In a statement issued to Bloomberg, the US Space Force says that SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket could still conduct its first operational launch for the military before the end of the year.
That’s a large downgrade from late 2021 and early 2022, when – lacking any new information from the US military – it appeared that SpaceX could launch up to three Falcon Heavy rockets for military customers over the course of the year. Around eight months later, the world’s most powerful and capable operational rocket – backed by a strong manifest of 11 firm launch contracts – hasn’t flown once since June 2019. At that time, the rocket’s next launch was already expected no earlier than late 2020 – a roughly 18-month gap.
Instead, thanks to largely unspecified problems that have relentlessly delayed the completion of the satellites Falcon Heavy is supposed to launch, the rocket’s fourth flight is now unlikely to occur less than ~40 months after its third. Thankfully, a new Space Force decision should at least dull the pain caused by the endless shuffling of Falcon Heavy’s near-term launch manifest.
Alongside a slight schedule update stating that SpaceX’s first operational Falcon Heavy launch for the US military could still happen sometime from “October to December” 2022, the Space Force statement issued to Bloomberg mainly revealed the military branch’s June decision to permit SpaceX’s use of reused Falcon Heavy boosters on upcoming launches. While Bloomberg did not publish the statement in full or explain what the decision truly entails, the implication is that the Space Force will now let SpaceX assign flight-proven Falcon boosters – with US military oversight – to its military missions.
The US military will likely retain the ability to veto or modify SpaceX’s booster assignments and reuse sequencing, but the Space Force told Bloomberg that it’s confident that the “recovery, refurbishment, and launch of SpaceX boosters utilizes well-established processes.” In fact, the US military has already approved the use of flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters, several launches of which have since occurred, and even allowed SpaceX to fly two reused Falcon Heavy side booster’s on the rocket’s first (test) launch for the military.
It’s no surprise that that acceptance would eventually grow to include Falcon Heavy, which is similar to Falcon 9 in many ways. That it took the USSF until June 2022, three full years after STP-2 demonstrated the successful reuse of two Falcon Heavy boosters at once, to fully approve it is arguably far more surprising.
SpaceX will likely be able to plan for future Falcon Heavy launches more easily knowing that the US military should – in theory – be okay with the company reusing boosters on upcoming launches. That would be especially true if the military is comfortable with SpaceX reusing Falcon Heavy boosters that have supported non-military launches. After numerous delays, only one non-military mission – ViaSat’s first ViaSat-3 geostationary communications satellite – still claims to have a shot at a 2022 launch, but that target has slipped from spring, late-summer, and September 2022 to Q4 2022 since late 2021.
At one point, the US military’s USSF-44, USSF-52, and USSF-67 missions were all scheduled to launch on Falcon Heavy in 2022. Now, one reliable source states that USSF-44 and USSF-52 are indefinitely delayed, while another indicates that USSF-44 has slipped to December 2022 and USSF-52 to April 2023. Meanwhile, EchoStar’s Jupiter-3 commsat recently slipped to Q1 2023 and NASA’s Psyche asteroid explorer ran into software issues that delayed its Falcon Heavy launch from August/September 2022 to July or September 2023.
That leaves ViaSat-3 and USSF-67, both of which could launch in Q4 2022. But given just how delay-ridden ViaSat-3 has been and how temperamental all military Falcon Heavy payloads have been, the most likely outcome may already be zero Falcon Heavy launches in 2022.
Elon Musk
Tesla says texting and driving capability is coming ‘in a month or two’
“In the next month or two, we’re going to look at the safety statistics, but we’re going to allow you to text and drive, essentially.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that within the next month or two, the company will be able to open the ability for people to text and drive because its Full Self-Driving suite will be robust enough to allow drivers to take their attention away from the road.
In its current state, Tesla Full Self-Driving is a supervised driver assistance suite that requires the vehicle operator to maintain control of the vehicle and pay attention to the road surroundings.
However, the company has been aiming to release a fully autonomous version of the Full Self-Driving suite for years, teasing its future potential and aiming to release a Level 5 suite as soon as possible.
CEO Elon Musk believes the company is on the cusp of something drastic, according to what he said at yesterday’s Annual Shareholder Meeting.
One thing Musk hinted at was that the company should be able to allow those sitting in the driver’s seat of their cars to text and drive “in the next month or two,” as long as the statistics look good.
He said:
“In the next month or two, we’re going to look at the safety statistics, but we’re going to allow you to text and drive, essentially.”
The company recently transitioned to its v14 Full Self-Driving suite, which is its most robust to date, and recently expanded to Cybertruck, completing its rollout across the vehicle lineup.
Currently, Tesla is running v14.1.5, and when major improvements are made, that second number will increase, meaning v14.2 will be the next substantial improvement.
