News
SpaceX releases video of world’s most powerful rocket ready for liftoff
Just a few days after its first-ever rollout to Launch Complex 39A, SpaceX has published its official photos of the historic moment, capturing Falcon Heavy poised and ready at the launch pad that could host its inaugural flight as soon as January 15th.
These photos offer the first glimpses of the complete, integrated Falcon Heavy, now with Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster payload and second stage attached to the massive rocket. While SpaceX has not yet revealed specific details regarding the Roadster’s actual destination, it can be assumed that Falcon Heavy and its second stage will attempt to place it into an extremely stabled orbit around the sun, with one side close to the orbit of Mars. In this configuration, it’s unlikely that there will be any possibility of in-space photo opportunities with the Tesla and Mars. Musk has confirmed that its orbit will be extremely stable, and Roadster will likely remain in its final space journey for hundreds of millions or even billions of years.
With more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff—equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft at full power—Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. https://t.co/NneqPRPr46 pic.twitter.com/oswCUreG6i
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 3, 2018
While Falcon Heavy’s inaugural launch will apparently see the vehicle operating at only 92% thrust, this performance would still easily catapult the rocket above all other operational launches vehicles by nearly a factor of two.
At a total of 5 million pounds of thrust (22.8 kN), the rocket would be able to lift a fully-fueled 747 passenger jet into low Earth orbit (LEO) in an expendable configuration. Its performance with full recovery of its three first stages is not public, on the other hand, but SpaceX will nevertheless be attempting to recover all first stages alongside the inaugural launch. Approximately 30 seconds before Falcon 9’s usual main engine cut-off (MECO) point, Falcon Heavy’s twin side boosters will separate from the center core (essentially a complete Falcon 9) with the help of some form of mechanical actuators designed to gently push those boosters away from the center.
Quite frankly, the intense aerodynamic forces present at the point of side booster separation mean that it is entirely possible that they may not survive, and could even be drawn back in to impact the center core, an eventuality that would likely bring the mission to a premature end. Typically, rockets with a similar triple booster first stage (Titan IV, Delta IV Heavy) have used relatively powerful separation rockets to more sternly force the side boosters away from the main stage, generally with great success. However, the sort of single-use separation motors would run counter to SpaceX’s primary pursuit of completely reusable rockets.
Risks aside, if all goes well, the side cores will separate and return to the land-based Landing Zone-1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and will likely land simultaneously and offer nearby Floridans a double dose of sonic booms as they slow down from speeds well above Mach 3. Meanwhile, the center stage will throttle up and continue on as if it were a Falcon 9. The core stage will finally separate from the second stage and Roadster payload and power back down to Earth to attempt a recovery aboard the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. Given SpaceX’s previous history of rather exceptional live coverage of both their Falcon 9 launches and landings, fans can expect a truly stunning tour-de-force of a show if the launch goes as planned.
Even then, a failure would still be quite a spectacle and is undeniably a real possibility for any new form or iteration of a rocket. However, it is rather implausible that SpaceX would choose to take unreasonable risks with one of its invaluable launch pads, particularly LC-39A – tasked with supporting SpaceX’s upcoming Commercial Crew demonstration missions no earlier than August 2018. Musk’s hyperbole aside, he can be taken at his word when he in the past commented that the launch would be a spectacle one way or another. The massive vehicle’s first static fire attempt, the final step ahead of launch, is to occur no earlier than January 6th, 2018.
Follow along on Instagram as Teslarati’s launch photographer and correspondent Tom Cross provides behind-the-scenes live coverage of both the launch of Zuma (NET January 5) and the final operations ahead of Falcon Heavy’s first launch.
News
Tesla Semi lands the biggest electric truck deal in U.S. history
Tesla leads a record 2,500 truck order, but not every truck will be a Semi.
Tesla has landed the largest electric truck order in U.S. history. ZET SCALE, a new alliance of shippers and carriers, named Tesla its primary manufacturer on Tuesday for an initial order of 2,500 electric Class 8 trucks. The deal alone would nearly double the number of electric heavy trucks operating in the country.
According to the press release from Catalyst Mobility, the nonprofit formerly known as CALSTART, Kenworth, RIDE and Volvo were also selected as secondary manufacturers that carriers can pick if their operations call for it. No split between the four brands has been published, so the exact number of Semis in the order is not yet known.
Tesla was selected as the primary OEM for the largest electric Class 8 order in the US by ZET SCALE, a new shippers’ alliance
With 2,500 Semis on order, this will double the entire US electric Class 8 fleet
We’re serious about scale, and ZET SCALE is too!… pic.twitter.com/IiTAdzgken
— Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) September 22, 2026
Tesla won the top slot through a competitive request for proposals. The alliance, which Catalyst Mobility runs with the Smart Freight Centre, scored bidders on price, range, charging capability and production capacity. Pooling freight demand from founding shippers, including Microsoft and PepsiCo, let every truck maker bid lower than it would for a single fleet. “The Tesla Semi is designed for lower cost per mile operations than diesel,” said Dan Priestley, director of the Tesla Semi program, as noted in the press release.
The financing is built to pull in carriers who have avoided electric trucks. ZET Financial is issuing the purchase order for all 2,500 units and will place them with fleets through a fair market value lease. The trucks will be deployed over the next few years across 10 freight hubs in Los Angeles, Stockton, Bakersfield, Seattle and Tacoma, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Atlanta, and the Newark and New York area. ZET SCALE says the first order is only the opening round, with a longer term goal of 10,000 trucks or more.
Even if Tesla ends up with only a majority share, it would still be the biggest Semi deal to date. Einride’s 500 unit order in August was the previous record, and WattEV’s 370 truck order in May was the largest California deal at the time. Einride’s CEO has since said he expects all 500 trucks delivered by the end of 2027.
