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SpaceX to close out February with Starlink launches on Monday and Friday [updated]
Update: SpaceX has delayed Starlink 4-8 from February 20th to no earlier than (NET) 9:44 am EST (14:44 UTC), Monday, February 21st in the hopes of better “recovery weather.” The mission will be Falcon 9 booster B1058’s 11th launch overall and second launch in less than 40 days.
Up next, Starlink 4-11 – SpaceX’s second West Coast launch this year – is now firmly scheduled to lift off around 7:30-8 am PST (15:30-16:00 UTC) on Friday, February 25th from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). Finally, launch photographer Ben Cooper reports that a third Starlink mission – likely Starlink 4-9 – is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A as soon as March 3rd. SpaceX has at least one more Starlink mission and a private astronaut launch tentatively scheduled for March.
Continuing the company’s busiest planned year yet, SpaceX has dispatched a drone ship for the first of two more Falcon 9 Starlink launches scheduled before the end of the month.
While there were signs a few weeks ago that SpaceX had as many as four Starlink launches planned this month, that appears to have shrunk to three. In theory, SpaceX could have finished refurbishing both of its East Coast launch pads – LC-40 and LC-39A – earlier this week after supporting launches on January 31st and February 3rd. SpaceX may be taking an extra week to better understand a space weather anomaly that recently destroyed more than three-dozen Starlink satellites, to conduct deeper pad maintenance, to refurbish well-worn Falcon rockets, or to simply give its launch workforce a bit of respite but either way, the company’s next Falcon 9 launch appears to be scheduled no earlier than (NET) 9:54 am EST (14:54 UTC), Sunday, February 20th.
Drone ship A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG) departed Port Canaveral on February 16th and is headed about 636 kilometers (395 mi) downrange to support Starlink 4-8’s Falcon 9 booster landing. The mission will be the new drone ship’s fourth consecutive recovery – an unintentional situation that was forced upon it when drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) suffered damage during SpaceX’s last booster recovery of 2021. On top of almost sliding off the deck, Falcon 9 booster B1069 suffered significant damage to most or all of its nine Merlin 1D engines when JRTI’s ‘Octagrabber’ robot effectively dropped the booster on its head during recovery operations.
Only through the heroics of the human recovery crew was B1069 able to be secured to drone ship JRTI’s deck and returned to dry land in (more or less) one piece. Based on new aerial images from local photographer Julia Bergeron, it appears that JRTI did require deck repairs after the ordeal. Equally importantly, the ship’s Octagrabber robot – which took the brunt of B1069’s fall – appears to have been fully repaired and was being tested on deck as of February 15th. Oddly, though drone ship ASOG has done an excellent job filling in, SpaceX has yet to have a fully nominal booster recovery since B1069’s anomaly.
With any luck, that will end later this month and the company’s three Octagrabbers will restart routine recovery operations. Following Starlink 4-8’s launch from Cape Canaveral, SpaceX has plans for at least one more Starlink mission – this time from the West Coast. SpaceX last launched from its Vandenberg SLC-4E pad on February 2nd and set a record turnaround time of 24 days late last year, implying that the Starlink mission is likely scheduled within the last few days of February.
If successful, SpaceX will have launched eight times in the first two months of 2022 and 13 times in the last three months, demonstrating a cadence of up to 48-52 launches per year if the company can sustain the pace. SpaceX’s official goal for 2022 is 52 Falcon launches.
Tesla just told us twice that the Model Y L is coming to the U.S., and two social media posts definitely just tipped the company’s hand, as if they wanted it to be any other way.
The two social media posts basically confirm that the slightly longer version of the Model Y will be heading to the United States soon, and many have speculated that the company could launch the vehicle as soon as this weekend.
The first post was directly from Tesla, and it showed an incredibly long Dachshund, with words above that said, “Looking forward to the long weekend.”
Looking forward to the long weekend pic.twitter.com/URzH6zOUdn
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 1, 2026
Anyone who knows Tesla knows the company loves to troll its fans and have fun, and this is a perfect example of that. While not a direct acknowledgement, Tesla is very involved on social media, especially CEO Elon Musk’s platform X, and the company is well aware of what is being discussed within the community.
With recent sightings of Model Y L test mules in California, peeks of the vehicle at Giga Texas, and a large call for the car to come to the U.S., Tesla is simply stoking conversation with this.
However, the company also made another move that was recognized on social media. Tesla has a large gallery that includes photos of its products so media and others can use them. This gallery applies to the U.S. market specifically, unless otherwise specified.
Tesla uploaded a Model Y L to the Gallery last night:
This looks like a Model Y L https://t.co/TpnBwrLmH9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 2, 2026
This seems to be another indication that the Model Y L is coming to the United States.