Musk said that v14.3 will be when you can “pretty much fall asleep and wake up at your destination.”
🚨🚨 Elon Musk says Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3 will be when you can “pretty much fall asleep and wake up at your destination.”
We are on v14.1 currently đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/KMkWh5Qa7T
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 6, 2025
We’ve heard a considerable amount of similar statements in the past, and Tesla owners have been conditioned to take some of these timeframes with autonomous driving with a grain of salt.
However, with the upgrades in FSD over the past few months, especially with the rollout of Robotaxi in Austin, which does not utilize anyone in the driver’s seat for local roads, it does not seem as if autonomy is that far off for Tesla.
News
Tesla Semi undergoes major redesign as dedicated factory preps for deliveries
The Semi has been one of the most anticipated products in the Tesla lineup due to the disruption it could cause in the trucking industry.
Tesla put its all-electric Semi truck through quite a major redesign as its dedicated factory for the vehicle is preparing for initial deliveries to the public starting next year.
The Semi has been one of the most anticipated products in the Tesla lineup due to the disruption it could cause in the trucking industry.
It has already been in numerous pilot programs for some pretty large companies over the past couple of years, PepsiCo. being one of them, and it is moving toward first deliveries to other companies sometime in 2026.
Yesterday at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Tesla unveiled its new Semi design, which underwent a pretty significant facelift to match the aesthetic and vibe of the other vehicles in the company’s lineup.
Additionally, Tesla announced some other improvements, including changes to efficiency, and some other changes that we did not get details on yet.
The first change was to the design of the Semi, as Tesla adopted its blade-like light bar for the Class 8 truck, similar to the one that is used on the new Model Y and the Cybertruck:
There also appear to be a handful of design changes that help with aerodynamics, as its efficiency has increased to 1.7 kWh per mile.
Tesla also said it has an increased payload capability, which will help companies to haul more goods per trip.
All of these changes come as the company’s Semi Factory, which is located on the same property as its Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada, is just finishing up. In late October, it was shown that the Semi facility is nearly complete, based on recent drone imagery from factory observer HinrichsZane on X:
The factory will be capable of producing about 50,000 Tesla Semi units annually when it is completely ramped. The company has major plans to help get the Semi in more fleets across the United States.
Other entities are also working to develop a charging corridor for electric Class 8 trucks. The State of California was awarded $102 million to develop a charging corridor that spans from Washington to Southern California.
Another corridor is being developed that spans from Southern California to Texas, and 49 applicants won $636 million from the Department of Transportation for it.
Tesla requested funding for it, but was denied.
The Semi has been a staple in several companies’ fleets over the past few years, most notably that of Frito-Lay and PepsiCo., who have reported positive experiences thus far.
Musk said last year that the Semi had “ridiculous demand.”
News
Tesla Cybercab production starts Q2 2026, Elon Musk confirms
Elon Musk highlighted that the fully autonomous vehicle will be the first Tesla designed specifically for unsupervised self-driving.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that production of the company’s autonomous Cybercab will begin in April 2026, and its production targets will be quite ambitious.
Speaking at Tesla’s 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Musk highlighted that the fully autonomous vehicle will be the first Tesla designed specifically for unsupervised self-driving.
A robotaxi built for an autonomous world
Musk described the Cybercab as a clean-slate design optimized for autonomy, with no steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors. “It’s very much optimized for the lowest cost per mile in an autonomous mode,” Musk said, adding that every Tesla produced in recent years already carries the hardware needed for full self-driving.
The Cybercab will be assembled at Giga Texas and will serve as the company’s flagship entry into the commercial robotaxi market. Musk emphasized that the project represents Tesla’s next evolutionary step in combining vehicle manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and mobility services.
One Cybercab every ten seconds
Musk reiterated that the Cybercab’s production process is more closely modeled on consumer electronics assembly than on traditional automotive manufacturing. This should pave the way for outputs that far exceed conventional automotive products.
“That production is happening right here in this factory, and we’ll be starting production in April next year. The manufacturing system is unlike any other car. The manufacturing system of the Cybercab, it’s closer to a high volume consumer electronics device than it is a car manufacturing line. So the net result is that I think we should be able to achieve, I think, ultimately, less than a 10-second cycle time, basically a unit every 10 seconds.
“What that would mean is you could get on a line that would normally produce, say, 500,000 cars a year at a one minute cycle time, Model Y. This would be maybe as much as 2 million or 3 million, maybe ultimately it’s theoretically possible to achieve a 5 million unit production line if you can get to the 5-second cycle time,” the CEO said.
Tesla says texting and driving capability is coming ‘in a month or two’
Tesla Semi undergoes major redesign as dedicated factory preps for deliveries
Tesla Cybercab production starts Q2 2026, Elon Musk confirms
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