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SpaceX on track to launch four rockets next month despite Falcon Heavy delays
Despite the intense focus on SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch attempt and the testing preceding it, SpaceX is still a functioning business, and that business lies in launching payloads into Earth orbit. While it appears that January is unlikely to see any additional SpaceX launches, particularly Falcon Heavy, the launch company’s February manifest appears to be rapidly firming up.
Perhaps most significantly, two geostationary communications satellites completed their long journeys to Cape Canaveral, Florida within the last week or so, and a third payload on the West Coast is presumed to be at Vandenberg Air Force Base, all preparing for February launches. Meanwhile, although it is unclear how close Falcon Heavy is to launching, a date in mid to late February appears realistic at this point. As such, SpaceX has at least three and maybe four missions concretely planned for February – concrete in the sense that three of them were given specific launch dates within the last week.
Falcon Heavy is now targeting Friday, January 19 for its first static fire test. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
A return to stride
Following a halcyon year of 18 launches, SpaceX appears to be ready to tackle its manifest headfirst after a relatively relaxed start to 2018. January saw a single SpaceX launch, Zuma, as well as the ongoing series of tests of the first completed Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, although the big rocket’s launch date has likely already slipped into February at the earliest. Still, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 workhorse rocket is rearing for additional launches, and options abound.
GovSat-1 (SES-16) – NET late January 2018
First on the docket is the launch of GovSat-1/SES-16, a public-private partnership between Luxembourg’s government and the renowned Lux.-based satellite manufacturer and operator, SES. Similar to Hispasat, GovSat-1 is a geostationary communications satellite weighing around 4000 kg that will be placed in a geostationary transfer orbit by Falcon 9. If it flies before Falcon Heavy, something I’d place at around 99% likely, the launch of PAZ will mark SpaceX’s first reused flight of 2018, with many, many more to come. This particular launch will use Core 1032 from the secretive NROL-76 mission back in May 2017. 1032 is an older booster, and thus a recovery attempt is unlikely – Block 3 Falcon 9s were never designed to be reused more than once or twice, especially not after toasty high-energy recoveries necessitated by geostationary launches.
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- After launching NROL-76 in May 2017, B1032 returned to Landing Zone-1 for a successful landing. (SpaceX)
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- SES and GovSats’ first partnered satellite, GovSat-1/SES-16. (SES)
PAZ – Starlink prototype co-passengers – NET February 10 2018, 6:52am PST
Up next, PAZ is a commercial imaging satellite designed to return high-resolution photos of Earth from a relatively low polar orbit of approximately 500 km. It’s believed that this mission will be launched aboard a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster, Core 1038, previously tasked with the launch of the small Formosat-5 imaging satellite in August 2017. The mission will be the second 2018 launch of a flight proven booster for SpaceX, following on the heels of GovSat-1. Perhaps more important than reuse (but secondary to the customer’s payload insertion), however, is the probable presence of two of SpaceX’s first prototype broadband satellites, a constellation now known to be called Starlink.
This will be a major achievement for SpaceX’s satellite constellation efforts, as the several hundred employees SpaceX has stationed in Washington State and outside of Hawthorne, CA will finally be able to operationally test the fruit of many months of hard but silent work. Given the presence of two satellites, it’s assumed that these test satellites, Microsat 2A and 2B, have been designed to test all of the main components SpaceX has been developing, particularly the optical (LASER) on orbit communications system. By allowing each satellite to communicate at incredibly high bandwidths with each other, SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to create a mesh network of connectivity covering the entire Earth.
As such, fingers crossed that SpaceX begins to discuss Starlink in more detail as 2018 progresses and PAZ and its Microsat co-passengers reach orbit in February. Sadly, although the combined payload is small and the planned orbit low, the twice-flight-proven booster may meet its ultimate fate in the Pacific Ocean – a recovery attempt is no longer guaranteed for older, reused Falcon 9s. However, while not officially confirmed, this launch could see the debut of SpaceX’s Western landing pad, currently known as SLC-4 West (SLC-4W). Rather than attempting recovery aboard the drone ship Just Read The Instructions, Falcon 9 1038 would instead flip around and return to a landing area less than a kilometer away from its VAFB launch pad. Expect official confirmation as the launch date approaches.
