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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket completes 50th orbital launch of 2022
SpaceX has successfully launched French satellite communications provider Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13G satellite, chipping away at a jam-packed November manifest and completing Falcon 9’s 50th launch of 2022.
The company’s workhorse rocket lifted off from its Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) LC-40 pad with the 4.5-ton (~9,900 lb) geostationary communications satellite in tow at 1:22 am EDT on November 3rd – 116 minutes later than originally planned to leave more time “to complete pre-flight checkouts.” But Falcon 9 performed flawlessly, growing a record-breaking streak with its 160th consecutively-successful launch.
Flying for the seventh time since it debuted in June 2021 and just 45 days after its sixth flight, Falcon 9 booster B1067 completed a nominal ascent, separation, descent, reentry, and landing. The booster touched down on SpaceX drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) about nine minutes after liftoff and will be prepared for an eighth launch in the near future – possibly as early as next month. In addition to its well-known booster reuse, SpaceX’s webcast host noted that Falcon 9’s payload fairing – a carbon fiber composite nosecone made up of two separable halves – had halves flying for the fourth and sixth time.
Speaking in 2017, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk once likened each Falcon fairing half to a pallet of $3 million that falls into the ocean after every launch. Around the same time, SpaceX decided to try to recover that pallet of cash, kicking off its fairing recovery and reuse program. Five years later, Falcon fairing reuse – while far less visible and famous than booster reuse – has become extremely reliable. At its current rate of one launch every six days, recovering and reusing fairings likely saves SpaceX tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars annually and limits the need for major manufacturing expansions that would otherwise be necessary.
Even though SpaceX fishes fairing halves out of the ocean before every flight, the company’s cleaning and refurbishment processes have improved to the point that even paying customers have started to accept flight-proven fairings on their launches. Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13G satellite is the first customer payload to use a Falcon fairing half for the sixth time, further raising the bar of acceptance.
About half an hour after liftoff, Falcon 9’s expendable upper stage separated from Hotbird 13G. On October 15th, a different Falcon 9 rocket launched its twin, Hotbird 13F, into a supersynchronous transfer orbit measuring around 400 kilometers (~245 mi) by 56,000 kilometers (~34,800 mi). Launching a satellite to a transfer orbit with an apogee higher than its destination makes reaching a circular orbit at that target altitude (35,800 km, in this case) faster and easier. Having to do less work to raise its orbit will leave Hotbird 13F and 13G with more fuel than they would otherwise have, effectively extending their theoretical lifespans by preserving more propellant for orbit maintenance after it reaches GEO.
Hotbird 13G was SpaceX’s 51st launch of 2022 and 59th launch in 365 days. If SpaceX sustains the average pace it has set in the last ten months through the last two months of 2022, it could end the year having launched more than 60 times. The mission was also Falcon 9’s 50th launch of 2022, solidifying its spot as the most-launched rocket in a calendar year. The record for the most successful launches (61) of the same rocket family in one year, however, was set by the Soviet Union and has stood for more than four decades.
SpaceX has at least five more Falcon 9 launches tentatively scheduled this month. Intelsat Galaxy 31 & 32 satellites are up next and could launch from the same pad as Hotbird 13G as early as November 8th, followed by Eutelsat 10B in mid-November, and Japanese startup ispace’s first Moon lander no earlier than November 22nd. An uncrewed Dragon spacecraft is set to launch NASA cargo to the the International Space Station (ISS) on November 20th. Finally, while tentative and contingent upon three other launches going smoothly, SpaceX could squeeze in Starlink 4-37 in late November.
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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.
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:
Interesting. The location arrow in the Tesla app now points to your car when you’re nearby. pic.twitter.com/b0yjmwwzxN
— Whole Mars Catalog (@wholemars) December 7, 2025
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:
The nice little touch that Tesla have put in the app – continuous tracking of your vehicle location relative to you.
There’s people reporting dizziness testing this.
To those I say… try spinning your phone instead. 😉 pic.twitter.com/BAYmJ3mzzD
— Some UK Tesla Guy (UnSupervised…) (@SomeUKTeslaGuy) December 8, 2025
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.
🚨 Tesla App v4.51.5 looks to be preparing for the Holiday Update pic.twitter.com/ztts8poV82
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 8, 2025
All in all, this App update was pretty robust.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk shaded Waymo in a post on X on Wednesday, stating the company “never really had a chance” and that it “will be obvious in hindsight.”
Tesla and Waymo are the two primary contributors to the self-driving efforts in the United States, with both operating driverless ride-hailing services in the country. Tesla does have a Safety Monitor present in its vehicles in Austin, Texas, and someone in the driver’s seat in its Bay Area operation.
