Connect with us

News

SpaceX sets the stage for three Falcon 9 launches in six days

A 2016 Falcon 9 launch simulates (more or less) the appearance of a static fire test. (SpaceX)

Published

on

SpaceX has successfully tested a Falcon 9 rocket tasked with launching Italy’s CSG-2 Earth observation satellite as early as 6:11 pm EST (23:11 UTC), Thursday, January 27th.

For any European Space Agency (ESA) member state, launching a spacecraft on a non-European rocket is a rarity. Because the Ariane and Vega rockets that ESA has helped fund and European countries help build are simply no longer capable of consistently competing with SpaceX’s Falcon pricing, Arianespace and ESA have increasingly sought multi-year political mandates that force member states to agree to launch all possible payloads on Ariane, Vega, or Soyuz rockets. Only after Vega suffered multiple launch failures and its Vega C upgrade ran into multiple delays was Italy apparently able to consider launch alternatives for CSG-2 instead of delaying its already-delayed launch by another year or more.

Designed to monitor Earth’s surface towards a variety of ends with a technology known as scanning aperture radar (SAR), the roughly 2200-kilogram (~4900 lb) satellite is headed to a circular polar orbit 620 kilometers (385 mi) above the planet’s surface. Designed to launch on the primarily Italian-built Vega C rocket, which is itself designed to launch up to 2300 kg to low Earth orbit, CSG-2 will instead launch on SpaceX’s much larger Falcon 9.

As of a few years ago, a Falcon 9 launch with a flight-proven booster carried a base price of approximately $50M for at least 12 tons (~27,000 lb) to LEO. According to manufacturer Avio, Vega C is designed to launch 2.3 tons (~5100 lb) to LEO for about $40M. Given that SpaceX recently charged NASA $50M to launch the agency’s IXPE X-ray observatory with a drone ship landing for the mission’s Falcon 9 booster, it’s plausible that Italy is paying SpaceX less than $50M to launch CSG-2, which is light enough and headed to a simple enough orbit to allow its Falcon 9 booster to return to land for recovery.

According to CEO Elon Musk, the complexity of a drone ship landing and at-sea booster recovery adds significant cost (perhaps up to several hundred thousand dollars) to any Falcon launch that requires it. As such, Falcon 9’s return-to-launch-site (RTLS) landing could singlehandedly shave ~$500,000 from CSG-2’s launch price, making it even more cost-competitive with Vega.

Advertisement
Inspiration4, for example, launched about 30 minutes after sunset. (Richard Angle)

Thanks to the launch window SpaceX and ASI have settled on, CSG-2’s launch could be quite spectacular – and for more than just the crowd-favorite Falcon 9 RTLS landing it will include. Set to lift off just 15 minutes after sunset, the twilight sky (clouds permitting) will be dark blue as Falcon 9 lifts off and climbs into sunlight, backlighting the miles-long exhaust plumes of both stages.

The mission’s RTLS landing will only enhance the effect by adding the interaction of the exhaust plumes of both stages as CSG-2’s Falcon 9 booster flips around and boosts back towards the Florida coast. The sun may even backlight the booster’s exhaust during a reentry burn performed a few minutes after stage separation, hopefully resulting in a spectacular light show that lasts several minutes and is visible for hundreds of miles in any direction.

CSG-2 is the first of three SpaceX launches scheduled in six days. The company aims to launch CSG-2 at 6:11 pm EST on January 27th, Starlink 4-7 around 6:15 pm EST on January 29th, and NROL-87 as early as the morning of February 2nd. If all three avoid delays, NROL-87 will be SpaceX’s sixth launch in 27 days, making it the second time SpaceX has launched three times in one week and six times in four weeks.

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.

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Tesla analysts believe Musk and Trump feud will pass

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump’s feud shall pass, several bulls say.

Published

on

The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
President Donald J. Trump purchases a Tesla on the South Lawn, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

Tesla analysts are breaking down the current feud between CEO Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump, as the two continue to disagree on the “Big Beautiful Bill” and its impact on the country’s national debt.

Musk, who headed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump Administration, left his post in May. Soon thereafter, he and President Trump entered a very public and verbal disagreement, where things turned sour. They reconciled to an extent, and things seemed to be in the past.

However, the second disagreement between the two started on Monday, as Musk continued to push back on the “Big Beautiful Bill” that the Trump administration is attempting to sign into law. It would, by Musk’s estimation, increase spending and reverse the work DOGE did to trim the deficit.

President Trump has hinted that DOGE could be “the monster” that “eats Elon,” threatening to end the subsidies that SpaceX and Tesla receive. Musk has not been opposed to ending government subsidies for companies, including his own, as long as they are all abolished.

