SpaceX
SpaceX’s flawless Falcon Heavy Block 5 launch and landing in pictures
In the afterglow of SpaceX’s successful Falcon Heavy Block 5 debut, also the rocket’s first commercial mission, there is no better time to appreciate the countless dozens upon dozens of photos and videos taken of Falcon Heavy’s launch and back-to-back booster landings.
Teslarati photographers Tom Cross and Pauline Acalin were both on the ground with more than eight cameras split between them, many of which were able to capture some spectacular photos of the world’s largest rocket throughout its flawless commercial debut. Perhaps most notable are photos and videos from those with cameras (or job sites) near SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Landing Zones 1 and 2, in some cases producing videos of the multiple sonic booms produced by Falcon Heavy’s side boosters during the transition from hypersonic to subsonic speeds.
Both Teslarati photographers produced some amazing photos over the course of setting up cameras to capture Falcon Heavy and observing its commercial launch debut from approximately 7 miles (11.3 km) away. This included distant shots of Falcon Heavy during all visible stages of flight, including liftoff, ascent, side booster separation, and both side booster landings.
Inside the splash zone
SpaceX’s own official remote cameras then joined press photographers like Tom and Pauline to capture Falcon Heavy’s Pad 39A liftoff from a distance that would likely maim or kill a human standing in the same position. Triggered to snap photos by the actual sound of the rocket launching, these cameras can capture views that would otherwise be nearly inaccessible.
At liftoff, Falcon Heavy Block 5 likely produces anywhere from 5.1-5.6 million pounds of thrust (23,000-25,500 kN) that is immediately countered by a huge deluge of water used to prevent the sheer sound of its Merlin 1D engines from damaging themselves or other parts of the rocket. This ends up producing spectacular clouds of steam, often an iconic feature of most rocket launches. Falcon Heavy is currently the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of ~2.5 and will hold on to that title until NASA’s SLS rocket debuts, likely no less than ~48 months away.
The grand finale
Finally, there are the photos and videos of Falcon Heavy’s side booster recovery. Aside from a select few photographers working for SpaceX or the Air Force, as well as Cape Canaveral AFS and Kennedy Space Center employees, the closest a member of the press can get to one of SpaceX’s Landing Zone Falcon recoveries is around four miles (6.4 km) away. Photos (and the aural experience) of Falcon landings from four miles away are still absolutely spectacular, but they can’t compete with the privileged access described above.
One such video taken by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) engineer offers an extraordinary up-close view of both Falcon Heavy Block 5 side boosters – B1052 and B1053 – safely returning to Earth after their first operational launches. Likely standing near the top of ULA’s LC-37 Delta IV launch pad integration facilities, Mr. Krishnan’s video does an excellent job
Located less than 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away from SpaceX’s Landing Zones, this is a perspective that very few humans will ever experience, owing to the fact Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an operational military base and that being so close undeniably adds some level of risk for observers. In the author’s humble opinion, the view seems… worth it. LC-37 also happens to be just 5 miles (8 km) away from the LC-39A pad from which Falcon Heavy had just launched, thus offering an almost equally visceral view of liftoff, ascent, and landing.
Cameras placed near the Landing Zones by both SpaceX and USAF photographers captured even more spectacular views and marked the conclusion of the launch and landing debuts of Falcon Heavy boosters B1052 and B1053. These same boosters are tentatively scheduled to support Falcon Heavy’s third launch as soon as June 2019, potentially breaking SpaceX’s internal record for time to complete a given booster’s refurbishment (72 days for Falcon 9, 74 days for Block 5). However, once Falcon Heavy Flight 3 is completed sometime later this year, it’s possible that SpaceX will replace their nosecones with 
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SpaceX is preparing for the 13th integrated flight test of its Starship system, with a targeted launch as early as Thursday, July 16. The 90-minute launch window opens at 5:45 p.m. CT from Starbase in South Texas.
This comes roughly seven weeks after Flight 12 on May 22, underscoring the company’s accelerating pace in its rapid development campaign. The mission will use the latest Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles equipped with Raptor 3 engines. Booster 20 will attempt a controlled boostback burn, followed by a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while Ship 40 will follow a suborbital trajectory.
Starship’s thirteenth flight test is preparing to launch as early as Thursday, July 16 → https://t.co/Rp7VwBzpWx pic.twitter.com/jdpFlQUEpF
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 11, 2026
Key objectives for Flight 13 will include demonstrating reliable stage separation, engine performance under various conditions, and controlled reentry.
A major milestone for Flight 13 is the first deployment of 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites. These satellites feature advanced laser links for inter-satellite communication, deployable solar arrays, and onboard cameras, six of which will capture imagery of Starship’s heat shield during flight.
Several heat shield tiles on Ship 40 will be painted white to serve as imaging targets, while additional experiments test upgraded tiles on aft flaps, modified attachments on the aft skirt, and load-sensing tiles to measure stresses. The upper stage will also attempt a single Raptor engine relight in space before a targeted splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
These tests build directly on lessons from Flight 12, which introduced the V3 configuration but encountered issues including a booster flip anomaly during boostback and an engine-out event on the ship. Hardware and software modifications on Booster 20 and Ship 40 aim to improve engine relight reliability, startup sequencing, and overall robustness.
