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SpaceX rocket lands on land after 88-satellite rideshare launch

Falcon 9 has successfully completed its first land landing of the year, returning to LZ-1 around eight minutes after launch. (Richard Angle)

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For the first time this year, a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster has landed back on land after supporting the US East Coast’s third polar launch in half a century.

Known as Transporter-2, the mission is SpaceX’s second dedicated rideshare launch as part of its own Smallsat Program. Transporter-1 smashed the all-time record for the number of satellites flown on a single rocket, successfully carrying 143 spacecraft into orbit in January 2021. Six months later, Transporter-2 lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 3:31 pm EDT (17:31 UTC) on June 30th, approximately six days later than originally planned.

Unspecified issues – perhaps related to Falcon 9’s payload fairing – triggered a five-day delay from June 24th to June 29th, when a last-second airspace violation forced SpaceX to abort the launch and try again on June 30th. Finally, in spite of stormy weather, everything came together for a launch attempt late in that Tuesday window.

Flying for the eighth time in 12 months, Falcon 9 booster B1060 aced its role in the mission, boosting Falcon 9’s expendable upper stage, payload fairing, and ~88 satellites out of Earth’s atmosphere and on their way to orbit. Flying for the third time, both of the Falcon 9’s reused fairing halves also did their job, protecting those satellites from the elements and aerothermal stress on the ground and during ascent.

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Transporter-2 was SpaceX’s 20th orbital launch of 2021, a cadence that could enable as many as 40 launches this year. That also means that barring surprises, SpaceX could match its annual record (26 launches; set in 2020) just eight months into 2021, all but guaranteeing that the company will smash that record before the end of the year. As of June 30th, SpaceX has now completed 36 orbital launches and 35 Falcon 9 first stage landings in the last 12 months, losing only one booster in the process.

(Richard Angle)

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 avoids California sales suspension after DMV review

The agency confirmed Tuesday that Tesla has taken “corrective action.”

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla will not face a 30-day sales suspension in California after the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) stated that the company has come into compliance regarding the marketing of its automated-driving features. 

The agency confirmed Tuesday that Tesla has taken “corrective action” following a prior ruling over how it promoted Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), as noted in a Bloomberg News report.

The California DMV had previously given Tesla 90 days to address concerns that were raised by an administrative judge. Regulators had alleged that Tesla overstated the capabilities of its driver-assist systems, which were branded as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

A potential 30-day suspension of vehicle sales in California was on the table if Tesla had failed to comply. On Tuesday, however, the DMV stated that Tesla had met the requirements to avoid that penalty, though it did not provide detailed specifics about the changes that were made.

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That being said, Tesla did discontinue its standalone Autopilot product in January and has ramped the marketing of its most advanced driver-assistance package available to consumers today, Full Self Driving (Supervised). From its naming, FSD (Supervised) clearly emphasizes that the system, despite its advanced features, still requires driver attention.

Following reports of a potential sales ban in California, Tesla clarified the matter on X, stating that the issue “was a ‘consumer protection’ order about the use of the term ‘Autopilot’ in a case where not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.” Tesla also noted that “Sales in California will continue uninterrupted.”

Tesla has not issued a comment about the matter as of writing.

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Elon Musk confirms Tesla Cybercab pricing and consumer release date

Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla does intend to sell a version of the Cybercab for less than $30,000 by 2027.

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Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla does intend to sell a version of the Cybercab for less than $30,000 by 2027. He shared the update in a post on social media platform X. 

Amidst Tesla’s announcement that the first Cybercab has been produced at Giga Texas’ production line, some members of the Tesla community immediately started joking about how the milestone will affect a wager shared by popular YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee (MKBHD.) 

Following Tesla’s We, Robot event in October 2024, MKBHD noted that while the Cybercab was impressive in a lot of ways, he is very skeptical about Elon Musk’s estimate that the autonomous two-seater could be sold to consumers for below $30,000 around 2027. 

“I think the obvious red flag, the biggest red flag to me is the timeline stuff. This is notorious Elon stuff. He gets on stage, he says we’re going to have this vehicle out for $30,000 before 2027,”  he said, adding “No, they’re not. There’s just no way that they’re actually going to be able to do that. I mean, if they do, let’s say they do, I will shave my head on camera because I’m that confident.”

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It was then no surprise that meme images of MKBHD with his head shaved immediately spread on X following Tesla’s announcement that the first Cybercab has been built at Giga Texas. One of these, which was posted by longtime FSD tester Whole Mars Catalog, received a response from Elon Musk. The CEO responded with the words “Gonna happen,” together with a laughing emoji. 

Apart from riding jokes about MKBHD’s wager, Musk also confirmed that Tesla will be selling a Cybercab to regular consumers before 2027, and the vehicle will be priced for $30,000 or less. In response to an X user who asked if the exact scenario will be happening, Musk responded with a simple “Yes.” 

While the first Cybercab has been produced at Giga Texas, it would not be surprising if the following months will only see low volumes of the autonomous two seater being produced. As per Elon Musk in previous comments, the Cybercab’s early production will likely be slow, but it will eventually be extremely fast. “For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being insanely fast,” he said. 

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First Tesla Cybercab rolls off Giga Texas production line

Tesla’s official account on X shared an image showing employees gathered around the first Cybercab built at Gigafactory Texas.

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Credit: Tesla/X

Tesla has produced the first Tesla Cybercab at Texas Gigafactory, marking a key milestone ahead of the planned autonomous two-seater’s production in April. The two-seat Robotaxi, which was unveiled in 2024, is designed without pedals or a steering wheel and represents Tesla’s most aggressive step yet toward fully autonomous mobility.

Tesla’s official account on X shared an image showing employees gathered around the first Cybercab built at Gigafactory Texas. Elon Musk echoed the milestone, writing, “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab!”

Previous comments from Musk on X reiterated the idea that production of the Cybercab “starts in April.” The vehicle will launch without traditional driver controls, and it will rely entirely on Tesla’s vision-based Full Self-Driving (FSD) system.

The Cybercab is positioned to compete with autonomous services such as Waymo. While Tesla has deployed Model Y vehicles in limited Robotaxi operations in Austin and the Bay Area, a serious ramp of the service to other cities across the United States is yet to be implemented. The production of the Cybercab could then be seen as a push towards the company’s autonomy plans.

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Musk has linked the Cybercab to Tesla’s proposed “Unboxed” manufacturing process, which would assemble large vehicle modules separately before integrating them, rather than following a traditional production line. The approach is intended to cut costs, reduce factory footprint, and speed up output.

That being said, Elon Musk has set expectations for the Cybercab’s production ramp. As per Musk, it would likely take some time before meaningful volumes of the Cybercab are produced because it is such a new and different vehicle. But when the vehicle hits its pace, volumes will be notable. 

“Initial production is always very slow and follows an S-curve. The speed of production ramp is inversely proportionate to how many new parts and steps there are. For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being insanely fast,” Musk noted.

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