The announcement lands two days before Tesla formally inaugurates its Semi factory in Nevada on September 24. The 1.7 million square foot plant sits next to Gigafactory Nevada’s 4680 cell lines and is designed for 50,000 trucks a year.
Tesla has expanded Grok from an in-car chatbot into a hands-free work assistant. On September 22, Tesla officially launched Grok Bot capability, confirming that drivers can now manage email, calendars, files, chats, and tasks by voice and then hand more ambitious errands to the AI-fueled productivity cheat code.
Grok itself is built by xAI. The new car features split into two layers: Connectors link Grok to outside accounts. Grok Bot, currently limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, can complete multi-step tasks such as placing a usual coffee order, booking a reservation, or scheduling an appointment. It truly puts the driver in a nearly complete hands-free driving and productivity setting, with ironically the only task truly requiring your hands being to touch the “Start Self-Driving” button.
We were granted access to Grok Bot’s Tesla integration a few weeks back, and we’ve been able to do a handful of things with it. On a handful of occasions, we’ve used it to order food and have it ready for pickup slightly later into the evening; we’ve managed to pick up groceries after a day of errands with Grok Bot, and outside of the car, it’s helped with budgeting and even my fantasy football draft.
We’ve been using @Grok Bot in Tesla for a few weeks after gaining Early Access, which we thank the awesome engineers for
Grok Bot makes things much easier across your entire life. From the Tesla, I’ve used it to place pickup orders for my Fiancée and I, we’ve ordered groceries… https://t.co/ZJSLieG1s5
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 22, 2026
Tesla shows another way to utilize it: in their demo, a driver says “Hey Grok,” asks the assistant to check an inbox, and hears that a message concerns a weekend reservation. Grok then scans the calendar, reports no conflicts, and confirms the Tahoe trip is clear. It can also add check-in details to a road-trip itinerary. The point is not novelty chat. It is keeping eyes on the road, or on Full Self-Driving, while the car handles the paperwork of a trip:
.@Grok in your Tesla can now do meaningful work for you
With Connectors, you can manage your inbox, clean up your calendar, or talk through existing files/chat/tasks – all hands-free pic.twitter.com/W1LuybQh0P
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 22, 2026
This Grok rollout is not a gadget add-on as much as it is Tesla’s thesis in software form: the car should stop being a machine you operate and start being a room you occupy.
Connectors and Grok Bot treat the cabin as an office that happens to move, and that has truly been Tesla’s intention for years now. The car has slowly become an extension of a home more than a vehicle. Inbox, calendar, groceries, takeout, and reservations become voice work, not dashboard chores that you need to do before you get in your car.
Responsibility shifts from the driver to the stack, and as many Tesla owners rely on FSD for travel, Grok Bot now handles the monotony of dinner reservations or appointments.
Elon Musk
X changed how everyone gets paid, and this lawsuit shows why
X sued a Bitcoin account network over fake payouts as its creator pay model shifts
Elon Musk’s X has taken a Bitcoin-focused engagement ring to court, and the case doubles as a receipt for how differently the platform pays creators today. The company filed suit in the High Court of England and Wales against Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa, alleging the pair ran six accounts, including @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy and @TrendingBitcoin, as one coordinated operation to fake the kind of engagement that used to translate directly into money.
According to the filing, first reported by Gizmodo, the accounts posted near identical “BREAKING” crypto headlines seconds apart, in one case 11 seconds, then had three more handles like, reply to and repost the material to manufacture what X called “a false appearance of genuine, human communication and interaction.” X says the scheme pulled in at least £207,384, about $278,000, and pegs its own investigation and remediation costs at another £75,000. The accounts were suspended August 18. X general counsel James Burnham announced the case on X last weekend, writing that the company “will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators.” Musk’s own reaction, posted shortly after, was three words: “Don’t mess with 𝕏.”
Don’t mess with 𝕏 https://t.co/HSmd5hL6aQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2026
The timing lines up with a a recent update to how X pays its creators. The program these accounts allegedly gamed, Creator Revenue Sharing, launched in mid 2023 and paid out based on how much a post got engaged with. Originality was never part of the formula, which is exactly how the platform ended up flooded with recycled clips, copy pasted “BREAKING” posts and replies engineered purely to farm reactions from paying subscribers.
X tried patching the model more than once, including an April cut to aggregator payouts and a March regional weighting change that Musk personally paused hours after it was announced. X retired Creator Revenue Sharing for good on September 7 and opened its replacement, Original Content Rewards, the next day.
Today, we’re launching Original Content Rewards.
The reality is that Revenue Sharing had reached a point where its incentives were misaligned. Creators should be focused on bringing net new content to the platform instead of maximizing payouts. We could have kept adding more… pic.twitter.com/VJIxqlPrjm
— Allegra Jacchia (@allegrajacchia) August 7, 2026
The new math is stricter. Payouts now come only from qualified impressions, meaning unique Home Timeline views from Premium subscribers where at least half the post is visible, and replies no longer count toward eligibility at all. Copied posts, reuploaded media and reposts without meaningful changes are explicitly excluded. Allegra Jacchia, senior product manager for Creators at SpaceXAI, which now runs X’s product and AI work following xAI’s acquisition of the platform, put it bluntly, saying the goal is to reward creators who bring original ideas and perspective, “not those who have become best at gaming the system.”
Read that way, the lawsuit isn’t really about six crypto accounts. It’s X putting a dollar figure on what the old incentive structure cost, then suing to collect it right as the new one goes live. For live updates on how the case and the new rewards program shake out, follow @Teslarati on X.
Tesla Semi lands the biggest electric truck deal in U.S. history
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
