News
SpaceX’s first flight-proven Falcon Heavy Block 5 rocket ready for static fire test
According to NASASpaceflight.com, SpaceX is just ~48 hours away from Falcon Heavy Flight 3’s critical static fire test, in which all 27 of the rocket’s Merlin 1D engines will be briefly ignited.
If the routine test goes as planned, SpaceX’s third completed Falcon Heavy will be ready to lift off as early as 11:30 pm ET (03:30 UTC), June 24th. Atop the massive rocket will be the US Air Force’s Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) mission, a collection of 24 small satellites from a variety of US government agencies and academic institutions. Practically speaking, STP is often more of an engineered excuse to launch, involving satellites and customers that are willing to accept higher risk than more valuable payloads, making it far easier for the US military to certify new technologies and new commercial launch vehicles.
As previously discussed on Teslarati, STP-2 is an extremely ambitious mission that aims to simultaneously certify or pave the way towards certification of critical capabilities. First and foremost, it will (barring serious anomalies) give the US military the data it needs to certify SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket for all national defense launches, giving ULA’s Delta IV Heavy its first real competition in a decade and a half.
Included under the umbrella of that catch-all certification is a sort of torture-test validation of the long-coast capabilities of SpaceX’s Falcon upper stage. To successfully complete STP-2, the upper stage will be subjected to “four separate upper-stage engine burns, three separate deployment orbits, a final propulsive passivation maneuver, and a total mission duration of over six hours.” It will likely be SpaceX’s most technically-challenging launch ever.
Finally, the US Air Force has decided that STP-2 presents an excellent opportunity to begin the process of certifying flight-proven SpaceX rockets for military launches. The STP-2-related work is more of a preliminary effort for the USAF to actually figure out how to certify flight-proven commercial rockets, but it will still be the first time the a dedicated US military mission has flown on a flight-proven launch vehicle. Down the road, the processes set in place thanks – in part – to STP-2 and Falcon Heavy may also apply to aspirational rockets like Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ULA’s “SMART” concept for Vulcan reuse.
Still, New Glenn is unlikely to be ready for flight-proven military launches until the mid-2020s, while ULA has no plans to even attempt to implement Vulcan’s “SMART” reuse until ~2026, meaning that military certification probably wont come until 2028-2030 at the earliest. SpaceX has thus earned roughly half a decade where it will be the only viable US launch provider that can offer certified flight-proven hardware with an established record of reliability. Although the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) had a lone smallsat aboard SpaceX’s February 2019 launch of PSN-6 and Spaceflight’s GTO-1 mission, STP-2 will be the first time a dedicated Department of Defense mission has flown on flight-proven launch vehicle hardware since 1992 (STS-53).
Aside from flight-proven Falcon Heavy side boosters B1052 and B1053, STP-2 is expected to use a new center core, B1057. SpaceX is in the late stages of vehicle integration and should be nearly complete by Monday, June 17th in order to support a June 18th static fire. The specific static fire window is not yet public but Falcon Heavy will likely roll out to Pad 39A no less than 12 hours before.
Teslarati photographers Tom Cross and Pauline Acalin will both be on site with a bevy of remote cameras to capture SpaceX’s third Falcon Heavy before, during, and after liftoff. STP-2 will be Falcon Heavy’s first attempted nighttime launch. Stay tuned for updates as we get closer to T-0!
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Investor's Corner
Elon Musk’s 2025 pay package gets support from Tesla’s biggest bull
ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood has previously stated that she is quite confident that the vote on Elon Musk’s 2025 Performance Award would pass.
Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest and one of Tesla’s most ardent bulls, reiterated her support for Elon Musk’s 2025 CEO Performance Award.
Wood highlighted that Musk’s leadership attracts incredible talent, and it has allowed the companies he leads such as Tesla to become disruptors in their respective fields.
ARK Invest supports Musk’s leadership
Elon Musk’s 2025 CEO Performance Award has received a mixed reception. Proxy firms such as Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have stated that they would be voting against Musk’s pay package. Other entities, such as the State Board of Administration of Florida (SBA), have stated that they would be voting in favor of Tesla’s proposals.
ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, for her part, has previously stated that she is quite confident that the vote on Elon Musk’s 2025 Performance Award would pass. She also stated that a favorable result to the vote for Musk’s 2025 pay plan would be beneficial for Tesla.
“Elon Musk is the most productive human being on earth. And a human being who attracts incredible talent, people who want to solve the world’s hardest problems. This is a win-win for all of us if Elon succeeds this time,” Wood stated. Musk appreciated Wood’s comments, stating, “Thanks Cathie!” In a post on X.
