SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launched NASA’s Psyche spacecraft on Friday morning, completing the second-ever interplanetary mission for the rocket, with the first being the Tesla Roadster.
Liftoff officially happened at 10:19 A.M. EDT, as Falcon Heavy’s 27 first-stage Merlin engines launched NASA’s Psyche probe toward an asteroid under the same name. Psyche won’t reach the asteroid until July 2029, according to Space.com.
Liftoff of Falcon Heavy!
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2023
“This is the beginning of a suite of amazing science missions we have coming up on Falcon Heavy,” Julianna Scheiman, Director of Civil Satellite Missions at SpaceX, said during a post-launch briefing.
The probe will travel 2.2 billion miles over its six-year journey.
The spacecraft will now travel six years and ~2.2 billion miles to the asteroid Psyche, currently orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter https://t.co/29bfT6fod2
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2023
The Launch
About 150 seconds after launch, Falcon Heavy’s side boosters cut their engines off, detached from the central core stage, and made their way back to Florida.
Four minutes after liftoff, the core booster shut down and separated from the Falcon Heavy’s second stage. This was responsible for carrying Psyche the rest of the way to orbital escape velocity, Space.com said.
The core booster was not saved as others have been in the past. Instead, SpaceX allotted maximum fuel as Psyche’s trajectory needed to be ensured. The core was destroyed and is in the sea.
By the eighth minute post-liftoff, Falcon Heavy’s side boosters activated their landing burns and touched down a few seconds later at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2, which are “several miles downrange from Pad 39A.”
Falcon Heavy’s side boosters have landed pic.twitter.com/2yn0lpEkHt
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2023
It took just over 62 minutes for Psyche to be deployed from Falcon Heavy’s upper stage.
Psyche Asteroid
The Psyche Asteroid is one of the most metal-rich in our solar system, and NASA Science Mission Directorate Nicola Fox talked about the agency’s mission recently:
“Psyche is by far the largest, and that’s why we want to go to it because the smaller ones are more likely to have been changed by things impacting them, whereas the big one, we think, is going to be completely unchanged.”
The Psyche Asteroid measures 173 miles across and 144 miles long. Its exact appearance is unknown, but scientists know it’s covered in nickel and iron.
Once NASA’s Psyche probe reaches the asteroid, it will be responsible for 21 months of mapping and analyzing the surface.
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News
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.
Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.
The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”
Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.
Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim
Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.
In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.
We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:
🚨 Tesla has removed the Model S and Model X Design Configurators from European customers
It will now bring up available inventory for those two vehicles instead of allowing you to build your own config pic.twitter.com/sMnGAr2kuu
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2025
Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.
Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.
Energy
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla has reportedly secured a sizable partnership with LGES for LFP cells, and there’s an extra positive out of it.
Tesla has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution in an effort to avoid tariff pressure and domesticate more of its supply chain.
Reuters is reporting that Tesla and LGES, a South Korean battery supplier of the automaker, signed a $4.3 billion deal for energy storage system batteries. The cells are going to be manufactured by LGES at its U.S. factory located in Michigan, the report indicates. The batteries will be the lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, chemistry.
Tesla delivers 384,000 vehicles in Q2 2025, deploys 9.6 GWh in energy storage
It is a move Tesla is making to avoid buying cells and parts from overseas as the Trump White House continues to use tariffs to prioritize domestic manufacturing.
LGES announced earlier today that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP cells over three years to a company, but it did not identify the customer, nor did the company state whether the batteries would be used in automotive or energy storage applications.
The deal is advantageous for both companies. Tesla is going to alleviate its reliance on battery cells that are built out of the country, so it’s going to be able to take some financial pressure off itself.
For LGES, the company has reported that it has experienced slowed demand for its cells in terms of automotive applications. It planned to offset this demand lag with more projects involving the cells in energy storage projects. This has been helped by the need for these systems at data centers used for AI.
During the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja confirmed that the company’s energy division had been impacted by the need to source cells from China-based suppliers. He went on to say that the company would work on “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers.”
It seems as if Tesla has managed to secure some of this needed domestic supply chain.
Lifestyle
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
Tesla adds on to the “fun” aspect of its vehicles.
Tesla has brought perhaps the coolest interior feature to its cars in a new update that is rolling out to vehicles now.
The feature will require a newer vehicle that has interior ambient lighting, which is present on the new Model S, Model X, Model 3 “Highland,” and Model Y “Juniper.” The Cybertruck also has ambient lighting strips throughout.
Tesla Model Y’s ambient lighting design changes revealed in leaked video
With the Version 2025.26+ Software Update, Tesla is rolling out a new “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music” feature, which is available on the Tesla Toybox:
Turn your Tesla into a rave cave with the new Light Sync feature 🎶
Rolling out now in software update 2025.26+ pic.twitter.com/IIsQxZ9jDP
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 29, 2025
To enable the feature, you’ll access the Toybox, choose “Light Sync,” and then choose “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music.”
Although it does not improve the performance of the vehicle, it is yet another example of Tesla making one of the coolest cars out there. This is truly a cool add-on that can be used to impress your friends and family.
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
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