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SpaceX to kick off launch triple-header with record-breaking Falcon reuse

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SpaceX appears to be on track to launch a trio of Falcon 9 rockets in as few as 36 hours, beginning with a Starlink mission on June 17th.

Enabled in part by delays to an unrelated Cargo Dragon launch that recently slipped from June 7th to July 11th, a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch Starlink 4-19 out of SpaceX’s leased NASA Kennedy Space Center LC-39A pad no earlier than (NET) 12:08 pm EDT (16:08 UTC) on Friday, June 17th. Beyond kicking off a very busy weekend for SpaceX, the otherwise ordinary mission will be significant for a number of reasons previously discussed on Teslarati.

“Starlink 4-19 will be the 100th reuse of a Falcon booster since the first in March 2017. If all goes well, it will also mark SpaceX’s 50th consecutively successful Falcon booster landing and Falcon 9’s 130th consecutively successful launch campaign – just four successes away from breaking the world record of 133 consecutive successes set by variants of Russia’s Soyuz/R-7 rocket.”

In addition to those milestones, SpaceX recently confirmed that it assigned Falcon 9 booster B1060 to the launch. Since its debut in June 2020, B1060 has supported three commercial launches (GPS III SV03, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2) and nine Starlink launches, helping to deliver around 160 metric tons (~350,000 lb) of satellites to orbit in two years. Starlink 4-19 will be its 13th launch – the first time any Falcon booster has attempted to surpass a dozen flights. Starlink 4-19’s payload will be another 53 Starlink V1.5 satellites weighing around 16 tons (~35,250 lb), likely raising the total number of working Starlink satellites in orbit above 2400.

Following Starlink 4-19, SpaceX confirmed on Thursday that another Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch a set of rideshare payloads and Germany’s SARah-1 radar satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), California at 7:19 am PDT (14:19 UTC) on Saturday, June 18th. SpaceX won the contract to launch all three planned SARah satellites in 2013, at which point the first launch was expected to occur in 2018. The payloads are light enough that the mission’s unknown Falcon 9 booster will be able to boost back to shore and land just a thousand feet from where it lifted off after carrying them most of the way to space.

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Just half a day after SARah-1, a third Falcon 9 rocket could lift off from LC-40 – SpaceX’s second East Coast pad – with a single spare Globalstar-2 communications satellite and one or more secret military satellites at 12:27 am EDT (04:27 UTC) on Sunday, June 19th. Falcon 9 booster B1061 is likely assigned to the launch and was spotted on a transporter – new, expendable upper stage already installed – on June 14th, probably heading from SpaceX’s main integration hangar to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s (CCSFS) LC-40 pad.

Given the difficult nature of orbital spaceflight, all three missions could run into minor delays, but if all fly as they are currently scheduled, SpaceX will have completed three orbital launches in 36 hours and 19 minutes. Starlink 4-19 and SARah-1 could also lift off just 10 hours apart.

SpaceX has two more missions tentatively scheduled in June. SES-22 could launch from the same pad as Globalstar-2 M087 (LC-40) as early as June 28th. While significantly less likely, NextSpaceflight.com suggests that SpaceX may also try to squeeze another Starlink launch – 4-21 – out of Pad 39A in late June. The margins for that opportunity are slim, however, as SpaceX will likely need to begin converting Pad 39A for Cargo Dragon’s July 11th launch by July 1st at the latest.

Tune in below around 11:55 am EDT to watch SpaceX’s record-breaking Starlink 4-19 launch live.

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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 IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms

However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon. Musk replied, basically confirming it.

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Joel Kowsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk confirmed through a post on X that a SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) is on the way after hinting at it several times earlier this year.

It also comes one day after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was aiming for a valuation of $1.5 trillion, adding that it wanted to raise $30 billion.

Musk has been transparent for most of the year that he wanted to try to figure out a way to get Tesla shareholders to invest in SpaceX, giving them access to the stock.

He has also recognized the issues of having a public stock, like litigation exposure, quarterly reporting pressures, and other inconveniences.

However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon.

