (if not thousands) of small parts that must work without issue to safely pressurize and handle the spacecraft’s hypergolic propellant.
Cargo Dragon set for launch
Despite Crew Dragon’s serious failure and the need to change Falcon 9’s booster recovery plans at the last moment, SpaceX still appears to be working to maintain the planned launch date. The instantaneous window is set for 4:22 am ET (08:22 UTC), April 30th, delayed five days from the original April 25th target. Based on an update provided by NASA last week, those delays are the result of International Space Station (ISS) scheduling and additional time needed for payload preparations. Orbital-ATK’s (now “Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems” or NGIS) uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft successfully berthed with the ISS on April 19th, followed by the station’s astronauts unloading the three metric tons of cargo it contained over the next several days.
Once Cygnus operations have been completed, the ISS astronauts will be able to start preparing for Cargo Dragon’s CRS-17 resupply mission, likely carrying another three or four metric tons of pressurized cargo. Although the logistics of unloading, unpacking, and stowing the contents of hundreds of packages of consumables, hardware, tools, science experiments, and more is not exactly thrilling, the reality is that the task takes a surprising amount of time and care. Of the maximum six astronauts aboard the ISS at any given moment, only a few of them are able to focus exclusively on the cargo logistics at the same time as time-sensitive science experiments must be immediately set up to avoid ruining the data produced. Furthermore, although the ISS is truly massive, there are only a handful of berthing and docking ports and the actual habitable volume can be cramped, as are the ports between the station and visiting spacecraft.
An unknown Falcon 9 booster – perhaps B1056 – will perform a routine static fire test at SpaceX Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) five or so days before launch, likely within the next 48 hours. Soon after, Falcon 9 will be mated with CRS-17’s flight-proven Cargo Dragon capsule and expendable trunk before rolling back out to LC-40. If the FCC works fast and grants SpaceX’s updated booster recovery license in the next few days, CRS-17 should remain on track for an April 30th launch.
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Tesla has started to deploy the 2026 Summer Update to owners across its fleet, and among the biggest changes are improvements to Navigation, a new startup animation for the Model 3 and Model Y, Caraoke scoring, and new capabilities for Grok.
As the update has started making its way to some cars, we can now see a few of the features operating in real-time. We will show you what some of the new features look like in this article, along with some additional details on what changed.
Not all of the new features in the 2026 Summer Update have quite made an appearance, but some of them have, so we’ll show those here:
New Animation Screen for 3/Y
Tesla is rolling out a new startup animation for Tesla Model 3 and Model Y owners. This is present in Launch Edition and Performance Model 3 and Model Y, but other trim levels do not have anything like this.
The new animation screen on Model 3/Y with the 2026 Summer Update
Apparently color will also be customizable: pic.twitter.com/wSdwggtG3S
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 27, 2026
Owners can adjust the color associated with the startup animation to suit their preferences. It is a surprise that more automakers do not focus on this animation for their vehicles; it can be a great first impression piece and make the car immediately feel more luxurious.
Tesla has included this on more premium trims, but it is nice to see it on the Model 3 and Model Y.
Grok Improvements
Grok can now adjust more things in the car outside of the Navigation system. Now, drivers can adjust anything from climate to driving settings by simply speaking to the AI assistant in the car:
@Tesla‘s AI assistant (Grok) with its new vehicle commands in action.
Set the climate, your destination and vehicle settings all in one go! pic.twitter.com/0bBTqaAk6G
— Not a Tesla App (@NotATeslaApp) July 28, 2026
You don’t even have to push a button, either. Instead, you can just say “Hey, Grok,” if you have it enabled. That feature rolled out with the 2026 Spring Update just a few months back.
This is a great feature, especially pertinent for the Robotaxi platform, as there will be no buttons inside the Cybercab when it eventually starts giving rides to the public. It also broadens Grok’s capabilities, which were relatively limited in terms of vehicle setting adjustments beforehand.
Tesla briefly offered one Robotaxi part in its Parts Catalog for your personal car, only to remove it just a short time after it was first noticed.
Tesla’s Robotaxi camera washer apparatus was briefly available for purchase on the company’s Online Parts Catalog. The camera washer was first noticed on Model Y Robotaxi vehicles about six months ago in Austin.
🚨 Tesla looks to have installed Camera Washers on the side repeater cameras on Robotaxis in Austin
pic.twitter.com/xemRtDtlRR— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 23, 2026
First noticed by Not a Tesla App, the Camera Washer entries appeared for the new “Juniper” Model Y under a category called “Halo,” which has also now disappeared. Interestingly, Halo probably is related to Tesla’s internal “Project Halo,” which was a project that aimed to retrofit customer-owned Model Ys into functional Robotaxis.
This hardware addition would likely be required for the vehicle to operate as a Robotaxi, as the Camera Washer seems to be a non-negotiable part of the vision-based system Tesla utilizes for self-driving efforts.
However, this part has since been removed and is no longer visible on the EPC.
Now the true question lingers: Why would Tesla add this Camera Washer to the Model Y parts catalog? Is it planning to make it available for owners to utilize on their own cars for personal use, or will it become a prerequisite for Robotaxi operation in customer-owned cars?
While discussing the upgrade options for Hardware 3 vehicles during the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had said that the company could establish small, satellite shops that would upgrade cameras and self-driving computers. Perhaps this same strategy could be utilized for vehicles that want to be included in Robotaxi but do not have the correct hardware.
AI4 is currently represented as capable of unsupervised self-driving, and the same was said about HW3 at one point, only for Tesla to admit last quarter that it would, unfortunately, not be possible. Perhaps AI4 vehicles might need this camera washer as a prerequisite, just as HW3 cars will need that camera and computer upgrade.
This could be the first hint of that’s where we are headed.
Tesla has started rolling out a broader change to the ride experience for its Robotaxi fleet by silencing turn signals, but the change is certainly polarizing.
Tesla has generally made it clear that its purpose-built ride-hailing platform, Robotaxi, will cater to the rider in nearly every way possible. This includes having climate preferences, music, and other personal settings loaded up in the car as the rider enters.
But Tesla is taking it a step further by muting turn signal chimes altogether, a change that appears to be a way to make the ride more peaceful:
Tesla has finally turned off the blinker/turn signal noises in their Model Y Robotaxis.
This is a small update, but will definitely be noticeable for riders. It didn’t really make much sense to leave the turn signal sound on when it’s Unsupervised. pic.twitter.com/ITwx60PAMO
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 27, 2026
However, there are a handful of people who are not thrilled about this change. Turn signals are a conditioned part of the human mind for those who ride in a car regularly.
Taking a turn without one feels strange and odd, and not hearing it click while activated could set off some alarms for riders, who might use the noise as confirmation that other drivers know of their intention to turn.
I kind of like it being on, threw me off when riding with Zoox who has had it disabled
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) July 27, 2026
Turn signal noises are still audible in customer cars, so if you use FSD in your personal vehicle, you will still hear the turn signal.
The move is certainly one that is unique, but not one that separates it from other ride-sharing services. In a normal car, the clicking sound confirms to the driver that the blinker is active. In a fully driverless Robotaxi, that feedback serves no purpose for passengers, other than peace of mind.
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
Tesla briefly offered this Robotaxi part for your personal car
