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SpaceX completes 35th Falcon 9 launch in 33 weeks
SpaceX has successfully launched the SES-22 communications satellite to a geostationary transfer orbit, ending the first half of 2022 with 27 orbital launches under its belt.
Perhaps more importantly, SES-22 was also SpaceX’s 35th launch since its last multi-week launch hiatus, which ended 33 weeks ago. SpaceX, in other words, has just a third of the way to go to achieve a running average of one launch per week over a 12-month period – not CEO Elon Musk’s exact goal but equally impressive.
After a one or two-day delay, Falcon 9 lifted off without issue from SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) LC-40 pad at 5:04 pm EDT. Flying for the second time, booster B1073 carried the SES-22 satellite, payload fairing, and a roughly 100-ton (~220,000 lb) Falcon upper stage most of the way out of Earth’s atmosphere before separating, navigating back to Earth, and landing aboard drone ship A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG) some 666 kilometers (~413 mi) off the coast of Florida. Before touchdown, B1073 reached a maximum speed of 2.25 kilometers per second (Mach ~6.6 or 5000 mph) and coasted to an apogee of 120 kilometers (~75 mi).
Falcon 9’s expendable upper stage performed as expected and propelled SES-22 into a temporary parking orbit before reigniting to boost the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit, where the two parted ways. The upper stage will likely perform a third and final burn to lower its periapsis, ensuring it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere instead of becoming space debris. SES-22 is expected to take just one month to finish raising and circularizing its orbit, after which it will begin providing US customers satellite TV and other communications services in August.
SES-22 is just the first of several new satellites SES intends to launch this year, all of which are meant clear a specific section of radio spectrum that ground-based 5G networks will benefit more from. The FCC is paying SES and several other providers billions of dollars to free up that spectrum. Following SES-22, SES intends to launch another two pairs of satellites – SES-18/19 and SES-20/21 – on a Falcon 9 and Atlas V rocket before the end of 2022, though delays are likely.
According to Spaceflight Now, a ULA Atlas V rocket could launch the Boeing-built SES-20 and SES-21 satellites as early as late August or September, while a Falcon 9 rocket could launch another pair of Northrop Grumman-built SES-18 and SES-19 satellites “around the end of the year.”
SES-18/19 is just one of dozens of additional SpaceX Falcon launches planned for the second half of 2022. NextSpaceflight and several other unofficial manifests indicate that SpaceX has 30-35 launches nominally scheduled before the end of 2022, including at least 10 Starlink missions. In the first half of the year, SpaceX has managed 27 launches – 15 Starlink missions and 12 commercial missions. While that leaves SpaceX firmly on track to accomplish his initial goal of an average of one launch per week this year, 30-35 launches in H2 would align with Musk’s updated target of 60 launches in 2022.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
SpaceX’s Starship flew successfully Friday, landing both stages and deploying its first Starlink V3 satellites.
Starship’s thirteenth test flight delivered exactly what SpaceX needed with a clean liftoff, two successful stage recoveries, and the first real payload the vehicle has ever carried to space. Booster 20 and Ship 40 lifted off at 5:51 p.m. CT from Starbase, and by the time the mission wrapped roughly an hour later, both halves of the rocket had done exactly what they were supposed to do.
Booster 20 separated from Ship 40 a few minutes into the flight and stuck a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about six minutes after liftoff. That is a meaningful turnaround from Flight 12 in May, when the booster lost several engines during its boostback burn before a hard water landing attempt.
Starship as seen from Starlink satellites pic.twitter.com/e2hvfmnewh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
Starship 40’s performance was arguably the bigger win. The vehicle deployed the first 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever carried, then flew a suborbital arc to a landing in the Indian Ocean that SpaceX commentator Dan Huot called the company’s softest splashdown yet. “This is a dream scenario for this team that’s trying to get this heat shield data,” Huot said on the live broadcast, according to Space.com’s live coverage. “I’m a little over the moon right now. Wow. Lucky number 13.”
Unlike the mass simulators SpaceX flew on Flight 12, these were production Starlink V3 satellites, meant to extend solar arrays and antennas and attempt to link with the broader constellation before reentering minutes later. Getting real hardware through a full deploy sequence on only the second flight of the V3 generation keeps Starship on schedule for the payload work NASA is counting on for future Artemis lunar landings.
What an awesome launch, really seems like everything went super well and it was all incredibly smooth.
SpaceX is awesome. Very interested to see how the market will respond on Monday pic.twitter.com/KSHmyBfV55
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 25, 2026
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 25, 2026
The flight also arrives at a moment when SpaceX needed a win. SPCX has traded below its $135 IPO price since mid-July, as Teslarati reported when the mission slipped to Friday, and short interest has climbed to roughly a third of the tradable float. A clean flight will not fix a balance sheet, but it does answer the one question SpaceX absolutely needed answered this week: whether the fixes made after the July 16 abort would hold up under real flight conditions. They did, on both stages, on the first try after the redesign.
SpaceX has not set a target date for Flight 14, though the company has said it wants to push toward an orbital attempt on the next mission. After Friday, that goal looks a lot more within reach.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles dominated the company’s global usage rankings after just one year, proving the concept is more than just a one-off novelty location that will fade away.
The performance could incite the company to build more locations, something that CEO Elon Musk has hinted at for some time.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner delivered 21.2 GWh of energy in its first year of operation, the company’s head of Charging, Max de Zegher, revealed on X. Of the top 10 most utilized Supercharger locations in Tesla’s global infrastructure, the Diner in Los Angeles was the most used by drivers, and it wasn’t particularly close:
Tesla Diner opened exactly 1 year ago. Inspiring that futuristic places like this exist.
It’s our highest usage Supercharger in the world: 21.2 GWh delivered in a year, 1.6k sessions/day.
Top 10 Superchargers by energy delivered: https://t.co/9YvJ8lw696 pic.twitter.com/koB3AUJHws
— Max (@MdeZegher) July 21, 2026
On its launch day one year ago, nobody was too sure what the Tesla Diner would be about. It seemed like an interesting concept, and considering it had been in the works for years, it was a highly anticipated launch that many were looking forward to.
Based on its success, we could see additional Diners with Superchargers built throughout the United States, and potentially beyond. Musk has said on several occasions that the company would be willing to bring the Diner idea to more markets.
Tesla makes major change at Supercharger Diner amid epic demand
Of the markets that Musk has mentioned, both Palo Alto and Austin have come to be perceived as ideal selections. However, there are no concrete plans as of now to build new Supercharger Diners anywhere; the location on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain the exclusive spot to pick up Tesla-inspired eats, at least for the time being.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