Musk says the Austin operation will be completely void of any Safety Monitors by the end of the year.
🚨 Tesla vs. Waymo Geofence in Austin https://t.co/A6ffPtp5xv pic.twitter.com/mrnL0YNSn4
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 10, 2025
With the two companies being the main members of the driverless movement in the U.S., there is certainly a rivalry. The two have sparred back and forth with their geofences, or service areas, in both Austin and the Bay Area.
While that is a metric for comparison now, ultimately, it will not matter in the coming years, as the two companies will likely operate in a similar fashion.
Waymo has geared its business toward larger cities, and Tesla has said that its self-driving efforts will expand to every single one of its vehicles in any location globally. This is where the true difference between the two lies, along with the fact that Tesla uses its own vehicles, while Waymo has several models in its lineup from different manufacturers.
The two also have different ideas on how to solve self-driving, as Tesla uses a vision-only approach. Waymo relies on several things, including LiDAR, which Musk once called “a fool’s errand.”
This is where Tesla sets itself apart from the competition, and Musk highlighted the company’s position against Waymo.
Jeff Dean, the Chief Scientist for Google DeepMind, said on X:
“I don’t think Tesla has anywhere near the volume of rider-only autonomous miles that Waymo has (96M for Waymo, as of today). The safety data is quite compelling for Waymo, as well.”
Musk replied:
“Waymo never really had a chance against Tesla. This will be obvious in hindsight.”
Waymo never really had a chance against Tesla. This will be obvious in hindsight.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025
Tesla stands to have a much larger fleet of vehicles in the coming years if it chooses to activate Robotaxi services with all passenger vehicles. A simple Over-the-Air update will activate this capability, while Waymo would likely be confined to the vehicles it commissions as Robotaxis.
News
Tesla AI5 project begins to move forward
According to a new report from Sedaily, Samsung is accelerating its preparation for U.S. production of the AI5 chips by hiring veteran engineers for its Customer Engineering team.
Tesla supplier Samsung is preparing to manufacture the AI5 chip, which will launch the company’s self-driving efforts even further, with its latest move.
According to a new report from Sedaily, Samsung is accelerating its preparation for U.S. production of the AI5 chips by hiring veteran engineers for its Customer Engineering team, which will help resolve complex foundry challenges, stabilize production and yields, and ensure manufacturing goes smoothly for the new project.
The hiring push signals that Tesla’s AI5 project is moving forward quickly at Samsung, which was one of two suppliers to win a contract order from the world’s leading EV maker.
🚨🚨 FIRST LOOK at Tesla’s AI5 chip, which will be available in late 2026 or early 2027 pic.twitter.com/aLomUuifhT
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 6, 2025
TSMC is the other. TSMC is using its 3nm process, reportedly, while Samsung will do a 2nm as a litmus test for the process.
The different versions are due to the fact that “they translate designs to physical form differently,” CEO Elon Musk said recently. The goal is for the two to operate identically, obviously, which is a challenge.
Some might remember Apple’s A9 “Chipgate” saga, which found that the chips differed in performance because of different manufacturers.
The AI5 chip is Tesla’s next-generation hardware chip for its self-driving program, but it will also contribute to the Optimus program and other AI-driven features in both vehicles and other projects. Currently, Tesla utilizes AI4, formerly known as HW4 or Hardware 4, in its vehicles.
Tesla teases new AI5 chip that will revolutionize self-driving
AI5 is specialized for use by Tesla as it will work in conjunction with the company’s Neural Networks, focusing on real-time inference to make safe and logical decisions during operation.
Musk said it was an “amazing design” and an “immense jump” from Tesla’s current AI4 chip. It will be roughly 40 times faster, and have 8 times the raw compute, with 9 times the memory capacity. It is also expected to be three times as efficient per watt as AI4.
“We’re going to focus TSMC and Samsung, initially, on AI5. The AI5 chip, design by Tesla, it’s an amazing design. I’ve spent almost every weekend for the last few months with the chip team working on AI5.”
It will be 40x better than the AI4 chip, Musk says.
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 22, 2025
AI5 will make its way into “maybe a small number of units” next year, Musk confirmed. However, it will not make its way to high-volume production until 2027. AI5 is not the last step, either, as Musk has already confirmed AI6 would likely enter production in mid-2028.
Tesla adds new feature that will be great for crowded parking situations
Tesla CEO Elon Musk shades Waymo: ‘Never really had a chance’
