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SpaceX Falcon 9 booster fires up ahead of NASA launch and surprise drone ship landing

Falcon 9 B1048 lands aboard drone ship OCISLY after its fourth successful launch. In a surprise, SpaceX's next launch is now also expected to feature a drone ship recovery. (SpaceX)

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SpaceX has successfully fired up a new rocket ahead of what is now believed to be a surprise Falcon 9 booster drone ship landing, to follow shortly after the company’s upcoming CRS-19 Cargo Dragon resupply mission for NASA.

Around 5:30 pm EST (22:30 UTC) on November 26th, a Falcon 9 rocket – featuring a rare unflown booster – successfully performed a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and ignited all nine of its first age Merlin 1D engines, verifying the rocket’s health and perfectly simulating a launch right up to the point of liftoff. With that routine static fire complete, SpaceX now has a luxurious seven days to bring the rocket horizontal, roll it back into LC-40’s integration and processing hangar, install Cargo Dragon atop the second stage, and roll the fully-integrated rocket back out to the launch mount.

According to NASASpaceflight.com reporter Michael Baylor, SpaceX decided to swap boosters, moving Falcon 9 B1056.3 to a commercial satellite mission and assigning B1059.1 to Cargo Dragon’s NASA CRS-19 resupply mission. Prior to visual confirmation of this shift, NASA and SpaceX had indicated interest in flying Block 5 booster B1056 for a third time after it successfully completed its second launch and landing for NASA on July 25th, 2019. That would have been the first time NASA certified a twice-flown SpaceX booster to launch a NASA mission, a critical step along the path to making booster reuse routine – even for SpaceX’s highest-profile customers.

Instead, B1056.3 is now scheduled to launch the Kacific-1/JCSAT-18 commsat no earlier than December 15th, while CRS-19 is scheduled to lift off at 12:51 pm EST (17:51 UTC) on December 4th. As with most other missions designed to quickly rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS), CRS-19’s launch window is effectively instantaneous, meaning that any issue during the countdown or day-of preparations will force a ~24-hour recycle.

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Aside from it being unclear why exactly NASA, SpaceX, or both parties decided against launching B1056 for the third time on CRS-19, the mission features another minor mystery. Instead of using the performance left over from such a light launch to low Earth orbit (LEO) to return the booster to launch site (RTLS) and land at SpaceX’s LZ-1/2 landing pads, it appears that Falcon 9 B1059 will attempt to land aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY).

Since April 2016, SpaceX has only once intentionally recovered Falcon 9 by sea after a Cargo Dragon launch. That particularly recovery occurred during CRS-17 in May 2019, just a few weeks after Crew Dragon capsule DM-1 catastrophically exploded just prior to an attempted static fire test located adjacent to LZ-1/2. That explosion littered the area with evidence, precluding Falcon 9’s planned LZ-1 recovery in the same way that a police helicopter would likely try to avoid landing directly on top of an active crime scene. In that case, extraordinary attenuating circumstances were required before SpaceX redirected a CRS launch’s booster recovery to a drone ship.

Seemingly lacking similarly extraordinary circumstances, it remains to be seen whether SpaceX or NASA will offer an explanation for the unexpected change in plans. On the plus side, an unexpected Falcon 9 drone ship landing also means an unexpected Port Canaveral return, which should offer increasingly rare views of a once-flown Falcon 9 booster.

Routinely reusable spacecraft

As expected, CRS-19 will become the second orbital launch of a twice-flown Cargo Dragon capsule, flexing SpaceX’s reusability muscles in the much less forgiving realm of orbital spacecraft. On July 25th, CRS-18 became the first such mission to reuse a twice-flown spacecraft, leaving SpaceX with several additional twice-flown Cargo Dragon capsules as the only plausible options for its remaining three CRS1 missions.

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SpaceX says that CRS-19’s Cargo Dragon capsule previously flew CRS-4 (Sept 2014) and CRS-11 (June 2017), identifying it as capsule C106. As it turns out, C106 supported SpaceX’s first Cargo Dragon capsule reuse, making it a fairly historic vehicle – the first commercial orbital spacecraft reused in history. Beginning with CRS-3, Dragon 1 vehicles were designed to support up to three orbital missions each, leaving SpaceX with four possible capsules (C110-C113) capable of supporting CRS-20, Dragon 1’s last planned launch.

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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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SpaceX weighs Nasdaq listing as company explores early index entry: report

The company is reportedly seeking early inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 index.

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Credit: SpaceX/X

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly leaning toward listing its shares on the Nasdaq for a potential initial public offering (IPO) that could become the largest in history. 

As per a recent report, the company is reportedly seeking early inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 index. The update was reported by Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the publication, SpaceX is considering Nasdaq as the venue for its eventual IPO, though the New York Stock Exchange is also competing for the listing. Neither exchange has reportedly been informed of a final decision.

