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(Update: delayed) SpaceX fires up Falcon 9 for second Starlink launch this month

Six weeks after its last orbital launch and landing, Falcon 9 booster B1058 is ready to fly again. (Richard Angle)

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Update: SpaceX has delayed Falcon 9’s Starlink-20 to no earlier than (NET) 3:13 am EST (08:13 UTC) on Thursday, March 11th to allow “additional time for pre-launch checks.”

SpaceX is on track to launch its second Starlink mission this month after successfully completing an increasingly rare Falcon 9 static fire test at the launch pad.

B1058, the flight-proven Falcon 9 booster assigned to the mission, famously became the first privately-developed rocket to launch astronauts back in May 2020 and has completed another four commercial launches in the nine months since. Likely motivated by an abundance of caution after a Falcon 9 booster lost an engine mid-flight and subsequently failed its landing attempt last month, SpaceX chose to perform a static fire test prior to Falcon 9 B1058’s sixth launch, loading the rocket with liquid kerosene and oxygen and briefly igniting all nine of its engines.

Completed without apparent issue and putting on an exceptional show in the process, that static fire has allowed SpaceX to clear the Falcon 9 rocket and 20th batch of Starlink v1.0 satellites (Starlink-20) for a launch attempt at 9:58 pm EST (UTC-5) on Tuesday, March 9th.

Finally out from under the looming spectre of Starlink-17, possibly the most repeatedly delayed launch in SpaceX history, the company is clearly eager to get back to work and make up for a (relatively) slow two-launch February. According to CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX is chasing an ambitious target of 48 launches in 2021, requiring an average of four launches per month.

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A bit less than ten weeks into the new year, SpaceX has completed six launches – nothing to scoff at but still a third short of the nine launches the company would need to have averaged. To still hit that 48-flight target by the end of the year, SpaceX will now need to launch at least once per week for the next 42 weeks.

On the plus side, SpaceX’s 48-launch target firmly puts the company in the “shoot for the Moon, land among the stars” range. Even if it has a few rough months, “falling short” could still equate to an annual launch cadence in the high 30s to low 40s – still an extraordinarily feat and major improvement over SpaceX’s already impressive 26-launch record.

Not long after Falcon 9 B1058’s March 9th Starlink-20 mission, SpaceX has already scheduled a third Starlink launch – Starlink-21 – no earlier than (NET) March 13th, and at least two additional batches of spacecraft are ready to launch in the second half of the month pending launch pad and rocket availability.

Tune in below around 9:40 pm EST (02:40 UTC) to catch the seventh orbital SpaceX launch of the year 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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Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts in new video teasing capabilities

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet.

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Credit: Elon Musk | X

Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts, a new video released by CEO Elon Musk shows, a crazy development and advancement in the robotics project the company has been working on for a few years.

Optimus has been a major focus of Tesla for the past several years, especially as Musk has said he believes it will be the biggest product of all time and could be the biggest contributor to the company’s valuation.

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet:

The video shows Optimus working with a Kung Fu teacher, known as a Shifu, going through what appears to be some sort of routine of combinations. It’s quite impressive to see the fluidity of the movements and Optimus’s ability to keep up with Shifu.

Tesla has been “working hard” to scale Optimus production, Musk said last week, a project that has obviously confronted both AI and manufacturing teams with a variety of challenges.

The plan is to have an annual production run-rate of one million units by 2030, and there were plans to build 5,000 units this year.

Elon Musk gives update on Tesla Optimus progress

Musk still believes Optimus will make up roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s value. In January, he said it would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”

Tesla plans to launch the Gen 3 version of Optimus soon, and although a video of a new-look prototype was released by Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, the company’s frontman stated that this was not what the next-generation prototype would look like.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla has never shown Optimus V3 design yet

This video seems to show there is still significant progress being made on the Optimus project, and it will be perhaps one of the most impressive humanoid robots available to consumers in the coming years.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 gets new release date, Elon Musk details

“Last minute bug cropped up with V14. Released is pushed to Monday, but that gives us time to add a few more features.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving version 14 has gotten a new release date after new details from CEO Elon Musk opened up some new perspectives on the suite.

Originally slated for an “early wide release” of v14 this past week, then a launch of v14.1 and v14.2 this week and next week, respectively, delays arose after Tesla’s Autopilot team found some issues within the software.

Tesla FSD V14 set for early wide release next week: Elon Musk

Musk detailed on X this morning that a “last minute bug” appeared before release, which has now pushed FSD v14’s release back to this Monday:

Musk also said the delay would give Tesla the ability to “add a few more features,” which seems like an added advantage, although he did not provide any additional details on what these features could be.

In classic Musk fashion, he has teased the capabilities of this version of the FSD suite since it became public knowledge that Tesla was working on it. He said that it is the second most important update for the AI/Autopilot team since FSD v12.

V14 will have a parameter count that is ten times what previous iterations were, which should provide more accuracy and a more human-like operation.

Musk has said v14 “feels alive” and has used the word “sentient” to describe its performance. The goal with the new FSD rollouts is to eliminate as many interventions as possible, making it as close to human driving as possible.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla just got a weird price target boost from a notable bear

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Credit: Tesla Manufacturing

Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) just got a weird price target boost from a notable bear just a day after it announced its strongest quarter in terms of vehicle deliveries and energy deployments.

JPMorgan raised its price target on Tesla shares from $115 to $150. It maintained its ‘Underweight’ rating on the stock.

Despite Tesla reporting 497,099 deliveries, about 12 percent above the 443,000 anticipated from the consensus, JPMorgan is still skeptical that the company can keep up its momentum, stating most of its Q3 strength came from leaning on the removal of the $7,500 EV tax credit, which expired on September 30.

Tesla hits record vehicle deliveries and energy deployments in Q3 2025

The firm said Tesla benefited from a “temporary stronger-than-expected industry-wide pull-forward” as the tax credit expired. It is no secret that consumers flocked to the company this past quarter to take advantage of the credit.

The bump will need to be solidified as the start of a continuing trend of strong vehicle deliveries, the firm said in a note to investors. Analysts said that one quarter of strength was “too soon to declare Tesla as having sustainably returned to growth in its core business.”

JPMorgan does not anticipate Tesla having strong showings with vehicle deliveries after Q4.

There are two distinct things that stick out with this note: the first is the lack of recognition of other parts of Tesla’s business, and the confusion that surrounds future quarters.

JPMorgan did not identify Tesla’s strength in autonomy, energy storage, or robotics, with autonomy and robotics being the main focuses of the company’s future. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and Robotaxi efforts are incredibly relevant and drive more impact moving forward than vehicle deliveries.

Additionally, the confusion surrounding future delivery numbers in quarters past Q3 is evident.

Will Tesla thrive without the EV tax credit? Five reasons why they might

Tesla will receive some assistance from deliveries of vehicles that will reach customers in Q4, but will still qualify for the credit under the IRS’s revised rules. It will also likely introduce an affordable model this quarter, which should have a drastic impact on deliveries depending on pricing.

Tesla shares are trading at $422.40 at 2:35 p.m. on the East Coast.

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