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SpaceX Falcon 9 booster returns to port on upgraded drone ship
Upgraded SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG) returned to Port Canaveral on Tuesday, August 31st after a flawless inaugural Falcon 9 booster landing.
In a pleasant coincidence, the brand new drone ship was greeted by an even newer member of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet, which had arrived just hours before after bidding farewell to the Louisiana port it was upgraded at the week prior. Named after Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, the NASA astronauts that helmed Crew Dragon on its crewed orbital launch debut, Doug was the first to arrive and reached its Port Canaveral berth around 9pm EDT on August 30th. Returning to port with a rocket on board for the first time, drone ship ASOG berthed beside Doug just 12 hours later.
Side by side, ASOG and Doug effectively represent the next evolution of at-sea recovery for SpaceX, a company famous for continuously striving for improvement and optimization.
Notably, confirmed unequivocally by a SpaceX engineer during NASA’s CRS-23 pre-launch briefing, a mission that was also ASOG’s very first, the drone ship has been designed to navigate to the correct position, precisely station-keep during landing, secure the landed booster, and transport that booster back to port “completely autonomously.” Up to now, every one of SpaceX’s 76 at-sea landing attempts to date has required a tugboat to tow the drone ship to the recovery zone and a second ship (usually GO Quest or NRC Quest) to support the crew of SpaceX technicians that maintain the drone ship, fix problems, and secure landed boosters.
In 2017, SpaceX improved those procedures to a degree and debuted a robot known as Octagrabber on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY). Designed to remotely grab the same Falcon booster ‘hold-down’ hardpoints used by the launch pad, Octagrabber allows SpaceX’s recovery team to remain safe aboard their support ship, avoiding the undeniable danger of working in close proximity to a sliding 25 ton (~50,000 lb) object in all but the worst conditions.
While Octagrabber has undeniably been a boon for the recovery crew, all SpaceX ocean recoveries since have still required tugboats and a crew support ship. Now, thanks to unspecified upgrades, SpaceX believes that A Shortfall of Gravitas will be able to recover Falcon boosters with zero human intervention. It’s likely that SpaceX will still need to arrange a tugboat and pilot to take ASOG to and from the mouth of Port Canaveral and humans will certainly still be involved in the process of retracting landing legs and lifting boosters off the drone ship, but what SpaceX proposes would still be a major upgrade.
However, perhaps the biggest hurdle for SpaceX to operate truly autonomous drone ships will be securing regulatory approval to do so. Perhaps anticipating that gap between technical and legal readiness, SpaceX has bought two new support ships – Bob and Doug – outright. Set to be the largest traditional ships in SpaceX’s fleet, Bob and Doug appear to be designed to do it all. Each outfitted with a large crane and winch, both ships should be able to recover Falcon fairings, tow drone ships, and host crews of technicians (if needed). Additionally, they appear to have space for a helipad and could potentially be modified to triple as Dragon recovery assets.
In other words, even if it takes a while before ASOG and Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) are able to operate autonomously, Bob and Doug should feasibly allow SpaceX to save money on recovery operations by combining fairing recovery, tugboat, and crew support roles into one vessel.
Tesla flexed the new features of the Model Y L with a dedicated media event at the company’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The Model Y L is the extended-wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover, which has been voted the best-selling car in the world on three occasions. The vehicle is already rolling off production lines at Gigafactory Texas, and first deliveries are slated to take place later this year.
Tesla brings Model Y L ‘Launch Series’ to the U.S. at $61,990
Teslarati was invited to the event, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we could not make it to Los Angeles. Instead, we will have our hands on a media unit sometime in August, so we’ll be able to spend some more extended time with the Model Y L.
However, plenty of those who made it to LA shared some cool features that set the Model Y L apart from the Model Y.
Multi-Row Climate Control
Tesla fitted the Model Y L with full climate control on all three rows on the front screen. It can be adjusted by selecting which row you’d like to modify on the right-hand side of the touch screen:
The Model Y L has a little row of icons on the right side of the climate screen so the front passenger can more quickly jump to whatever row they want to control. pic.twitter.com/uJS44mgCvk
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 30, 2026
Better Rear Window Visibility
One of the strangest things about the Model Y, especially the Juniper iteration, is the rear window has extremely limited visibility when looking into the rearview mirror.