Reuters has previously reported that SpaceX could pursue an IPO as early as June, though the company’s plans could still change.

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One of the publication’s sources also suggested that SpaceX is targeting a valuation of about $1.75 trillion for its IPO. At that level, the company would rank among the largest publicly traded firms in the United States by market capitalization.

Nasdaq has proposed a rule change that could accelerate the inclusion of newly listed megacap companies into the Nasdaq-100 index.

Under the proposed “Fast Entry” rule, a newly listed company could qualify for the index in less than a month if its market capitalization ranks among the top 40 companies already included in the Nasdaq-100.

If SpaceX is successful in achieving its target valuation of $1.75 trillion, it would become the sixth-largest company by market value in the United States, at least based on recent share prices. 

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Newly listed companies typically have to wait up to a year before becoming eligible for major indexes such as the Nasdaq-100 or S&P 500.

Inclusion in a major index can significantly broaden a company’s shareholder base because many institutional investors purchase shares through index-tracking funds.

According to Reuters, Nasdaq’s proposed fast-track rule is partly intended to attract highly valued private companies such as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic to list on the exchange.

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The Boring Company’s Prufrock-2 emerges after completing new Vegas Loop tunnel

The new tunnel measures 2.28 miles, making it the company’s longest single Vegas Loop tunnel to date.

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Credit: The Boring Company/X

The Boring Company announced that its Prufrock-2 tunnel boring machine (TBM) has completed another Vegas Loop tunnel in Las Vegas. The company shared the update in a post on social media platform X.

According to The Boring Company’s post, the new tunnel measures 2.28 miles, making it the company’s longest single Vegas Loop tunnel to date.

The new tunnel marks the fourth tunnel constructed near Westgate Las Vegas as the Vegas Loop network continues expanding across the city.

The Boring Company also noted that the new tunnel surpassed its previous internal record of 2.26 miles for a single Vegas Loop segment.

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Construction of the tunnel involved moving roughly 68,000 cubic yards of dirt. The excavation process also used about 4.8 miles of continuous conveyor belt, powered by six motors totaling 825 horsepower.

The Boring Company’s Prufrock-series all-electric tunnel boring machines are designed to support the rapid expansion of company’s underground transportation projects, including the growing Vegas Loop network. Prufrock machines are designed for reusability, thanks in no small part to their capability to be deployed and retrieved easily through their “porposing” feature.

The Vegas Loop, specifically the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) Loop segment, has already been used during major events. Most recently, the LVCC Loop supported the 2026 CONEXPO-CON/AGG construction trade show, which was held from March 3-7, 2026. 

As per The Boring Company, the LVCC Loop transported roughly 82,000 passengers across the convention center campus during the event’s duration. 

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CONEXPO-CON/AGG is one of the largest construction trade shows in North America, drawing more than 140,000 construction professionals from 128 countries this year.

The LVCC Loop forms the initial segment of the broader Vegas Loop network, which remains under active development as The Boring Company continues building new tunnels throughout the city.

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Tesla gathers Cybercab fleet in Gigafactory Texas

Images and video of the Cybercab fleet were shared by longtime Giga Texas observer Joe Tegtmeyer in posts on social media platform X.

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Credit: Credit: @JoeTegtmeyer/X

Tesla appears to be assembling a growing number of Cybercabs at Gigafactory Texas as preparations continue for the vehicle’s mass production. Recent footage shared online has shown over 30 Cybercabs being transported by trucks or staged near testing areas at the facility.

The images and video were shared by longtime Giga Texas observer and drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer in posts on social media platform X.

Interestingly enough, Tegtmeyer noted that many of the Cybercabs being loaded onto transport trucks were still equipped with steering wheels. This suggests that the vehicles are likely testing units rather than the final driverless configuration expected for the company’s Robotaxi service.

The vehicles could potentially be headed to testing sites across the United States as Tesla prepares to expand its Robotaxi fleet.

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Additional footage captured at Gigafactory Texas also showed the Cybercab’s side and rear camera washer system operating as vehicles were being loaded onto transport trucks.

The growing number of Cybercabs at Giga Texas comes amidst the company’s announcement that the first production Cybercab has been produced at the facility. Full Cybercab production is expected to begin in April.

The vehicle is expected to play a central role in Tesla’s Robotaxi ambitions as the company looks to expand autonomous ride-hailing operations beyond its early deployments using Model Y vehicles.

Tesla has also linked Cybercab production to its proposed Unboxed manufacturing process, which assembles large vehicle modules separately before integrating them. The approach is intended to reduce production costs and accelerate output.

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Musk has also noted that the Cybercab’s ramp will likely begin slowly due to the number of new components and manufacturing steps involved. However, he stated that once the process matures, Cybercab production could scale quickly.

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