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SpaceX fires up Falcon 9 booster destined for Crew Dragon’s astronaut launch debut

SpaceX Falcon 9 booster B1058 successfully completed a static fire in a critical step towards Crew Dragon's first crewed launch. (SpaceX)

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6 years ago

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SpaceX announced that it has successfully completed a routine static fire acceptance test of the Falcon 9 booster that will eventually support Crew Dragon’s inaugural astronaut launch, expected no earlier than early 2020.

The booster in question – believed to be Falcon 9 B1058 – is very likely the first new Falcon 9 booster SpaceX has shipped to McGregor, Texas and test-fired in more than four months, an unusual lull for the typically busy launch company. If all goes according to plan, B1058 will become SpaceX’s first truly human-rated commercial rocket and will support its first human spaceflight attempt ever, a huge milestone along the company’s path to the sustainable colonization of Mars.

After multiple years of cooperative agreements and funding awards, NASA contracted with providers SpaceX and Boeing in September 2014 to deliver US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on their respective Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft. Initially hoped to result in the first orbital launches as early as late-2017, Congress’ chronic and systematic underfunding of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) – as well as a tinge of naive optimism in both providers – combined to delay those launch debuts by multiple years.

SpaceX performed a successful static fire of Falcon 9 B1051 – the first Crew Dragon-rated booster – on October 25th, 2018, a milestone followed more than four months later by an impressively flawless orbital debut of the next-generation spacecraft. Boeing anticipates that Starliner’s own uncrewed orbital debut could occur as early as October 2019, while Starliner’s crewed flight debut is unlikely to occur until Q1 2020.

A render of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. (Boeing)
Crew Dragon approaches the ISS during its orbital launch debut, March 3rd. (NASA)

Human spaceflight: it ain’t easy

Although Crew Dragon’s inaugural launch, orbital mission, reentry, and landing was so flawless that SpaceX’s director of mission management stated that he “[couldn’t] believe how well the whole mission has gone”, the recovered spacecraft was destroyed during a catastrophic and highly consequential explosion less than six weeks after splashdown. After a thorough three-month investigation, SpaceX and NASA announced their preliminary findings on July 15th, 2019, concluding that an exotic titanium fire most likely killed the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Both NASA and SpaceX spokespersons were quite blunt about their opinions that it was possible – albeit highly unlikely – that Crew Dragon would be able to perform its first crewed launch before the end of 2019, a mission that was nominally planned as early as July or August 2019 prior to capsule C201’s explosion.

As such, it’s all but certain that Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 test flight will slip into early 2020, perhaps January or February barring additional delays. On a more positive note, SpaceX appears to be on track for a critical in-flight abort (IFA) test of Crew Dragon – using the spacecraft originally intended for Demo-2 – in “October or November”. Certain to be a spectacular flight one way or another, the Falcon 9 booster – believed to be B1046.4 – and upper stage set to support the test will likely be destroyed immediately after Dragon separates, smashing head-on into a veritable wall of supersonic air.

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By all appearances, Falcon 9 B1058’s McGregor, TX static fire is the facility’s first booster static fire since late-April 2019, an extremely rare lull for a company that averaged the completion of almost one new booster per month in 2018. This can likely be explained in large part by the spectacular success of SpaceX’s highly-reusable Falcon 9 Block 5 upgrade.

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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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Tesla lands regulatory green light for Robotaxi testing in new state

This will be the third state in total where Tesla is operating Robotaxi, following Austin and California.

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3 hours ago

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September 11, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has landed a regulatory green light to test its Robotaxi platform in a new state, less than three months after the ride-hailing service launched in Texas.

Tesla first launched its driverless Robotaxi suite in Austin, Texas, back on June 22. Initially offering rides to a small group of people, Tesla kept things limited, but this was not to be the mentality for very long.

It continued to expand the rider population, the service area, and the vehicle fleet in Austin.

The company also launched rides in the Bay Area, but it does use a person in the driver’s seat to maintain safety. In Austin, the “Safety Monitor” is present in the passenger’s seat during local rides, and in the driver’s seat for routes that involve highway driving.