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- The Spanish company Hisdesat’s PAZ imaging satellite. (Hisdesat)
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- Falcon 9 1038 aboard Just Read The Instructions after the launch of Formosat-5. (SpaceX)
Hispasat 30W-6 (1F) – No Earlier Than (NET) mid-February 2018
Finally, Hispasat is a relatively hefty 6000 kg commercial communications satellite slated for launch aboard what is believed to be a new Falcon 9 rocket. With SpaceX aiming to place the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit, this will almost certainly preclude any attempts at recovering the first stage – the booster will need to expend most of its fuel to accomplish the job, leaving no reserve to conduct landing burns at sea. Hispasat’s Falcon 9 will thus likely be the first new booster to be expended intentionally by SpaceX in 2018.
Spain's @Hispasat: 30W-6 telecom sat arrives at Cape Canaveral from builder @sslmda to prepare for Feb launch on @SpaceX Falcon 9. Sat carries Ku-, C- & Ka-band payload for Americas/trans-Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/Zfhi1cE5vx
— Peter B. de Selding (@pbdes) January 16, 2018
Another busy year?
If February is to be representative of SpaceX’s 2018 launch cadence, the year is going to be a crazy one for the rocket company. As of IAC 2017, Elon Musk showed an estimated 30 launches as the company’s goal this year, compared to 20 in 2017 (SpaceX was only two launches short of that). While Falcon Heavy may be understandably stealing the buzz and then some from those interested in spaceflight and technology, it is an absolute necessity that SpaceX remains a viable and reliable launch company if they hope to pursue more aspirational technologies like Falcon Heavy, BFR, and more. Here’s to hoping that SpaceX manages to make 2018 equally or even more successful than 2017.
Follow along live as launch photographer Tom Cross and I cover these exciting proceedings as close to live as possible.
Teslarati – Instagram – Twitter
Tom Cross – Instagram
Eric Ralph – Twitter
SpaceX has revealed the date for the maiden voyage of Starship v3, its newest and most advanced version of the rocket yet.
Starship v3 represents a significant leap forward. At 124 meters tall when fully stacked, it stands taller than previous versions and boasts substantial upgrades.
The vehicle incorporates next-generation Raptor 3 engines, which deliver higher thrust, improved reliability, and simplified designs with fewer parts. Both the Super Heavy booster (Booster 19) and the Starship upper stage (Ship 39) feature these enhancements, along with structural improvements for greater payload capacity—exceeding 100 metric tons to low Earth orbit in reusable configuration.
SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk have announced that the company aims to push the first launch of Starship v3 this Thursday. Musk included some clips of past Starship launches with the announcement.
Now targeting launch as early as Thursday, May 21 → https://t.co/2gZQUxS6mm
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 19, 2026
First Starship V3 launch later this week! pic.twitter.com/JFX4CrSfnY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 19, 2026
There are a lot of improvements to Starship v3 from past builds. Key hardware changes include a more robust heat shield, upgraded avionics, and modifications optimized for orbital refueling, a critical technology for future missions to the Moon and Mars. This flight marks the first launch from Starbase’s second orbital pad, allowing parallel operations and accelerating the cadence of tests.
This will be the 12th Starship launch for SpaceX. Flight 12 objectives include a full ascent profile, hot-staging separation, in-space engine relights, and reentry testing. The booster is expected to perform a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while the ship will deploy 20 Starlink simulator satellites and a pair of modified Starlink V3 units before attempting reentry.
Success would validate V3’s design for operational use, paving the way for rapid reusability and higher flight rates.
The rapid evolution from V2 to V3 underscores SpaceX’s iterative approach. Previous flights demonstrated booster catches, ship landings, and heat shield advancements. V3 builds on these with nearly every component refined, supported by an expanding production line at Starbase that churns out vehicles at an unprecedented pace.
Starship V3 is here putting SpaceX closer to Mars than it has ever been
This launch comes amid growing momentum for SpaceX’s ambitious goals. Starship is central to NASA’s Artemis program for lunar landings and Elon Musk’s vision of making humanity multiplanetary. A successful V3 debut would boost confidence in achieving orbital refueling and crewed missions in the coming years.
As excitement builds, enthusiasts and engineers alike await liftoff. Weather and technical readiness will determine the exact timing, but the community is optimistic. Starship V3 is poised to push the boundaries of spaceflight once again, bringing reusable interplanetary transport closer to reality.
Elon Musk broke his silence regarding the jury decision to throw out the case against OpenAI and Sam Altman. The Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI frontman has already indicated that an appeal will be filed regarding the decision, which went against him yesterday.
A Federal jury dismissed this high-profile lawsuit after less than two hours of deliberation due to a statute-of-limitations issue.
In a strongly worded post on X on May 18, Musk addressed the federal jury’s dismissal of his high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI, vowing to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision, according to Musk, was centered not on the substantive claims but on a statute-of-limitations technicality.
