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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ties turnaround record, nears 1000 Starlink satellites launched

SpaceX has successfully launched its 895th Starlink satellite while simultaneously tying Falcon 9's booster turnaround record. (SpaceX)

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SpaceX has successfully completed its 14th Starlink v1.0 launch less than a year after operational flights began and simultaneously tied its own world record for orbital-class rocket turnaround.

On the heels of an unusual 48-hour delay SpaceX says it used to double check that a minor Falcon 9 second stage camera issue was not indicative of deeper flaws, the rocket ultimately lifted off at 11:31 am EDT (15:31 UTC) from SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) LC-40 pad. As usual, 60 Starlink v1.0 satellites – weighing some 16 metric tons (~35,000 lb) – were loaded inside the payload fairing installed atop Falcon 9’s expendable second stage.

Two and a half minutes after liftoff, Falcon 9 booster B1060 shut down its nine Merlin 1D engines and detached from the second stage, immediately flipping itself around to face those engines towards its landing target. The second stage ignited its Merlin Vacuum (MVac) engine seconds later, burning towards an initial low Earth parking orbit for a six minutes. Thirty seconds prior to second engine cutoff (SECO-1), booster B1060 ignited its center Merlin 1D engine and slowed itself to a bullseye landing aboard drone ship Just Read The Instructions – tying the SpaceX-held world-record for orbital-class rocket turnaround.

Falcon 9 booster B1060 streaks through vacuum towards drone ship JRTI as the rocket’s payload fairing jettisons to expose 60 new Starlink satellites, followed by MVac’s burn towards orbit. (SpaceX)

For reusable rockets, that turnaround record refers to the time between two orbital-class launches with the same vehicle – in this case, Falcon 9 booster B1060. The SpaceX rocket managed to launch two separate Starlink missions – Starlink-11 and Starlink-14 – just 51 days, 2 hours, and 45 minutes, narrowly missing Falcon 9 booster B1058’s record by a measly 37 minutes.

Had SpaceX managed to avoid three days of delays, Starlink-14 would have seen B1060 break B1058’s record by three days. Ultimately, the competition is almost entirely symbolic, given that SpaceX effectively has a monopoly over reusable orbital-class launch capabilities and will almost inevitably continue to beat its own records as it grows to become the world’s foremost expert in reusable rocketry.

B1058 set the current world record when it launched ANASIS II just 51.08 days after sending Crew Dragon and two NASA astronauts on their way to orbit. (Richard Angle)

B1060’s Starlink-14 launch and landing represents the 63rd time SpaceX has successfully landed a Falcon booster, as well as the 55th orbital launch to include a successful booster landing and 43rd mission to use a flight-proven rocket. Including Falcon 1 and Falcon Heavy, Starlink-14 also marked SpaceX’s 100th successful launch since the company’s first success in September 2008.

As of October 24th, SpaceX has now launched an incredible 895 Starlink satellites in 17 months. (SpaceX)

If all 60 Starlink-14 satellites manage to boost up to their final orbits, SpaceX will soon have a constellation of more than 800 operational communications satellites – perhaps just three launches away from crossing the 1000-satellite mark. Typically averaging a boost of 6 km (3.7 mi) in orbital altitude every day, each batch of Starlink satellites takes approximately 30-60 days to reach their operational orbits and join the rest of the fleet. SpaceX has already indicated that the first public Starlink beta tests will begin to rollout once Starlink-13 satellites are operational – a milestone they will likely cross in November.

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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Amazon shuts out Elon Musk’s Grok Bot so he may just build his own rival store

Musk promises SpaceX will cover Grok Bot purchase errors, tells users to shop beyond Amazon.

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Concept rendering showing a silhouette of Elon Musk, arms folded, overlooking a sprawling modern Amazon warehouse via Grok
Concept rendering showing a silhouette of Elon Musk, arms folded, overlooking a sprawling modern Amazon warehouse via Grok

Elon Musk said SpaceX will reimburse users if Grok Bot botches a purchase or leaks their card details. A few hours later he was telling users to take their shopping elsewhere after Amazon shut the agent out.

The first post was a reply to an X user who said Grok Bot booked him a flight after he sent a photo of his credit card. “This works well,” Musk wrote. “If Grok @Bot makes a mistake with a purchase or leaks your card (never happened yet), SpaceX will make you whole,” said Musk.

The second came after another user posted the error his Grok Bot hit on Amazon: “Continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon’s Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed.” The user said his bots can no longer order from the site. Musk answered, “Just ask Grok @Bot to buy what you want someplace else and get a better deal. There are far more purchasing websites than just Amazon!” He later added, “Maybe we should start a competitor to Amazon,” a possible hint at an X shopping service.

The Amazon block did not start Thursday. A reply to Musk on October 10 said Amazon was blocking the bot, and Musk responded that Grok would find another way, then showed an order it placed on Lego’s website.

The latest reimbursement promise builds on late August when Musk told a Tesla investor weighing whether to give Grok Bot access to his bank accounts, “If Grok Bot messes up, we will make you whole,” as Teslarati covered when SpaceXAI added its Finance integration. That promise goes further than the company’s consumer terms, which make users responsible for what their agents do and generally cap liability at the greater of fees paid or $100. Neither Thursday post says those terms have changed, so for now it remains a statement on X rather than a published policy.

