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SpaceX Falcon 9 briefly incinerates itself after another successful mission
SpaceX completes 16th launch of 2017, aims for at least 19 before year’s end
Following the successful separation of Koreasat 5A from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 second stage, the rocket company has completed its 16th flawless mission of 2017. Several launches still remain in the 2017 manifest, leaving SpaceX with as many as 20 successful launches this year if all goes as planned, and this bodes well for SpaceX’s 2018 goal of 30 or more missions.
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- Talented photographer Tom Cross documented the launch in person for Teslarati and produced some gorgeous shots. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
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- Plenty more to come! (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
Currently coasting in a comfortable geostationary transfer orbit after a wild ride aboard Falcon 9, the launch of Koreasat 5A exemplifies SpaceX’s ever-maturing expertise and comfort with rapid and routine launches and booster recoveries. Falcon 9 is also clearly maturing as a launch system, and has not suffered launch scrubs since the launch of Intelsat 35e in early July. Following first stage separation, Falcon 9 1042 made its way back to Earth and landed aboard Of Course I Still Love You, stationed approximately 350 miles off the East coast of Florida. This marks the 19th successful landing of a Falcon 9 first stage.
Despite suffering some apparently significant fire damage after the recovery of SES-11’s Falcon 9 earlier this month, OCISLY was repaired and sent back into action, performing admirably during its recovery of Koreasat 5A’s Falcon 9 core 1042. The booster may be less than thrilled, as it was captured on camera catching fire just after landing, potentially prematurely removing the possibility of future re-flights if the damage is too severe. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is effectively a controlled explosion powered by liquid oxidizer and refined kerosene, and boosters cant exactly be faulted for incinerating themselves and their surroundings every once and awhile, although SpaceX almost certainly strives to prevent major fires as much as possible.
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- What a beautiful day for a rocket landing! (SpaceX)
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- 1042’s propellant purge became increasingly toasty… (SpaceX)
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- And the booster finally got some respite from the fire, thanks to OCISLY’s water gun. (SpaceX)
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- Talented photographer Tom Cross documented the launch in person for Teslarati and produced some gorgeous shots. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
SpaceX’s largest customers buy into reusability
On top of another successful mission, the last week was accompanied by a flurry of revelations regarding SpaceX’s near-term plans. Earlier today, NASASpaceflight.com revealed information it was provided indicating that NASA has cleared Cargo Dragon missions for launch aboard recovered SpaceX rockets. This is an immensely important achievement that cannot be understated. NASA is SpaceX’s largest and most valuable customer, and SpaceX conducts an array of launches each year for the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services program.
While we wait for official confirmation from NASA itself, we can now look forward to at least two more Falcon 9 reuses in the final two months of 2017, both scheduled for launches in December. CRS-13, aiming for an early December launch, is now expected to use the same Falcon 9 booster that launched CRS-11 in June 2017. On the West coast, Iridium has also agreed to launch several NEXT missions aboard reused Falcon 9s, with the NEXT-4 mission now scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard the booster that helped lift the Iridium NEXT-2 payload in June 2017.
All things considered, this is an extraordinary accomplishment. In the first year of commercial reuse, SpaceX has already accomplished three successful missions aboard reused hardware, and is likely to make that five missions before the year is out. There is also a small chance that Falcon Heavy will launch later this year, itself composed of two refurbished boosters and one new booster. The future is looking undeniably bright for SpaceX’s program of rocket reusability.
Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).
Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.
“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”
Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12
Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.
It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”
Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.
There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:
“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”
SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.
Tesla has expanded the footprint of a massive safety feature worldwide with a recent Software Update labeled as 2026.20.6. The expansion of the “Blind Spot Warning While Parked” feature represents the more widespread availability of the feature, which aims to prevent “dooring.”
Dooring is when a driver or passenger opens a car door into the path of an oncoming road user, usually a cyclist or motorcyclist. It is among the most common types of cycling accidents, the League of American Bicyclists says.
For this reason, Tesla created a feature that warns occupants not to open the door because an object is approaching. The feature will sound a chime, and it will also delay the opening of the door to prevent an incident.
The release notes state (via Not a Tesla App):
“If you attempt to open a door while an approaching object is detected in your blind spot (for example, a bicyclist approaching from behind) a chime sounds, and your door will not open upon initial button press. Wait a short time and press the button a second time to override the warning.”
Tesla initially rolled out this feature back in 2024 with the Model 3 “Highland.” However, it remained with the Model 3 exclusively for over a year; that was until Tesla added it to the Cybertruck this past Spring.
Now, it is making its way to the new Model Y, 2021 and newer Model S, and 2021 or newer Model X.
The prevention of dooring incidents could eliminate many injuries to cyclists, especially in an urban setting. Dooring accounts for 10-20 percent of bike-related crashes in major cities, and over 17,000 dooring-related incidents were treated in the U.S. over the course of a decade. These usually involve fractures, contusions, and head trauma.
Tesla confirmed this morning that it has sent the first production units, manufactured with no steering wheel or pedals, to on-road testing in Austin, sharing video of the first rides with no human controls.
The lack of steering wheels and pedals in the Cybercab aligns with Tesla’s self-certification of Robotaxi as Level 4 SAE, a platform it plans to make widespread through internal vehicles and customer-owned cars that will operate and generate revenue for individuals.
The start of these engineering tests is a major signal for Tesla, which plans to bring driverless, wheel-less, and pedal-less Cybercabs to market in the coming months. With production already well underway at Gigafactory Texas, where the Cybercab is built, there is some inclination to believe the first public rides could happen sooner rather than later.
Engineering tests of the first production Cybercab have begun in Austin pic.twitter.com/fk3KQvcE8a
— Tesla (@Tesla) June 30, 2026
Tesla’s engineering tests will put the Cybercab in real-world scenarios, testing not only the hardware, but more importantly, the software that drives the car around Austin with nobody supervising it within the car.
This is perhaps the biggest part of the internal testing process, especially prior to allowing regular, everyday people to hail the Cybercab for an autonomous ride. These early rides serve as a true benchmark for Tesla: How many rides can it achieve safely? How many miles did it travel consecutively without needing an intervention? What scenarios challenge the Full Self-Driving suite the most?
The proper precautions have already been put into place as well, as Tesla released the First Responders Guide to Cybercab over the weekend, ensuring that emergency services have 24/7 access to Robotaxi Assistance, as well as other boundaries, such as Geofencing features that can be used to redirect autonomous vehicle traffic due to accidents, road closures, construction, or maintenance.
Cybercab seems genuinely close to being added to the Robotaxi fleet in Austin, but Tesla has prioritized safety throughout this entire process. Therefore, we think it could be months before it truly starts giving rides to the public. People have been frustrated with this, but Robotaxi in Austin has a tremendous safety record so far, so the slow rollout has kept people safe and accidents to a minimum.
The most important thing is that Tesla continues to show consistent progress in the Cybercab’s ramp-up toward fleet addition. A few weeks back, we saw the EPA reward the Cybercab a Certificate of Conformity, allowing it to enter the stream of commerce. Then, we saw Tesla add decals, signaling that it was likely about to start testing it publicly. That has now happened.
The next big move will be the announcement of the first rides, so this Summer should be filled with anticipation.
SpaceX gets initial stock coverage from Tesla’s biggest bull
Tesla expands massive safety feature worldwide in latest update
