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SpaceX converts Falcon Heavy booster into Falcon 9
More than two years after the rocket’s last launch, SpaceX appears to have finally decided to give at least one of two surviving Falcon Heavy Block 5 cores a new lease on life as a Falcon 9 booster.
Known as B1052, the Falcon Heavy side core or booster debuted in April 2019 as part of the first flight of the rocket’s Block 5 variant, successfully launching Saudi Arabia’s large Arabsat 6A communications satellite to an almost 90,000 km (56,000 mi) transfer orbit. Following in the footsteps of the first Falcon Heavy, the first Block 5 vehicle repeated its predecessor’s iconic double-landing back at Cape Canaveral. Just 74 days later, both Falcon Heavy Block 5 side boosters B1052 and B1053 launched again, this time supporting the US military’s long-delayed STP-2 rideshare and qualification mission.
Once again, B1052 and B1053 stuck near-simultaneous landings at SpaceX’s Landing Zones. Both missions’ center cores, however, weren’t so lucky. During Arabsat 6A, the first Falcon Heavy Block 5 center core did successfully land but high seas eventually toppled the booster, destroying it and leaving few intact remains. During STP-2, CEO Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX didn’t actually expect to recover the mission’s replacement center core due to the exceptionally hot reentry it would need to survive. As predicted, the center core did not survive, with Musk later reporting that the hot reentry damaged thrust vectoring hardware, causing the rocket to veer off course.
Thankfully, both side boosters aced all four of their collective landings. However, despite previous statements from Musk indicating that Falcon’s new Block 5 design made it fairly easy to convert Falcon first stages between Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy side booster configurations, both B1052 and B1053 dropped off the face of the Earth immediately after completing STP-2. Only in September 2021, 27 months later, did one of the two cores finally reappear in public – sans landing legs and grid fins but with a nosecone still installed.
As is now clear, that surprise appearance after years in storage was no coincidence. A bit less than three months later after the mystery Falcon Heavy side booster was spotted rolling down a Kennedy Space Center highway from a Cape Canaveral storage hangar to a new SpaceX facility, one of the two side boosters (B1052) was spotted once again – this time with landing legs and a Falcon 9 interstage installed where a nosecone once sat.
Aside from having clearly been converted into a Falcon 9 booster, former Falcon Heavy side booster B1052 was also mated to a new expendable upper stage – a strong indication of an imminent launch. Word on the ground is that the rocket and transporter were on their way to SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) LC-40 pad for the company’s planned December 18th launch of Turkey’s Turksat 5B communications satellite.
Following SpaceX’s successful NASA IXPE launch on December 9th, the company has two more East Coast launches planned before the end of the year: Turksat 5B NET December 18th and CRS-24 NET December 21st. Several other Falcon 9 boosters (save for B1062, which is probably assigned to CRS-24) are likely available to launch Turksat 5B, so B1052’s assignment – while not implausible – isn’t guaranteed.
Above all else, B1052’s second life as a Falcon 9 is exciting because it means that B1053 probably isn’t far behind it, meaning that SpaceX’s fleet of operational Falcon boosters is about to grow significantly in a short period of time. As of now, that fleet contains eight Falcon 9 boosters that have each completed an average of more than six orbital-class launches. Half have flown nine times. Aside from expanding that fleet by 25%, the reintroduction of B1052 and B1053 will free up SpaceX to retire older boosters like B1049 and B1051, which CEO Elon Musk has said are slower and more expensive to reuse.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk reiterates rapid Starship V3 timeline with next launch in sight
Musk shared the update in a brief post on X, writing, “Starship flies again next month.”
Elon Musk has confirmed that Starship will fly again next month, reiterating SpaceX’s aggressive timeline for the first launch of its Starship V3 rocket.
Musk shared the update in a brief post on X, writing, “Starship flies again next month.” The CEO’s post was accompanied by a video of Starship’s Super Heavy booster being successfully caught by a launch tower in Starbase, Texas.
The timeline is notable. In late January, Musk stated that Starship’s next flight, Flight 12, was expected in about six weeks. This placed the expected mission date sometime in March. That estimate aligned with SpaceX’s earlier statement that Starship’s 12th flight test “remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026.”