Musk’s lawsuit, filed in 2024, accused OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of breaching the organization’s original nonprofit mission. OpenAI was established in 2015 as a non-profit dedicated to developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of all humanity, with Musk as a key early donor and co-founder before departing in 2018.
Musk alleged that Altman and Brockman improperly shifted the company toward a for-profit model, enriched themselves through massive valuations and partnerships (including with Microsoft), and betrayed founding agreements.
In his post, Musk emphasized that the judge and jury “never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality.” He stated unequivocally: “There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question is WHEN they did it!”
Regarding the OpenAI case, the judge & jury never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality.
There is no question to anyone following the case in detail that Altman & Brockman did in fact enrich themselves by stealing a charity. The only question…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2026
Musk argued that allowing such actions to stand without review sets a dangerous precedent. “I will be filing an appeal with the Ninth Circuit, because creating a precedent to loot charities is incredibly destructive to charitable giving in America,” he wrote. He reiterated OpenAI’s founding purpose: “OpenAI was founded to benefit all of humanity.”
The jury’s unanimous advisory verdict found that Musk’s claims of breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment were filed outside California’s three-year statute of limitations. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the finding and dismissed the case. OpenAI hailed the outcome as vindication, while Musk’s legal team immediately signaled plans to appeal.
The trial, which featured testimony from Musk, Altman, Brockman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and others, exposed deep rifts in Silicon Valley over AI’s direction.
Musk has long warned that profit-driven AI development, especially with closed models and powerful corporate ties, risks endangering humanity—contrasting it with OpenAI’s original open, safety-focused charter. OpenAI countered that the suit stemmed from business rivalry and that Musk himself had explored for-profit paths earlier.
Musk’s appeal could prolong the saga, potentially affecting OpenAI’s valuation (reportedly over $800 billion) and IPO ambitions. Supporters view his stance as defending nonprofit integrity, while critics see it as sour grapes from a competitor whose own xAI is racing in the AI arena.
Regardless of the legal outcome, the case has spotlighted critical questions about trust, governance, and mission drift in the rapidly evolving AI industry. Musk’s willingness to fight on suggests this chapter is far from closed, with broader implications for how charitable organizations—and the tech giants born from them—operate in the future.
Elon Musk
NASA updated Artemis III and SpaceX’s role just got more complicated
SpaceX’s Starship is the key to NASA’s Moon plan and the timeline is already slipping.
SpaceX has been at the center of NASA’s Moon ambitions for five years, and the updated Artemis III plan recently released by NASA makes that relationship more visible than ever. In April 2021, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.89 billion contract to develop the Starship Human Landing System, selecting it as the sole provider to land astronauts on the Moon under Artemis III. Blue Origin filed legal protests, lost, and eventually received its own contract, but SpaceX was always the program’s primary lander contractor.
The original plan called for Starship to land two astronauts on the lunar south pole. That mission slipped as Starship development ran behind schedule, and in February 2026, NASA officially revised the Artemis III architecture entirely. The mission will now remain in low Earth orbit and serve as a crewed rendezvous and docking test between the Orion spacecraft and both the SpaceX Starship HLS pathfinder and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 pathfinder, with the actual Moon landing pushed to Artemis IV in 2028.
What makes SpaceX’s position particularly significant is the direct line between this week’s Starship V3 launch and the Artemis timeline. The Starship HLS is essentially a modified version of the V3 upper stage, meaning SpaceX cannot realistically prepare a lander for a 2027 docking test until it has demonstrated that the base vehicle flies reliably at scale. Flight 12, targeting this week, is the first data point in that sequence.
NASA has spent nearly $7 billion on Human Landing System development since awarding contracts to SpaceX and Blue Origin in 2021 and 2023, and NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has indicated a desire to drive down costs going forward. As Teslarati reported, before Starship HLS can put anyone on the Moon it has to solve a problem no rocket has demonstrated at scale, which is refueling in orbit, requiring approximately ten tanker launches worth of propellant loaded into a depot before the lander has enough fuel to reach the lunar surface.
The Artemis III mission described by NASA is essentially a stress test for every system that needs to work before any of that happens.
SpaceX has gone from a launch contractor to the single most critical hardware provider in America’s return-to-the-Moon program. With an IPO targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation and Elon Musk’s compensation tied directly to Mars colonization, the pressure on every Starship milestone between now and 2028 has never been higher.
SpaceX reveals date for maiden Starship v3 launch
Elon Musk breaks silence on OpenAI trial decision
