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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket tests engines for first launch and landing of the new decade
SpaceX has successfully fired up a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time in 2020, setting the company up for the first of potentially dozens of Starlink launches over the next 12 months.
On the afternoon of January 4th, SpaceX loaded Falcon 9 with hundreds of tons of liquid oxygen, refined kerosene (RP-1), nitrogen, and helium and ultimately ignited all nine of the booster’s Merlin 1D engines, briefly producing some 7600 kN (1.7 million lbf) of thrust in a routine test known as a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and static fire. As is tradition, SpaceX confirmed that the test looked successful just a handful of minutes after it was completed and verified that the rocket is now scheduled to launch 60 new Starlink satellites as early as 9:19 pm ET, January 6th (02:19 UTC, Jan 7).
Set to lift off from its LC-40 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) launch pad, SpaceX’s first launch of the new year and decade hints at what is expected to follow over the course of 2020. In simple terms, the company’s ambitions have never been higher and anywhere from 36 to 38 orbital launches are scheduled between now and 2021 – some 65% of which will likely be internal Starlink missions.
If SpaceX manages to launch even half as many Starlink missions as it says it wants to this year, the company will be heading into 2021 with an operational internet satellite constellation nearly a thousand spacecraft strong – almost enough to ensure uninterrupted global coverage. Already, if SpaceX’s January 6th launch – known as Starlink V1 L2 (the second launch of v1.0 satellites) – goes as planned, the company will almost certainly become the owner of the world’s largest commercial satellite constellation less than eight months after it began launching its unique flat-packed spacecraft.
In a classic SpaceX move, the company’s Starlink satellite bus is a radical departure from all other commercial spacecraft, opting for a table-like rectangular shape that is extremely flat. While the rectangular shape – likely chosen for the extreme ease of manufacturing it should allow – significantly decreases packing efficiency, Starlink’s flat design and unique deployment mechanism means that SpaceX can fit an unprecedented 60 satellites (each weighing more than 250 kg or 550 lb) into a single lightly-modified Falcon 9 payload fairing.
Ultimately, SpaceX also design its Starlink satellites to be dramatically more robust than any comparable commercial spacecraft, meaning that they are meant to tolerate the violent acoustic launch environment without foam sound suppression panels that otherwise take up space inside Falcon 9’s fairing. Additionally, they are meant to survive the odd collision during their bizarre deployment, in which Falcon 9’s upper stage spins itself like a fan and releases the entire 60-satellite stack at once. Further, this means that Starlink satellites can be transported from their Washington state factory to Cape Canaveral, Florida far more easily and cheaply than almost any other spacecraft of a similar size and weight.
Falcon 9’s second fourth flight
It’s a mouthful, but SpaceX’s Starlink-2 mission will technically mark Falcon 9’s second fourth flight, meaning that it will be the second time a single Falcon 9 booster launches (and optimally lands) for the fourth time. Thrice-flown Falcon 9 booster B1049 has been assigned to support the launch.
The fourth completed Falcon 9 Block 5 booster, B1049 debuted on September 10th, 2018 on the Telstar 18V satellite launch, followed by a second flight (Iridium-8) in January 2019 and its third and most recent launch in May 2019. B1049’s most recent mission happened to be the very first dedicated Starlink launch, placing 60 Starlink v0.9 spacecraft in orbit in a sort of massive beta test of SpaceX’s cutting-edge satellite technology and design.
In support of Starlink V1 L1, the first launch of finalized Starlink v1.0 satellites, Falcon 9 booster B1048 became the first SpaceX rocket to successfully launch and land four times in November 2019, safely returning to shore aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) a few days later. With (hopefully) two (and soon three) recovered boosters with four flights each under their belts, SpaceX will have a relative wealth of data it can then use to plot the way forward to fifth flights of boosters and beyond – halfway to the minimum Block 5 design goal of 10 launches apiece.
Teslarati photographer Richard Angle (@RDanglePhoto) will be on-site to capture SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 launch and booster recovery of the 2020s. Stay tuned for more details and photos as the launch nears!
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Tesla has officially launched public Robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas, without a Safety Monitor in the vehicle, marking the first time the company has removed anyone from the vehicle other than the rider.
The Safety Monitor has been present in Tesla Robotaxis in Austin since its launch last June, maintaining safety for passengers and other vehicles, and was placed in the passenger’s seat.
Tesla planned to remove the Safety Monitor at the end of 2025, but it was not quite ready to do so. Now, in January, riders are officially reporting that they are able to hail a ride from a Model Y Robotaxi without anyone in the vehicle:
I am in a robotaxi without safety monitor pic.twitter.com/fzHu385oIb
— TSLA99T (@Tsla99T) January 22, 2026
Tesla started testing this internally late last year and had several employees show that they were riding in the vehicle without anyone else there to intervene in case of an emergency.
Tesla has now expanded that program to the public. It is not active in the entire fleet, but there are a “few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors,” Ashok Elluswamy said:
Robotaxi rides without any safety monitors are now publicly available in Austin.
Starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time. https://t.co/ShMpZjefwB
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) January 22, 2026
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
The Robotaxi program also operates in the California Bay Area, where the fleet is much larger, but Safety Monitors are placed in the driver’s seat and utilize Full Self-Driving, so it is essentially the same as an Uber driver using a Tesla with FSD.
In Austin, the removal of Safety Monitors marks a substantial achievement for Tesla moving forward. Now that it has enough confidence to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis altogether, there are nearly unlimited options for the company in terms of expansion.
While it is hoping to launch the ride-hailing service in more cities across the U.S. this year, this is a much larger development than expansion, at least for now, as it is the first time it is performing driverless rides in Robotaxi anywhere in the world for the public to enjoy.
Tesla has scheduled its Earnings Call for Q4 and Full Year 2025 for next Wednesday, January 28, at 5:30 p.m. EST, and investors are already preparing to get some answers from executives regarding a wide variety of topics.
The company accepts several questions from retail investors through the platform Say, which then allows shareholders to vote on the best questions.
Tesla does not answer anything regarding future product releases, but they are willing to shed light on current timelines, progress of certain projects, and other plans.
There are five questions that range over a variety of topics, including SpaceX, Full Self-Driving, Robotaxi, and Optimus, which are currently in the lead to be asked and potentially answered by Elon Musk and other Tesla executives:
- You once said: Loyalty deserves loyalty. Will long-term Tesla shareholders still be prioritized if SpaceX does an IPO?
- Our Take – With a lot of speculation regarding an incoming SpaceX IPO, Tesla investors, especially long-term ones, should be able to benefit from an early opportunity to purchase shares. This has been discussed endlessly over the past year, and we must be getting close to it.
- When is FSD going to be 100% unsupervised?
- Our Take – Musk said today that this is essentially a solved problem, and it could be available in the U.S. by the end of this year.
- What is the current bottleneck to increase Robotaxi deployment & personal use unsupervised FSD? The safety/performance of the most recent models or people to monitor robots, robotaxis, in-car, or remotely? Or something else?
- Our Take – The bottleneck seems to be based on data, which Musk said Tesla needs 10 billion miles of data to achieve unsupervised FSD. Once that happens, regulatory issues will be what hold things up from moving forward.
- Regarding Optimus, could you share the current number of units deployed in Tesla factories and actively performing production tasks? What specific roles or operations are they handling, and how has their integration impacted factory efficiency or output?
- Our Take – Optimus is going to have a larger role in factories moving forward, and later this year, they will have larger responsibilities.
- Can you please tie purchased FSD to our owner accounts vs. locked to the car? This will help us enjoy it in any Tesla we drive/buy and reward us for hanging in so long, some of us since 2017.
- Our Take – This is a good one and should get us some additional information on the FSD transfer plans and Subscription-only model that Tesla will adopt soon.
Tesla will have its Earnings Call on Wednesday, January 28.
Elon Musk shared an incredible detail about Tesla Cybercab’s potential efficiency, as the company has hinted in the past that it could be one of the most affordable vehicles to operate from a per-mile basis.
ARK Invest released a report recently that shed some light on the potential incremental cost per mile of various Robotaxis that will be available on the market in the coming years.
The Cybercab, which is detailed for the year 2030, has an exceptionally low cost of operation, which is something Tesla revealed when it unveiled the vehicle a year and a half ago at the “We, Robot” event in Los Angeles.
Musk said on numerous occasions that Tesla plans to hit the $0.20 cents per mile mark with the Cybercab, describing a “clear path” to achieving that figure and emphasizing it is the “full considered” cost, which would include energy, maintenance, cleaning, depreciation, and insurance.
Probably true
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2026
ARK’s report showed that the Cybercab would be roughly half the cost of the Waymo 6th Gen Robotaxi in 2030, as that would come in at around $0.40 per mile all in. Cybercab, at scale, would be at $0.20.
Credit: ARK Invest
This would be a dramatic decrease in the cost of operation for Tesla, and the savings would then be passed on to customers who choose to utilize the ride-sharing service for their own transportation needs.
The U.S. average cost of new vehicle ownership is about $0.77 per mile, according to AAA. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft rideshares often cost between $1 and $4 per mile, while Waymo can cost between $0.60 and $1 or more per mile, according to some estimates.
Tesla’s engineering has been the true driver of these cost efficiencies, and its focus on creating a vehicle that is as cost-effective to operate as possible is truly going to pay off as the vehicle begins to scale. Tesla wants to get the Cybercab to about 5.5-6 miles per kWh, which has been discussed with prototypes.
Additionally, fewer parts due to the umboxed manufacturing process, a lower initial cost, and eliminating the need to pay humans for their labor would also contribute to a cheaper operational cost overall. While aspirational, all of the ingredients for this to be a real goal are there.
It may take some time as Tesla needs to hammer the manufacturing processes, and Musk has said there will be growing pains early. This week, he said regarding the early production efforts:
“…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.”
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla Earnings Call: Top 5 questions investors are asking