If the vehicle does indeed fly next month, it would mark the debut of Starship V3, the upgraded platform expected to feature the rocket’s new Raptor V3 engines.
Raptor V3 is designed to deliver significantly higher thrust than earlier versions while reducing cost and weight. Starship V3 itself is expected to be optimized for manufacturability, a critical step if SpaceX intends to scale production toward frequent launches for Starlink, lunar missions, and eventually Mars.
Starship V3 is widely viewed as the version that transitions the program from experimental testing to true operational scaling. Previous iterations have completed multiple integrated flight tests, with mixed outcomes but steady progress. Expectations are high that SpaceX is now working on Starship’s refinement.
An aggressive launch schedule supports several priorities at once. It advances Starlink’s next-generation satellite deployment, supports NASA’s lunar ambitions under Artemis, and keeps SpaceX on track for its longer-term Moon and Mars objectives.
News
Tesla Model Y L six-seater approved for Australia ahead of launch
The variant was listed as YL5NDB on the Australian government’s ROVER approval website.
Tesla’s six-seat, extended-wheelbase Model Y L has been approved for sale in Australia, as per newly published government documents.
The variant, listed as YL5NDB on the Australian government’s ROVER approval website, has confirmed that Tesla has received regulatory clearance to offer the extended Model Y to domestic customers.
Documents seen by Drive show that the Model Y L has been approved in Australia in a single dual-motor, all-wheel-drive configuration. While Tesla has not formally announced a launch date, vehicles are typically approved for Australian sale several months before arriving in showrooms.
The Model Y L is a longer version of the regular Model Y, designed to accommodate a six-seat layout with two seats in each row. It measures 177mm longer overall than the regular Model Y, at 4969mm, and features a 150mm longer wheelbase at 3040mm.
Australian approval documents list the Model Y L with the same nickel-manganese-cobalt battery pack used in the regular Model Y Long Range, which is expected to have a gross capacity of about 84kWh and a usable capacity of about 82kWh. Output is officially listed at 378kW in government filings, though real-world peak output may differ.
The Model Y L replaces the regular Model Y’s second-row bench with two captain’s chairs featuring heating, ventilation, and power adjustment. Heated third-row seats are also included.
Additional upgrades reported by Drive include an 18-speaker sound system, new front seats with single-piece backrests, and continuously variable shock absorbers. The only wheel option listed for the Australian model is 19-inch wheels.
In Europe, where the Model Y L has also received approval but has not yet launched, the variant is expected to claim up to 681km of WLTP range.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk highlights one of Tesla FSD Supervised’s most underrated features
In his post on X, Musk wrote, “Tesla self-driving now recognizes hand signals.”
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is able to recognize and respond to hand signals, as highlighted recently by CEO Elon Musk.
In his post on X, Musk wrote, “Tesla self-driving now recognizes hand signals.”
Musk shared the update in a quote reply to a video posted by Tesla Europe, which showed a vehicle operating with Full Self-Driving (Supervised) navigating a tight lane in the Netherlands while responding to hand gestures from a person directing traffic.
Hand signal recognition is an important capability for advanced driver-assistance and autonomous systems. In real-world driving, pedestrians, construction workers, parking attendants, and other drivers frequently use hand gestures to direct traffic, yield right of way, or indicate when it is safe to proceed. For a self-driving system operating in mixed environments, interpreting these non-verbal cues is critical.
Musk’s post comes as Tesla owners have surpassed 8 billion cumulative miles driven with FSD (Supervised) engaged. “Tesla owners have now driven >8 billion miles on FSD Supervised,” the company wrote in a post on X.
Annual FSD (Supervised) miles have increased sharply over the past five years. Roughly 6 million miles were logged in 2021, followed by 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and 4.25 billion in 2025.
In the first 50 days of 2026 alone, Tesla owners logged another 1 billion miles. At the current pace, the fleet is trending toward approximately 10 billion FSD (Supervised) miles this year.
Tesla’s latest North America safety data, covering all road types over a 12-month period, also indicates that vehicles operating with FSD (Supervised) were recorded one major collision every 5,300,676 miles. By comparison, the U.S. average during the same period was one major collision every 660,164 miles.
Elon Musk reiterates rapid Starship V3 timeline with next launch in sight
Tesla Model Y L six-seater approved for Australia ahead of launch