Next Starship launch aiming for Thursday https://t.co/SajPPd4pdb
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2026
The short interval between Flights 12 and 13 highlights SpaceX’s iterative approach. Elon Musk has repeatedly emphasized that Starship launches will become “incredibly common” in the coming years.
The company envisions scaling to rates as high as one launch per hour within 4-5 years, potentially enabling thousands of flights annually. Such cadence is essential for Starship’s goals: establishing orbital refueling for lunar and Mars missions, deploying massive satellite constellations, and making life multiplanetary.
With each flight, Starship edges closer to full reusability and operational maturity. Success on July 16 would mark another step toward routine access to space and the ambitious vision of humanity becoming a spacefaring civilization.
Elon Musk posted a candid admission on his social media platform X on June 9, declaring that he had been “clearly wrong” about Anthropic. The statement marked a notable reversal from his earlier skepticism toward the AI company.
In September, Musk had written, “Winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic,” reflecting his view at the time that the startup had lacked the foundation or even the trajectory to succeed in what is an incredibly intense race for advanced artificial intelligence.
Musk’s latest post came amid discussion of Anthropic’s reliance on external compute resources. He praised the company’s progress, stating that Anthropic is “obviously currently the leader in AI” and that “no company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable,” with expectations of a strong follow-up in Mythos 2.
The tone shifted dramatically from dismissal to acknowledgement of superior performance.
I was clearly wrong about Anthropic. They are obviously currently the leader in AI. No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon.
And I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor.…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2026
The context of Musk’s comments added significance. Anthropic has been operating under a recent compute deal with SpaceXAI, Musk’s AI infrastructure-focused venture. The pair entered a short-term GPU lease agreement initiated in May, providing Anthropic access to critical computing power for training and deploying its frontier models.
SpaceXAI signs agreement with Anthropic for massive AI supercomputer access
Some observers had speculated that Musk could leverage this dependency to disadvantage a rival. Musk directly addressed the possibility, writing, “I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor. That’s not my style.”
To support his commitment to ethical competition, Musk referenced concrete examples from his other companies. Tesla famously open-sourced its entire portfolio of electric vehicle patents in 2014. The move was designed to accelerate the global adoption of sustainable transportation technology rather than protect proprietary advantages.
Tesla also made its Supercharger network available to competing electric vehicle manufacturers, transforming what could have remained an exclusive charging ecosystem into a shared infrastructure that benefits the broader industry and reduces barriers for EV adoption.
Musk further pointed to SpaceX’s practices, noting that the company launches satellites for competing commercial systems “with no increase in price or use of unfair terms.” He extended the principle to his social platform, observing that “even my worst enemies attack me on this platform,” underscoring preference for open discourse over retaliation.
These examples have illustrated Musk’s long-standing philosophy that long-term technological progress is best served by open competition and infrastructure sharing rather than leveraging market power to stifle rivals. In the fast-evolving AI sector, where compute resources and model capabilities determine leadership, Musk’s stance suggests a willingness to compete on innovation and performance alone.
Musk’s admission arrives as SpaceXAI itself advances its own frontier models while maintaining business relationships across the ecosystem. By publicly correcting his earlier assessment and reaffirming principles of fair play, Musk highlights a model of competition that prioritizes advancement of the field over short-term tactical advantages.
Investor's Corner
NASA taps SpaceX to launch the telescope that could unlock new worlds
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope heads to orbit this August aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy with massive scientific ambitions.
SpaceX is set to play a central role in one of NASA’s most anticipated science missions in years. The company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, currently the most powerful operational launch vehicle in the world, will carry the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into orbit on August 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman is now in final preparations inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where on June 26 technicians used a crane to lift the observatory into a specialized stand for fueling and pre-launch testing.
Roman is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief of astronomy, whose career helped shape how the agency approaches space science.
NASA chose SpaceX Falcon Heavy because of Roman’s needs to reach a specific orbit far from Earth, well beyond where a standard Falcon 9 can deliver it. The Falcon Heavy, which first flew in 2018, has since become NASA’s go-to option for missions that need serious muscle without the cost and complexity of older launch systems.
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Roman will carry a field of view at least 100 times wider than the Hubble Space Telescope, meaning it can photograph enormous swaths of the universe in a single shot rather than the narrow slices Hubble captures. That difference in scale is significant. While Hubble reshaped our understanding of the cosmos over 30 years, Roman is built to work faster and wider, surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies at once.
One of Roman’s most compelling capabilities is its potential to discover and photograph planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, and with enough precision to directly image planets that would otherwise be lost. That means scientists could study the atmosphere and surface characteristics of distant worlds rather than simply confirming they exist. Combined with Roman’s sweeping field of view, the telescope could detect thousands of exoplanets, and some of those planets may be in habitable zones where liquid water could exist. No telescope currently in operation has this level of power and capability. That capability alone could change what we know about other worlds, and perhaps finally answer the question: are we the only intelligent lifeforms in existence?
What Roman actually finds once it reaches orbit is an open question, and that is exactly what makes this launch worth watching.
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