Connect with us

News

SpaceX Falcon 9 landing leg accidentally dropped during retraction attempt

Falcon 9 B1060 arrived in Port Canaveral on July 4th after its June 30th launch debut. (Richard Angle)

Published

6 years ago

on

SpaceX has accidentally dropped one of its newest Falcon 9 booster’s landing legs during a retraction attempt in Port Canaveral while crews worked to prepare the rocket for transport.

Falcon 9 booster B1060 safely arrived in Port Canaveral, Florida on July 4th after a flawless June 30th launch debut, delivering the US military’s GPS III SV03 navigation satellite to an accurate orbit and becoming the first SpaceX rocket to launch and land as part of an operational US military mission. The major landing milestone was supported by drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) as part of its second East Coast recovery mission ever after an ~8000 km (~5000 mi) journey from Los Angeles and months of slow and steady upgrades.

Thankfully, despite the mishap caught on camera by diligent, unofficial observers, things appeared to work out just fine for booster B1060 as crews threaded recovery operations between bouts of disruptive Florida weather.

Based on video of the accidental leg drop captured by US Launch Report on July 7th, the most obvious conclusion is that operators either failed to release tension on a winch line or some kind of hardware/software/sensor failure unintentionally over-stressed the line. Regardless, around the same time as Falcon 9 or its ground operators were likely commanding the landing leg latch closed, one or both of the lines attached to the top of the retracting leg snapped, causing it to very quickly redeploy as gravity pulled it back to earth.

Advertisement

Almost certainly by design, nobody was underneath the ~1000 kg (~2200 lb) landing leg during retraction, and a small stand used to prop up the leg for winch line installation seems to have been moved out of the line of fire as part of the process. As a result, when the leg was accidentally released, it simply fell onto drone ship JRTI’s flat, steel deck under its own weight. Most importantly, nobody was (visibly) injured or at risk of injury

Jump to ~3:45 to catch one of SpaceX’s 2018 landing leg deployment tests on a recovered booster.

The landing leg’s impact and aftershock looks undeniably harsh in the footage but the reality is that SpaceX has already performed almost identical tests (albeit intentionally) on recovered boosters while leg retraction was still in development. Captured in the video above, B1049’s September 2018 leg retraction and deployment test appeared to be marginally gentler than B1060’s accidental leg smack, and B1049 went on to complete four more orbital-class launches without issue. That still ignores the fact that Falcon 9’s landing legs are designed to withstand extremely rough landings of entire ~30 metric ton boosters traveling up to several meters per second (~5 mph) – vastly more force than a single landing leg can exert on itself with gravity as the only input.

(Richard Angle)

Confirming those suspicions, SpaceX ultimately got back on the saddle after a few slight weather delays and successfully retracted all four of B1060’s landing legs without issue. The once-flown rocket was quickly broken over (referring to the process of lowering it horizontally) and installed on a custom transporter, which will soon move it from Port Canaveral to a nearby SpaceX hangar (likely Pad 39A’s) to prepare for its next launch.

Check out Teslarati’s Marketplace! We offer Tesla accessories, including for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Model 3.

Advertisement
Related Topics:

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.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla owner attempts resale of Model S Signature Edition for over $260k

Published

2 hours ago

on

July 14, 2026

By

Credit: Tesla

A Tesla owner who purchased a Model S Signature Edition, one of the final 250 units of the all-electric flagship vehicle that the company discontinued earlier this year, is attempting to sell the car despite a no-resale clause that prohibits reselling for the first year.

The car is being sold by J&S Autohaus in Ewing, New Jersey, and is priced at $260,490, well above the $159,420 that Tesla sold it for earlier this year.

To those who do not know, the Model S Signature was a highly exclusive, limited-run farewell variant of the Model S Plaid that was produced this year to mark the end of production of both the Model S and Model X, Tesla’s two flagship vehicles.

Limited to just 250 units with invite-only sales, it serves as a collector’s item celebrating the legacy of the Model S, which helped pioneer Tesla’s electric vehicle success since its 2012 launch.

It bundles top-tier performance with bespoke cosmetic and luxury upgrades, plus Tesla’s Luxe Package. Here’s what the Model S Signature has over the typical Model S Plaid:

  • Exclusive Exterior – Unique Garnet Red Paint, matching door handles, gold Tesla “T” badges upfront, gold Plaid and Signature badging at the rear.
  • Premium Interior – White Alcantara upholstery with gold piping/accents, gold Plaid seat badges, Signature-marked door sills, individually numbered dashboard plaque, gold puddle lights, special interior lighting sequence, and a custom Signature key fob.
  • Performance Upgrades – Carbon-ceramic brakes with gold calipers
  • Bundled Luxe Package – Full Self-Driving (Supervised), four years of Premium Connectivity, free lifetime Supercharging
  • Performance Metrics – ~1,020 horsepower, sub-2-second 0-60 MPH, ~390-mile range

Tesla quickly introduced a No Resale Agreement for the Signature Editions of the Model S and Model X, which would penalize the seller for “the amount of $50,000 or the value received as consideration for the sale or transfer, whichever is greater.”