Tesla has improved upon this with the Model Y L:
This is a drastic difference. https://t.co/wTdhitD5aA pic.twitter.com/z6hFs0Jkss
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2026
PowerShare will be included
Model Y L will come with PowerShare in North America, with an 11.5kW output to your home. Tesla said it would require Powerwall 3 for operation.
Wireless Charging Pad
There has been some speculation that Tesla would upgrade the wireless charging pads in the United States, but this is not the case.
Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit
Tesla confirmed that it does not come with the cooled pads as the Y L in China does. This is because North America has not adopted Qi charging yet.
Thermal Management Improvements
These improvements in the Model Y L were seen with thermal management:
- Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
- +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather, 7 miles of real-world range gained
- 8x more solar energy reflection off of glass roof
- 30% reduction in solar energy entering the cabin
Some of the thermal management improvements in the new Model Y L Premium:
• Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
• Up to 15 min faster cabin cooling in sunny conditions
• +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather +7 miles of real-world range gained
• +10 miles recovered after… pic.twitter.com/jZirFWFdtO— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 31, 2026
Demand
Tesla said the Model Y L is almost sold out in the U.S. It comes with
- 1 year of FSD Supervised
- 1 year of Supercharging
- 1 year of Premium Connectivity
- Free exterior paint color, interior, and wheel option at no additional cost
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to his social media platform X on Thursday night to deny a ridiculous rumor regarding the sale of the company’s Chinese vehicle production plant, Gigafactory Shanghai.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, claimed in a scathing new report that Tesla was exploring a potential sale of the entire China business in an effort to help bolster a potential merger between SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk immediately denied the rumor not once but twice, initially calling it “fake news,” and then calling it “absurdly fake news” in a separate post just a few moments later:
This is fake news
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026
The original poster of the Wall Street Journal article that Musk saw deleted the initial post sharing the headline and the rumored sale of Tesla’s China business.
This has never even come up in a discussion ever.
Absurdly fake news.
People should assume news is fake until proven otherwise.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2026
The report seemed absolutely and unequivocally false to begin with; Tesla’s business in China is among the most important pieces of the company’s business. Not only does the factory supply vehicles for the domestic market, but also for various other markets in Asia and Europe.
China is also one of the largest automotive markets in the world, and Tesla has performed well there despite the robust competition.
The speculation regarding a Tesla and SpaceX merger has started to gain steam this year as the space exploration company went public just a month ago. There has been speculation that Musk will bridge all of his companies under one “umbrella company,” and analysts believe this could happen before the end of the decade.
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
This is the latest iteration of Musk’s very evident war on mainstream media. Reports regarding any of Musk’s companies are quick to get the dreaded “false” or “fake news” response from the CEO when they are unfounded.
Elon Musk
Tesla AI boss reveals how big Optimus is going to get
Tesla’s Optimus chief corrected himself on X, confirming a staggering 10 million robot production target.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus program has a new number attached to it, after Ashok Elluswamy, the executive who has run the humanoid robot program since June 2025, posted a three word correction on X Thursday, “Correction, 10 million robots.”
The line clarifies the long term annual capacity Tesla is building toward its planned second Optimus production line at Gigafactory Texas, a figure Musk has cited repeatedly since last year’s shareholder meeting.
The scale is worth noting, because ten million robots a year would mean Tesla building more units annually than most countries sell in new cars. Tesla has framed this as a second line, not the first. The buildout is happening in two phases: a roughly one million unit per year line inside Tesla’s Fremont factory, installed on the floor space vacated when Model S and Model X production ended earlier this year, and a much larger dedicated facility under construction at Giga Texas that broke ground on its first steel structure in May. That Texas facility is the one Elluswamy’s correction refers to, and is expected to reach volume production sometime in 2027.
Correction, 10 million robots https://t.co/0z4nyQNTzp
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) July 30, 2026
Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress
Elluswamy took over Optimus from Milan Kovac last summer and has spent the months since talking up the program’s trajectory. Elon Musk has also floated the ten million figure at Tesla’s 2025 shareholder meeting.
Ending Model S and Model X production to make room for the first Optimus line was one of the more consequential manufacturing decisions in the company’s recent history, retiring two flagship vehicles in favor of a robot that has yet to enter mass production. Musk has previously estimated per unit production costs at $20,000 to $25,000 once Tesla reaches a million units a year, though he hasn’t said what that cost looks like at ten times the volume.
Tesla Model Y L’s new features flexed at unveiling event at Diner
Tesla CEO Elon Musk denies ridiculous Gigafactory Shanghai rumor
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner-80x80.jpg)
