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SpaceX delays Starlink doubleheader

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Update: To “allow additional time for pre-launch checkouts,” SpaceX has delayed Starlink 2-6 from January 30th to 8:15 am PST (16:15 UTC), January 31st and Starlink 5-3 from February 1st to February 2nd.

A pair of SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets are on track to round out the first month of 2023 and kick off the second with a Starlink double-header.

“To complete pre-launch checkouts,” SpaceX delayed its last launch of the month by 24 hours. The first Falcon 9 rocket will launch Starlink 2-6 and a D-Orbit rideshare payload no earlier than 8:29 am PST (16:29 UTC) on Monday, January 30th. The mission will lift off from SpaceX’s Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) SLC-4E pad and head southeast, skirting the California and Mexico coast. In case of bad weather or a minor technical issue, a backup window is available at 12:31 pm PST.

As few as 35.5 or 39.5 hours later, a second Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from SpaceX’s Florida-based NASA Kennedy Space Center LC-39A pad around 3:02 am EST (08:02 UTC) on Tuesday, February 1st.

Starlink 2-6

Kicking off the pair, Starlink 2-6 will be SpaceX’s ninth Starlink rideshare mission since the company began manifesting third-party payloads on its internet satellite launches in June 2020. Falcon 9 will launch the mission’s main payload – a batch of 49 Starlink V1.5 satellites – to a semi-polar orbit that will see them cross Earth’s equator at an angle of 70 degrees. Ordinarily, the mission would carry 51 Starlinks, but SpaceX has removed a pair of satellites to make room for Italian space logistics company D-Orbit’s ION SCV009 spacecraft.

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ION weighs around 160 kilograms (350 lb) on its own and is roughly the size of a large oven. D-Orbit designed the spacecraft to host fixed payloads and deploy rideshare satellites in orbit. It also has a propulsion system that allows it to provide “last-mile delivery services,” offering rideshare customers the ability to tweak the orbit their satellite ends up in. Space tugs like ION aim to give satellite owners some of the benefits of a dedicated rocket launch (custom orbit selection in particular) while retaining most of the cost savings rideshare launches enable.

A render of a D-Orbit ION vehicle.

After reaching orbit, Falcon 9 will deploy ION first, use thrusters to spin itself end over end, and then release all 49 Starlink satellites simultaneously. The spinning stage’s centrifugal force causes the satellite stack to naturally spread out within several hours. The satellites then use reaction wheels to stabilize their orientation, deploy solar panels to begin charging their batteries, and eventually use ion thrusters to climb to operational orbits.

ION SCV009 will attempt to test a new satellite separation system built by EBAD and demonstrate its ability to operate in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). The spacecraft will potentially lower itself to an altitude of 270 kilometers (170 mi).

Starlink 5-3

Starlink 5-3 will carry no rideshare payloads and will likely be nearly identical to Starlink 5-2, which SpaceX successfully launched on January 26th. The latest mission’s stack of 56 Starlink V1.5 satellites weighed 17.4 tons and was the heaviest payload SpaceX has ever launched. Starlink 5-3 is targeting the same orbit and will likely also carry 56 satellites.

Pad 39A last supported SpaceX’s fifth Falcon Heavy launch on January 15th and has been quickly converted back to its single-core Falcon 9 configuration for Starlink 5-3. After the Starlink mission, Pad 39A has at least two Dragon spacecraft launches scheduled before SpaceX will need to convert it back to a triple-booster configuration for Falcon Heavy’s sixth launch.

SpaceX is scheduled to launch Crew Dragon’s Crew-6 astronaut transport mission no earlier than February 26th, and Cargo Dragon’s Spx-27 cargo delivery mission on March 11th. Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch the giant ViaSat-3 communications satellite no earlier than March 24th.

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Tune in below around 8:25 am PST (16:25 UTC) to watch SpaceX Starlink 2-6 launch live.

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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Elon Musk

Tesla reveals it has expanded its Robotaxi fleet in Austin

there has never been an exact count of the Robotaxi fleet size, and Tesla continues to speak in cryptic fashion, only hinting at what the number of active vehicles could be.

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla revealed that it has expanded its Robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas, but has not yet disclosed the exact number of vehicles currently operating as driverless ride-hailing cars in the city.

Before Tesla launched the Robotaxi fleet in Austin on June 22, CEO Elon Musk stated that the fleet would be initially small, comprised of between ten and twenty vehicles in total.

The small fleet size was a way to limit rides and not overwhelm the company as it launched into a new territory: offering driverless rides to those looking to get around Austin. With safety being prioritized, it was understood.

However, there has never been an exact count of the Robotaxi fleet size, and Tesla continues to speak in cryptic fashion, only hinting at what the number of active vehicles could be.

On Tuesday, it expanded its geofence for the third time, increasing the service area in Austin beyond the downtown area and into the suburbs, including the airport and even the Gigafactory Texas.