Musk said last year that the Model Y L could make its way to the United States late this year, but it was not something that was set in stone by Tesla. The company definitely needs to establish something in the SUV market that is larger than the Model Y, and the Model Y L might be the answer.
Even still, there are consumers out there who would love Tesla to develop something even larger, like a competitor to the Tahoe or Expedition. Tesla has not really given much of an indication that it will go in that direction.
Tesla is using the vehicles’ internal microphones to improve build quality, Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy revealed recently.
It’s no secret that Tesla is always finding ways to make its manufacturing operations more efficient, accurate, and valuable. Constantly trying to make its cars better, the company has never placed any restrictions on what it will do to improve everything from panel gaps to paint.
As Teslas have been driving autonomously on the property of the Gigafactory Texas plant for a while now, Moravy revealed to Herbert Ong in a new interview that cars rolling off production lines now autonomously navigate themselves through a bumps, squeaks, and rattles (BSR) portion of the line. This helps to identify any loose or improperly installed internal parts.
The cabin’s microphones, which are used for a variety of things in ownership, simultaneously monitor any noises inside the vehicle while it rolls through the BSR portion of the production line. Moravy actually revealed that Tesla is trying to build “Full Self-Hearing,” an AI system that will detect minor imperfections so they can be corrected before delivery.
It’s no secret that build quality is something that Tesla struggled with as it scaled to a fully massive production operation that manufactures over 1.6 million vehicles per year. However, in recent years, especially, there have not been as many complaints. Tesla has truly improved upon its build quality and paint quality over the past several years, especially in the U.S.
Tesla’s ‘megacasts’ are key to massive build quality improvements
While those improvements have been evident, there are still some complaints; no automaker is perfect with this. But this step will now ensure that every single car that rolls off the production lines at Gigafactory Texas will be void of any creaks, squeaks, or squeals when it leaves the factory.
This measure is one of the most unique we’ve seen in terms of a strategy to avoid build quality issues, but it is not exclusive to Tesla.
Ford uses acoustic analysis AI to find abnormalities in seat motors, climate control units, and other components. Suppliers and OEMs will also use microphone arrays or particle velocity sensors in end-of-line stations.
The full interview with Lars Moravy is available below:
🚨 If you’re a Tesla investor, this is one interview you don’t want to skip. The full video posted below.
Jeff Lutz @thejefflutz and I sat down with Tesla VP of Engineering Lars Moravy, and it was packed with insights!
A few of the biggest takeaways:
• Cybercab is expected to… pic.twitter.com/fhYSr2dCqP
— Herbert Ong (@herbertong) July 1, 2026
Investor's Corner
Tesla crushes Wall Street expectations, beats delivery estimates by over 15 percent
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) beat Wall Street expectations of 406,000 vehicles delivered in Q2 by reporting 480,126 deliveries for the three months ending in June.
Tesla reported it delivered 467,762 Model 3 and Model Y units, while 12,364 Model S, Model X, and Cybertrucks switched hands during the quarter. The Model S and Model X were officially sunset this past quarter and will no longer be part of the company’s Production & Delivery reports moving forward.
🚨 BREAKING: Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2, ANNIHILATING Wall Street expectations of 406,000. Production was reported at 451,758.
Deliveries:
Model 3/Y: 467,762
Other Models: 12,364Production:
Model 3/Y: 442,936
Other Models: 8,822 https://t.co/TTHwQAsKt8 pic.twitter.com/7qI4Zj6FE5— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 2, 2026
The quarter is a pleasant surprise and a good rebound from Q1, when Tesla slightly missed the Wall Street consensus of 365,645 cars by reporting 358,023 deliveries for the first three motnhs of the year.
Energy storage deployments also provided some strength in Tesla’s delivery report, hitting 13.5 GWh for Q2. This is a particular division of Tesla’s business that has been overwhelmingly robust over the past few years, truly being a strong point of the company’s overall model.
For the year, Tesla analysts still predict deliveries to trend in the 1.69 million unit region, a modest 3 to 5 percent increase from the 1.64 million cars the company delivered last year. Tesla will likely return to more sequential and noticeable year-over-year growth as the Cybercab project starts to ramp up considerably in the next few years.
Tesla has some other potential catalysts to spur vehicle deliveries, too. Not only is it expecting Cybercab to truly start making a change in the next few years, but other vehicles could be entering the company’s lineup.
Tesla sends production Cybercab with no steering wheel, pedals to on-road testing
The slightly longer Model Y L has been a highly speculated release candidate in the U.S. It has already done incredibly well in China, and U.S. buyers have been wanting slightly more interior space than the Model Y. Now that the Model X is gone, it is more needed than ever.
Q2 highlights a pretty stable automotive division within Tesla, and no true concerns arise from these figures, especially considering it managed to beat expectations convincingly.
Tesla just told us twice that Model Y L is coming to the U.S.
Tesla is using vehicle microphones to improve build quality: here’s how