Musk replied, basically confirming it:

Berger believes the IPO would help support the need for $30 billion or more in capital needed to fund AI integration projects, such as space-based data centers and lunar satellite factories. Musk confirmed recently that SpaceX “will be doing” data centers in orbit.

AI appears to be a “key part” of SpaceX getting to Musk, Berger also wrote. When writing about whether or not Optimus is a viable project and product for the company, he says that none of that matters. Musk thinks it is, and that’s all that matters.

It seems like Musk has certainly mulled something this big for a very long time, and the idea of taking SpaceX public is not just likely; it is necessary for the company to get to Mars.

The details of when SpaceX will finally hit that public status are not known. Many of the reports that came out over the past few days indicate it would happen in 2026, so sooner rather than later.

But there are a lot of things on Musk’s plate early next year, especially with Cybercab production, the potential launch of Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, and the Roadster unveiling, all planned for Q1.

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Tesla adds 15th automaker to Supercharger access in 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has added the 15th automaker to the growing list of companies whose EVs can utilize the Supercharger Network this year, as BMW is the latest company to gain access to the largest charging infrastructure in the world.

BMW became the 15th company in 2025 to gain Tesla Supercharger access, after the company confirmed to its EV owners that they could use any of the more than 25,000 Supercharging stalls in North America.

Newer BMW all-electric cars, like the i4, i5, i7, and iX, are able to utilize Tesla’s V3 and V4 Superchargers. These are the exact model years, via the BMW Blog:

  • i4: 2022-2026 model years
  • i5: 2024-2025 model years
    • 2026 i5 (eDrive40 and xDrive40) after software update in Spring 2026
  • i7: 2023-2026 model years
  • iX: 2022-2025 model years
    • 2026 iX (all versions) after software update in Spring 2026

With the expansion of the companies that gained access in 2025 to the Tesla Supercharger Network, a vast majority of non-Tesla EVs are able to use the charging stalls to gain range in their cars.

So far in 2025, Tesla has enabled Supercharger access to:

  • Audi
  • BMW
  • Genesis
  • Honda
  • Hyundai
  • Jaguar Land Rover
  • Kia
  • Lucid
  • Mercedes-Benz
  • Nissan
  • Polestar
  • Subaru
  • Toyota
  • Volkswagen
  • Volvo

Drivers with BMW EVs who wish to charge at Tesla Superchargers must use an NACS-to-CCS1 adapter. In Q2 2026, BMW plans to release its official adapter, but there are third-party options available in the meantime.

They will also have to use the Tesla App to enable Supercharging access to determine rates and availability. It is a relatively seamless process.

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Tesla adds new feature that will be great for crowded parking situations

This is the most recent iteration of the app and was priming owners for the slowly-released Holiday Update.

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Credit: Grok

Tesla has added a new feature that will be great for crowded parking lots, congested parking garages, or other confusing times when you cannot seem to pinpoint where your car went.

Tesla has added a new Vehicle Locator feature to the Tesla App with App Update v4.51.5.

This is the most recent iteration of the app and was priming owners for the slowly-released Holiday Update.

While there are several new features, which we will reveal later in this article, perhaps one of the coolest is that of the Vehicle Locator, which will now point you in the direction of your car using a directional arrow on the home screen. This is similar to what Apple uses to find devices:

In real time, the arrow gives an accurate depiction of which direction you should walk in to find your car. This seems extremely helpful in large parking lots or unfamiliar shopping centers.

Getting to your car after a sporting event is an event all in itself; this feature will undoubtedly help with it:

Tesla’s previous app versions revealed the address at which you could locate your car, which was great if you parked on the street in a city setting. It was also possible to use the map within the app to locate your car.

However, this new feature gives a more definitive location for your car and helps with the navigation to it, instead of potentially walking randomly.

It also reveals the distance you are from your car, which is a big plus.

Along with this new addition, Tesla added Photobooth features, Dog Mode Live Activity, Custom Wraps and Tints for Colorizer, and Dashcam Clip details.

All in all, this App update was pretty robust.

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