Tesla one-ups Waymo once again with latest Robotaxi expansion in Austin

The size of the geofence is now 173 square miles, up from 91 square miles, which is what it grew to in early August with its second expansion.

The company also said it “increased the number of cars available by 50 percent,” but would not give an exact count:

Skeptics of the Robotaxi platform usually point to two things: the presence of a Safety Monitor in the vehicle and the lack of transparency regarding fleet size.

Tesla has done an excellent job of expanding the service area over the past two months, but it is also expanding the number of people it allows to hail a Robotaxi.

This makes the need for an increased fleet size more imperative.

However, no good reason comes to mind for the company not to tell an exact number, but Tesla has its justifications for it. Grok suggests the Robotaxi fleet could be anywhere from 30 to 75 vehicles in total, but this includes the Bay Area.

Musk did say Tesla is working to get the Bay Area fleet to over 100 vehicles. Hopefully, some clarification regarding fleet size will be provided in the coming weeks or months as the service area in Austin continues to expand.

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Tesla China working overtime to deliver Model Y L as quickly as possible

This was, at least, hinted at by Tesla China VP Grace Tao in a post on Weibo.

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Credit: Tesla China

The Tesla Model Y L appears to be a big hit in China, and this has resulted in Giga Shanghai doing all it can to meet all the orders for the extended wheelbase all-electric crossover.

This was, at least, hinted at by Tesla China VP Grace Tao in a post on Weibo.

Model Y L demand

The demand for the Model Y L in China seems to be substantial. Just days following the vehicle’s release, industry watchers estimated that Tesla received about 35,000 orders for the vehicle on the day of its launch. More recent estimates from industry watchers have suggested that Tesla China might have doubled its usual vehicle orders for August thanks to the new variant.

Considering the seemingly strong demand for the new Model Y L, it was no surprise that Tesla China would be extremely busy trying to address all the orders for the vehicle. Fortunately, VP Grace Tao highlighted in her Weibo post that Tesla is pushing hard to ensure that deliveries of the extended wheelbase all-electric crossover could start as soon as possible.

“Our colleagues at the Shanghai Gigafactory are working overtime to get the new car to you as soon as possible,” the Tesla China executive wrote in her Weibo post. 

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Model Y L deliveries

When the Model Y L was initially released, Tesla China listed the vehicle’s first deliveries to be sometime in September 2025. As of writing, however, new orders of the new Model Y L are listed with an estimated delivery date of October 2025. This suggests that the Model Y L has been sold out for September

The new Model Y L has the potential to be a best-seller for the electric vehicle maker, thanks in part to its comfortable six-seat configuration and its reasonable starting price of RMB 339,000 ($47,180). 

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Elon Musk’s xAI and X file antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI over AI exclusivity

The suit accuses the companies of violating antitrust rules by limiting competition in the AI sector.

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Credit: xAI/X

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI and social media platform X have filed a federal lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI. The suit accuses the companies of violating antitrust rules by limiting competition in the fast-growing AI sector.

The lawsuit

The lawsuit, filed on Monday, challenged Apple’s plan to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its devices. xAI argued that the partnership gives ChatGPT exclusive first-party access to hundreds of millions of iPhone users worldwide, providing an unfair landscape for competitors in the AI sector.

“As a result of the Apple-OpenAI deal, ChatGPT is not just the default — it is the only generative AI chatbot with a first-party integration into Apple’s smartphones,,” the lawsuit noted. The suit also stated that the deal would give OpenAI “exclusive access to billions of potential prompts.”

Musk’s filing describes the Apple-OpenAI agreement as an “unlawful” arrangement that unfairly disadvantages rivals and denies consumers choice. The complaint also accuses Apple of manipulating App Store rankings and delaying updates to disadvantage ChatGPT’s rivals, such as xAI’s very own Grok, as noted in a report from the Financial Times.

A broader feud

Musk’s move escalates an already contentious relationship with Apple and OpenAI. In 2022, he accused the iPhone maker of threatening to remove Twitter, now X, from its App Store, though he later resolved the “misunderstanding” with Apple CEO Tim Cook. 

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In 2023, Apple briefly paused advertising on X before resuming campaigns. Musk has also been outspoken against Apple’s 30% App Store commission.

OpenAI, for its part, has dismissed the claims in xAI and X’s lawsuit. In a comment, a spokesperson from the artificial intelligence startup stated that the suit was just part of Elon Musk’s tendency to harass the company. 

“This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” the OpenAI spokesperson stated.

Musk has had a turbulent relationship with OpenAI. Musk is a co-founder of the startup when it was launched as a nonprofit, though he left its board in 2018. Since then, Musk has been very critical of OpenAI’s shift to a for-profit entity. He has also escalated his rhetoric against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whom he has called a “liar” several times.

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