The two posts matter to Tesla owners because Grok Bot is no longer limited to a phone. Tesla brought it into its vehicles on September 22, and it is now enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet, as noted when Teslarati looked at why Grok Bot may be the Cybercab’s real advantage. A rider who asks for groceries or a coffee order is relying on retailers that let the agent in. Amazon has now said it will not, and Musk’s answer is to route around it.

Amazon has not commented publicly on the block in the posts Teslarati reviewed, and it is unclear whether Musk will follow through on a rival store.

So, how many of you do the vast majority of shopping on Amazon and hate that you do? Comment and let us know your thoughts!

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Elon Musk says Tesla’s Roadster demo could be a bang, quite literally

Musk says tonight’s Roadster demo will be a banger, maybe literally. The clues add up.

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Elon Musk spent Wednesday and Thursday stacking teases on top of Tesla’s Roadster event, and the wording is getting harder to read as routine hype. Tesla streams the unveil tonight at 7:55 p.m. Central on X. Musk has called it “a candidate for greatest product demo of all time,” then added that “this demo will be a BANGER, probably metaphorically, though some chance literally.”

The “some chance literally” part is the line to watch. The Roadster has been tied to a SpaceX option package since 2018, and as we reported when the date was announced, the system is reportedly codenamed A71 and uses cold gas thrusters fed by a composite overwrapped pressure vessel, the same tank design SpaceX uses on Falcon 9. Musk has said a thruster equipped car could reach 60 mph in about 1.1 seconds. Cold gas thrusters firing at full output are loud, and reports ahead of the event say the car will be unmanned with spectators kept several hundred yards back. A literal bang could simply mean a demonstration that sounds like one, though it is also an admission that something could go wrong on stage.

Then there is “Timing is everything,” which Musk posted a day earlier. Stocktwits noted that 7:55 p.m. is 19:55 on a 24 hour clock, which echoes 1955, the year Marty McFly travels to in Back to the Future. Musk has made that connection before. In 2019 he replied to an animation of a flying DeLorean by saying the new Roadster “will actually do something like this.” Nothing from Tesla confirms the movie reference, but the stream time was chosen by someone, and Tesla has not been shy about this kind of wink.

Also, Tesla said it moved the event because it “can only be held outdoors,” and Musk then wrote that the demo was postponed “due to high winds,” as Teslarati covered at the time. A car running a standing start in front of a crowd shrugs off wind. A car that leaves the ground does not. The venue near SpaceX’s McGregor test site and the FAA airspace closures reported around the original date point the same way, though we also noted the delay could be a plain safety precaution. Musk has also described the new Roadster as “beyond movies, beyond imagination, beyond human, yet still made by humans on Earth.”

The only official figures remain the 2017 ones: 620 miles of range, a top speed above 250 mph, a 1.9 second 0 to 60 time, and prices of $200,000 for the base car and $250,000 for the Founders Series. Production is expected at Giga Texas in 2027 or 2028. Tesla has said the event will cover pricing, specifications and production targets, and its livestream preview has the full rundown. Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21, so whatever lands tonight will be fresh going into that call. We will have live coverage as soon as the stream starts.

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Elon Musk breaks his silence on the Starlink impact to Ukraine drones

Musk says the US military and president set Starshield limits, not SpaceX, amid Ukraine complaints.

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Elon Musk says the speed limit cutting out Ukraine’s military Starlink terminals is not SpaceX’s decision. In a post on X Wednesday, Musk wrote that “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” He added that Starlink is a commercial service limited to civilian or defensive activities and “cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”

He was replying to Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s former defense minister, who had thanked Musk for restoring connectivity at speeds up to 160 km/h and said removing the Starshield limit entirely is “now critical for Ukraine’s defense.”

The complaint started Tuesday night, when Ukrainian officials said military terminals began losing service above roughly 100 mph. Presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said the defense forces got no warning and several missions were disrupted, as Teslarati reported earlier Wednesday. The 7th Rapid Reaction Corps told Reuters connections dropped for 10 to 20 seconds at speeds well below the limit, which made drones harder to control. Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, asked Musk on X whether he is “playing politics with your products again.”

That is why the Starlink and Starshield distinction matters. SpaceX introduced Starshield in 2022 as the government version of Starlink, with an initial focus on Earth observation, communications and hosted payloads. It won a Space Force contract in 2023 with a $70 million ceiling. In December 2024, the Pentagon moved Ukraine’s terminals onto Starshield, covering about 3,000 units across two contracts. Ukraine’s military connections therefore run through a service that Musk now says sits under Washington’s control.

SpaceX pitches subscription model for Trump’s Golden Dome

While Musk’s post describes who holds authority, it does not infer that anyone ordered the limit, and neither SpaceX nor the US government has confirmed who set it. Ukrainian officials have pointed to the timing, which follows President Trump’s push for an energy ceasefire and Musk’s Saturday post that “Zelensky has gone too far.” The BBC noted Trump denied threatening to restrict intelligence sharing with Kyiv, and no evidence has been presented that Washington requested the cap.

The episode also revives a promise from 2025. After Poland accused him of threatening Ukraine’s access, Musk said Starlink “will never turn off its terminals” and would not be used as a bargaining chip. Poland has since supplied more than 29,000 terminals to Ukraine. Teslarati also covered Kyiv’s search for Starlink alternatives in 2025, and the latest dispute gives that search new urgency.

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