How Tesla could benefit from the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that axes EV subsidies

Despite this contentious back-and-forth between the two, analysts are sharing their opinions now, and a few of the more bullish Tesla observers are convinced that this feud will pass, Trump and Musk will resolve their differences as they have before, and things will return to normal.

ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood said this morning that the feud between Musk and Trump is another example of “this too shall pass:”

Additionally, Wedbush’s Dan Ives, in a note to investors this morning, said that the situation “will settle:”

“We believe this situation will settle and at the end of the day Musk needs Trump and Trump needs Musk given the AI Arms Race going on between the US and China. The jabs between Musk and Trump will continue as the Budget rolls through Congress but Tesla investors want Musk to focus on driving Tesla and stop this political angle…which has turned into a life of its own in a roller coaster ride since the November elections.”

Tesla shares are down about 5 percent at 3:10 p.m. on the East Coast.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Tesla scrambles after Musk sidekick exit, CEO takes over sales

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is reportedly overseeing sales in North America and Europe, Bloomberg reports.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla scrambled its executives around following the exit of CEO Elon Musk’s sidekick last week, Omead Afshar. Afshar was relieved of his duties as Head of Sales for both North America and Europe.

Bloomberg is reporting that Musk is now overseeing both regions for sales, according to sources familiar with the matter. Afshar left the company last week, likely due to slow sales in both markets, ending a seven-year term with the electric automaker.

Tesla’s Omead Afshar, known as Elon Musk’s right-hand man, leaves company: reports

Afshar was promoted to the role late last year as Musk was becoming more involved in the road to the White House with President Donald Trump.

Afshar, whose LinkedIn account stated he was working within the “Office of the CEO,” was known as Musk’s right-hand man for years.

Additionally, Tom Zhu, currently the Senior Vice President of Automotive at Tesla, will oversee sales in Asia, according to the report.

It is a scramble by Tesla to get the company’s proven executives over the pain points the automaker has found halfway through the year. Sales are looking to be close to the 1.8 million vehicles the company delivered in both of the past two years.

Tesla is pivoting to pay more attention to the struggling automotive sales that it has felt over the past six months. Although it is still performing well and is the best-selling EV maker by a long way, it is struggling to find growth despite redesigning its vehicles and launching new tech and improvements within them.

The company is also looking to focus more on its deployment of autonomous tech, especially as it recently launched its Robotaxi platform in Austin just over a week ago.

Tesla officially launches Robotaxi service with no driver

However, while this is the long-term catalyst for Tesla, sales still need some work, and it appears the company’s strategy is to put its biggest guns on its biggest problems.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla upgrades Model 3 and Model Y in China, hikes price for long-range sedan

Tesla’s long-range Model 3 now comes with a higher CLTC-rated range of 753 km (468 miles).

Published

on

Credit: Tesla China

Tesla has rolled out a series of quiet upgrades to its Model 3 and Model Y in China, enhancing range and performance for long-range variants. The updates come with a price hike for the Model 3 Long Range All-Wheel Drive, which now costs RMB 285,500 (about $39,300), up RMB 10,000 ($1,400) from the previous price.

Model 3 gets acceleration boost, extended range

Tesla’s long-range Model 3 now comes with a higher CLTC-rated range of 753 km (468 miles), up from 713 km (443 miles), and a faster 0–100 km/h acceleration time of 3.8 seconds, down from 4.4 seconds. These changes suggest that Tesla has bundled the previously optional Acceleration Boost for the Model 3, once priced at RMB 14,100 ($1,968), as a standard feature.

Delivery wait times for the long-range Model 3 have also been shortened, from 3–5 weeks to just 1–3 weeks, as per CNEV Post. No changes were made to the entry-level RWD or Performance versions, which retain their RMB 235,500 and RMB 339,500 price points, respectively. Wait times for those trims also remain at 1–3 weeks and 8–10 weeks.

Model Y range increases, pricing holds steady

The Model Y Long Range has also seen its CLTC-rated range increase from 719 km (447 miles) to 750 km (466 miles), though its price remains unchanged at RMB 313,500 ($43,759). The model maintains a 0–100 km/h time of 4.3 seconds.

Tesla also updated delivery times for the Model Y lineup. The Long Range variant now shows a wait time of 1–3 weeks, an improvement from the previous 3–5 weeks. The entry-level RWD version maintained its starting price of RMB 263,500, though its delivery window is now shorter at 2–4 weeks.

Advertisement

Tesla continues to offer several purchase incentives in China, including an RMB 8,000 discount for select paint options, an RMB 8,000 insurance subsidy, and five years of interest-free financing for eligible variants.

Continue Reading

Trending