Tesla is currently testing the Robotaxi platform in other states. We reported that it was testing in Tempe, Arizona, as validation vehicles are traveling around the city in preparation for Robotaxi.

Tesla looks to make a big splash with Robotaxi in a new market

Tesla is also hoping to launch in Florida and New York, as job postings have shown the company’s intention to operate there.

However, it appears it will launch in Nevada before those states, as the company submitted its application to obtain a Testing Registry certification on September 3. It was processed by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles Office of Business Licensing on September 10.

It will then need to self-certify for operations, essentially meaning they will need to comply with various state requirements.

This will be the third state in total where Tesla is operating Robotaxi, following Austin and California.

CEO Elon Musk has stated that he believes Robotaxi will be available to at least half of the U.S. population by the end of the year. Geographically, Tesla will need to make incredible strides over the final four months of the year to achieve this.

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Tesla is improving this critical feature in older vehicles

Published

5 hours ago

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September 11, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is set to improve a critical feature that has not been present in older vehicles with a new update.

Tesla vehicles feature a comprehensive suite of driver assistance features, some of which aid in driving itself, while others support the vehicle’s surroundings.

One of those features is that of Driver Visualization, and with the rollout of a new update, owners of Intel-based Tesla vehicles are receiving an upgrade that will come with a simple software update.

Tesla plans to use Unreal Engine for driver visualization with crazy upgrade

The update will provide new visualizations while Intel-based vehicles are in reverse, a feature that was not previously available, but will be with Software Update 2025.32.2.

The improvement was spotted by Not a Tesla App via TheBeatYT_evil:

Previously, vehicles Tesla built were equipped with Intel-based processors, but newer cars feature the AMD chip, which is capable of rendering these visualizations as they happen. They were capable of visualizations when driving forward, but not in reverse, which is what this change resolves.

It is a good sign for those with Intel-based vehicles, as Tesla seems to be paying attention to what those cars are not capable of and improving them.

This was an undocumented improvement associated with this particular update, so you will not find any mention of it in the release notes that Tesla distributes with each update.

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Tesla looks to make a big splash with Robotaxi in a new market

Tesla has been transparent that it is prioritizing safety, but it believes it can expand to basically any geographical location within the United States and find success with its Robotaxi suite. CEO Elon Musk said it could be available to half of the U.S. population by the end of the year.

Published

7 hours ago

on

September 11, 2025

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Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | X

Tesla is looking to make a big splash with Robotaxi in a new market, as the company was spotted testing validation vehicles in one region where it has not yet launched its ride-hailing service.

After launching Robotaxi in Austin in late June, Tesla followed up with a relatively quick expansion to the Bay Area of California. Both service areas are operating with a geofence that is expansive: In Texas, it is 173 square miles, while in the Bay Area, it is roughly 400 square miles.

Tesla has been transparent that it is prioritizing safety, but it believes it can expand to basically any geographical location within the United States and find success with its Robotaxi suite. CEO Elon Musk said it could be available to half of the U.S. population by the end of the year.

There have been plenty of reports out there that have speculated as to where Tesla would land next to test Robotaxi, and Nevada, Florida, Arizona, and New York have all been in the realm of possibility. These regions will need to approve Tesla for regulatory purposes before Robotaxi can officially operate.

Tesla is still testing and performing validation in several regions, and in Tempe, Arizona, things are moving forward as a Model Y with a LiDAR rig was spotted performing ground truth for the platform:

With the LiDAR unit, many followers of the self-driving and autonomy space might wonder why Tesla uses these apparatuses during validation, especially considering the company’s stance and vision-based approach.

LiDAR is used for “ground truth,” which is basically a solidification or confirmation of what the cameras on the car are seeing. It is a great way to essentially confirm the accuracy of the vision-based suite, and will not be used on Robotaxi units used within the ride-hailing suite.

The Robotaxi platform was made available to the public earlier this month, as Tesla launched its app for iOS users.

Tesla Robotaxi app download rate demolishes Uber, Waymo all-time highs

Downloading the app allows you to join a waitlist, giving you the opportunity to utilize and test the Robotaxi platform in either Austin or the Bay Area.

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