The company continues:

“If you sell or otherwise transfer the ownership of your Model S or Model X, the remainder of the Recommended Maintenance, Wheel and Tire Protection Plan, and Windshield Protection Plan will transfer automatically to the buyer. The Full Self-Driving (Supervised), Free Supercharging and Premium Connectivity will not transfer with the vehicle and will terminate once the ownership of the Model S or Model X is transferred.”

Tesla will likely come after the seller, especially as it has been about two months since Tesla launched deliveries.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.5 Early Impressions: new features and early performance

Published

6 hours ago

on

July 14, 2026

By

Credit: TESLARATI

Tesla rolled out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.3.5 yesterday, and about fifty miles of driving on the new version has given me enough time to highlight what seems to be strong about the release and what is not.

Additionally, Tesla has added a few new features with this specific update, which we’ll highlight as well.

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.5 Performance

The new update is business as usual. Things seem to be running completely normal and necessary, but there are a few things that we’ve seemed to pick up on based on our own experience with v14.3.5, as well as what other users are seeing.

Initially, it seems to be more aware of its surroundings, making moves that are incredibly courteous to other drives and operating just a tad more reserved than what the suite might have done previously.

We had two instances where it showed this, the first being FSD needing to pass a Flagger Force vehicle that was placing down signage for the day. Their work truck was right at the front corner of a right-hand turn; typically where most cars travel when they take that turn.

FSD v14.3.5 recognized this, slowed down, and took the turn wide with no issues:

Additionally, v14.3.5 backed up for a semi truck that was making a wide turn onto a road my car was on. This is not new, but it seemed to be backing up for courtesy; it didn’t seem completely necessary, but it might have put some peace of mind in the truck driver’s head:

X user Mike P, also a Pennsylvania native like myself, shared three clips of his Tesla running v14.3.5 performing similar maneuvers. He said:

“FSD turns right into a small alley that only fits one car at a time, sees oncoming car, reverses out of alley to make space, realizes oncoming car is actually parking, re-enters alley.”
Check it out here:

It seems like Speed Profiles are still in need of some tweaking; I am adjusting what Speed Profile I’m in frequently, constantly changing it to get it to travel at the correct speed. This was an issue for me on v14.3.4. It seems like they’re just a little inconsistent.

Terrible Parking

Parking attempts on v14.3.5 were not good. There are quite a few people who have said this:

David Moss, the Tesla owner who has taken multiple coast-to-coast drives without any interventions, also has had some issues with parking early on with v14.3.5:

New Features

Tesla has added the ability to open Camera Preview at any time. Previously, it was only available in Park. Here’s what that feature looks like in action:

Check back later this week for a longer review of what we’ve noticed on Full Self-Driving v14.3.5.

Continue Reading

Lifestyle

Tesla makes the cut on California’s newest EV Rebate program

California just signed a $270 million EV rebate into law and it starts this summer.

Published

11 hours ago

on

July 13, 2026

By

tesla fremont

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 168 into law on Monday, July 13, 2026, creating a $270 million EV rebate program that delivers money directly at the dealership rather than as a tax credit applied months later. The program, called MyFirstEV, is funded equally by California’s state budget and participating automakers, with each contributing $135.5 million to make the math work.

The timing is directly tied to the loss of federal support when the $7,500 federal EV tax credit ended, removing the most significant consumer incentive that had driven EV adoption in the U.S. California, which accounts for roughly one-third of all EVs sold nationally, moved to fill that gap with a state-level replacement.

The rebate structure is straightforward. First-time EV buyers can receive $3,500 off any new battery-electric vehicle with an MSRP up to $50,000. Used EVs priced at $25,000 or below qualify for a $1,750 rebate. The credit is applied at the point of sale, which removes the friction of the old federal system where buyers had to wait for tax season to see the benefit. The program goes live later this summer, with the California Air Resources Board expected to release full participation details next month.

California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law

For Tesla buyers, the implications are mixed. The Tesla Model 3 RWD at $42,490 and the Model 3 Long Range at $47,490 both fall under the $50,000 cap and would qualify for the full $3,500 rebate for first-time buyers. The Model Y, which starts at $44,990 after Tesla’s recent price adjustment, also qualifies. The Model X, Model S, and Cybertruck all exceed the cap and receive no benefit. As Teslarati has reported, the program also includes a carve-out exempting California-based automakers like Rivian and Lucid from the price cap entirely, a provision that puts Tesla at a disadvantage since it relocated its headquarters to Texas in 2021.

Other qualifying vehicles include the Chevrolet Equinox EV, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Volkswagen ID.4.

Continue Reading