After an unusual cadence downtick in the third quarter of the year, SpaceX looks set to round out the last several weeks of 2021 with a burst of Falcon 9 launches from all three of its East and West Coast pads.
NASA confirmed in a November 22nd briefing that the rocket is in perfect condition and that weather conditions will be 90% favorable for Falcon 9’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) launch on Tuesday, November 23rd. On the opposite coast, SpaceX completed recovery operations for a back-to-back-to-back Crew Dragon splashdown, Crew Dragon launch, and Starlink launch; returning a Dragon, two well-worn Falcon 9 boosters, and a payload fairing to port between November 13th and 18th.
That’s left SpaceX’s East Coast recovery fleet and team about 10 days to prefer for a busy December of (potentially) even more Falcon launches and landings.
Following DART on November 23rd or 24th, SpaceX has scheduled its 16th Starlink launch of the year – cryptically deemed “Starlink 4-3” – no earlier than (NET) 6:20 pm EST (23:20 UTC), Wednesday, December 1st. Carrying another 15-ton (~33,000 lb) batch of 53 laser-linked Starlink V1.5 satellites, an unknown flight-proven Falcon 9 booster (potentially B1049, B0152, B1053, B1060, B1061, B1063, B1067, or even the just-launched B1058) will send the spacecraft on their way to space from SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral LC-40 pad just 18 days after its last Starlink mission.
Up next, incorrectly surmised to be destined for Starlink 4-1 when it was spotted in transport on November 4th, Falcon 9 B1062 will likely support the launch of NASA’s tiny Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. Set to be the booster’s fourth payload in 12 months, Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch the minuscule ~300 kg (~650 lb) observatory to low Earth orbit no earlier than (NET) 1am EST (06:00 UTC), Thursday, December 9th. Unless there are surprise copassengers, it will be the smallest dedicated payload ever launched by Falcon 9, beating out NASA’s 362 kg (798 lb) TESS exoplanet observatory. The booster will likely return to Cape Canaveral for a touchdown at a SpaceX Landing Zone (LZ).

Up next, another mystery Falcon booster is scheduled to launch the second of a new pair of Turkish geostationary (GEO) communications satellites NET 10:58 pm EST, December 18th (03:58 UTC 19 Dec) from LC-40. The 4500 kg (~10,000 lb) Turksat 5B satellite will ultimately join its 5A twin on orbit and support a variety of communications needs.
On the East Coast, barring major delays or an out-of-the-blue Starlink mission, SpaceX’s last launch of the year will be Cargo Dragon 2’s CRS-24 space station resupply run, which is currently set to launch at 5:06 am EST (10:06 UTC) on December 21st (delayed from December 4th).

Finally, CEO Elon Musk expects SpaceX to launch at least one more Starlink mission (on top of Starlink 4-3) before the end of 2021. Based solely on pad turnaround timing, the most likely time for that mission is in the last week or two of December – about a month after DART if on the West Coast or 10-12 days after Turksat 5B on the East Coast. If all goes to plan, Falcon 9 will end the year having just completed its 30th orbital launch of 2021.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.
The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”
The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.
Using TBC tunnels to transport freight.
The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20’ shipping container.
Fits like a glove! https://t.co/VV0phWK4fc
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) October 19, 2026
Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.
Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.
The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.
The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk reveals why Boring Co’s biggest East Coast project never happened
Elon Musk revealed in a post on X that “Permits were impossible to get,” explaining the fate of The Boring Company’s most ambitious East Coast proposal.
The comment responded to a query about what became of his July 20, 2017 announcement that he had “just received verbal govt approval” for an underground Hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., capable of carrying passengers from the Big Apple to the Nation’s Capital in just 29 minutes.
The Boring Company receives verbal ‘approval’ to build NY to DC Hyperloop tunnel
The 2017 post, which envisioned city-center stations and multiple elevators in each city, sparked immediate scrutiny. Local and state officials in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. said they had no knowledge of any approval. A White House spokesperson confirmed only “promising conversations” about the transformative infrastructure.
Musk clarified shortly after that there was “still a lot of work” to do for formal approvals.
@cybrtrkguy Permits were impossible to get
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
Limited progress followed, as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s administration issued a conditional utility permit and supported work near Fort Meade. In 2018, Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary permit for site preparation and excavation on a vacant lot at 53 New York Ave. NE in the NoMa neighborhood, which The Boring Company said could become a station.
A draft environmental assessment for a D.C.-Baltimore segment was released in 2019. Yet, by April 2021, the company had removed the project from its website, and the Federal Highway Administration reported receiving no indication of further interest. Communication with Maryland officials had ceased.
The full corridor would have required coordination among the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and other agencies.
Environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, utility clearances, and approvals for novel infrastructure added to the overall complexity of the project and its approval.
Speculation on the permitting barriers centers around a few factors, but a multi-state, multi-level route involving unproven high-speed vacuum-tube technology inherently triggers exhaustive safety, environmental, and engineering reviews that can stretch for years, even for conventional projects.
There are also other elements, of course, like officials who may face political exposure if a privately funded, untested system encountered anything such as cost overruns, delays, or safety issues. On the outset of this project, there were limited things such as engineering plans or demonstrated technology maturity, which also added to the potential skepticism.
The East Coast vision for Boring Co., once framed as a privately funded revolution that could reshape Northeast travel, quietly ended without construction of the promised network. Musk’s recent statement frames the outcome as a regulatory impasse, unfortunate but not unexpected.