ARK Invest has been one of Tesla’s most loyal bulls
Tesla is ARK Invest’s single largest holding, with the firm holding an estimated $1 billion worth of TSLA, as noted in an Insider report. Wood previously said she expects the approval of Musk’s pay package to trigger “super-exponential growth” for the automaker, as new products like the Cybercab and Optimus expand Tesla’s offerings.
“Because think about it. It is a convergence among three of our major platforms. So, robots, energy storage, AI, and it’s not stopping with Robotaxis. There’s a story beyond that with humanoid robots, and our $2,600 number has nothing for humanoid robots. We just thought it’d be an investment, period,” Wood stated during an appearance at Steven Bartlett’s podcast The Diary Of A CEO.
Investor's Corner
Tesla VP for AI software makes a case for upcoming Elon Musk shareholder vote
Elluswamy reiterated the idea that Tesla is indeed at a critical point in its history.
Tesla’s Director of Autopilot Software and VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy has shared his thoughts about CEO Elon Musk’s 2025 performance award. While the executive typically discusses topics related to the company’s tech and AI initiaives, Elluswamy made it a point to make a case for Musk’s proposed pay package.
Tesla’s VP for AI Software shares his insights
In a post on X, Elluswamy reiterated the idea that Tesla is indeed at a critical point in its history. This is because the company is changing from a leader in electric vehicles and a major player in the energy storage market to a powerhouse pioneer in robotics that are powered by real-world AI. As per the executive, Elon Musk’s leadership of Tesla is more relevant now more than ever. He also reported an X article he previously wrote about Elon Musk and Tesla.
“This note regarding the importance of Elon leading Tesla is more relevant now than ever. Tesla is at a critical juncture, as it is metamorphosing into the world leader in robotics. Creating large-scale, useful robots requires expertise across engineering design, manufacturing, real-world AI software, chips for AI, and more. Elon is, quite likely, the only person on Earth with deep skills and the right instincts across all these domains,” Elluswamy stated.
A push to support Musk’s 2025 performance award
In recent weeks, Tesla executives such as Board Chair Robyn Denholm have been encouraging TSLA shareholders to vote in favor of Elon Musk’s 2025 performance award, as well as other proposals that the company’s directors have argued are critical to the future of the company. These proposals, Tesla executives noted, are necessary to ensure that the company can achieve the ambitious targets of Elon Musk’s Master Plan Part IV.
Elon Musk’s pay package, as well as the company’s proposals, would be decided at the upcoming 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting, which would be held at Giga Texas on November 6, 2025. Needless to say, Tesla’s future might very well be decided during the event.
Tesla Cybercab is the company’s autonomy-geared automobile that will eventually begin the phase-out of human drivers. In recent days, however, there has been speculation regarding the vehicle’s equipment and whether it would be fitted with a typical steering wheel and pedals.
CEO Elon Musk put an end to this discussion, at least for now, as he maintains the vehicle will not have anything that would remotely resemble any possibility of any sort of manual operation.
The problem is, there is a flaw in his logic, and his justification for the reasoning is an opinion. But Musk has a special ability; he has the final say on what goes on at Tesla, and if he does or doesn’t want manual controls in the new vehicle, he’ll get his way.
On the All In Podcast on Friday, Musk gave his final answer to whether the Cybercab would have a steering wheel or pedals by stating it would not when the production units start rolling off lines in Q2 2026.
He provided a further explanation:
“The reality is, people may think they want to drive their car, but the reality is that they don’t. How many times have you been in an Uber or Lyft and said ‘I wish I could take over for the driver, get off my phone, and drive to my destination? 0.0 times.”
🚨 Elon Musk says Tesla will NOT put a steering wheel in the Cybercab (via All In Podcast):
“The reality is, people may think they want to drive their car, but the reality is that they don’t. How many times have you been in an Uber or Lyft and said ‘I wish I could take over for… pic.twitter.com/SGu3to5anA
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 31, 2025
Although the units that have been spotted on public roads in recent days are equipped with a steering wheel and pedals, it is because Tesla is testing the vehicle in real-world situations, and manual controls are required for it.
Tesla Cybercab spotted testing on public roads for the first time
Some Tesla fans in the community have said that the car seems more geared toward being suitable for manual operation as opposed to a fully autonomous vehicle primed for driverless ride-hailing.
Earlier this week, Tesla Board Chair Robyn Denholm said that if the company had to put a steering wheel or pedals into the Cybercab, it would.
Elon Musk’s 2025 pay package gets support from Tesla’s biggest bull
Tesla VP for AI software makes a case for upcoming Elon Musk shareholder vote
Tesla Cybercab steering wheel dilemma gets final answer from Elon Musk
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