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SpaceX on track for first four-launch month ever
With the first mission under its belt, SpaceX is on track to complete four orbital-class launches in a single month for the first time ever, an encouraging sign as it seeks to rapidly deploy its Starlink constellation.
A June 3rd launch of 60 Starlink v1.0 satellites – the seventh such mission – kicked off SpaceX’s potentially record-breaking month while also marking the first time a Falcon 9 booster has successfully launched and landed five times. Itself coming just a week after SpaceX successfully launched NASA astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time ever, the company has done the exact opposite of resting on its laurels after that historic achievement.
Aside from Starlink V1 L7, SpaceX has another two Starlink missions scheduled to launch no earlier than (NET) June 12th and 24th, as well as a critical US military GPS satellite launch NET June 30th. While the margins are exceptionally thin, there’s still a decent chance that June 2020 could wind up being SpaceX’s first four-launch month.
Of course, there are many, many reasons that that might not happen. SpaceX has completed more than two-thirds of its 88 successful launches in the last three and a half years, a little more than a third of the time Falcon 9 has been operational. In those 3.5 years, the company has managed to achieve three launches in a single month on four separate occasions – most recently in January 2020, while the closest SpaceX has come was four launches in 32 days in 2017. As such, a four-launch month wouldn’t exactly be game-changing relative to SpaceX’s past achievements, but it would leave the company on pace for 2020 to be its most productive year yet.
As of now, SpaceX has completed nine launches in a little over five months, pacing towards a tie with 2018, when it completed a record 21 missions. If SpaceX manages four – or even three – launches this month, its moving average for the year will jump to 22 or 24.
Regardless, a four-launch month is only possible this June because of SpaceX’s recent success upgrading a second drone ship – Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) for East Coast recovery operations. With Starlink V1 L9 and GPS III SV03 scheduled on June 24th and 30th, there would be no way for drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) to head out to sea, return after Starlink V1 L9, and return to its landing zone in the Atlantic in time for another booster recovery.
By completing its June 3rd East Coast debut and June 7th return to port, drone ship JRTI can now be considered operational and should offer a new level of flexibility to SpaceX, potentially enabling more than four drone ship landings in a single month. Add in SpaceX’s twin Cape Canaveral Landing Zones (LZ-1/2) and the company should soon have the ability to perform dozens of Falcon 9 launches annually in a repeatable, reliable fashion. At least for the next year or two, SpaceX should have no shortage of payloads – both commercial and internal – to launch as it gradually improves its launch cadence.
SpaceX has 14 commercial launches scheduled in the second half of 2020, while an additional 20-24 Starlink launches were planned around the start of the year. If the company can pull off three Starlink launches this month, it will be on track to complete ~18 this year – more than enough to begin a limited service roll-out to customers around the world. For now, Starlink V1 L8 is scheduled to launch no earlier than (NET) ~5:30 am EDT (09:30 UTC) on Friday, June 12th. Falcon 9 booster B1059, an expendable upper stage, and 60 new Starlink satellites could roll out for their prelaunch static fire anytime within the next few days.
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Tesla has expanded its branded ‘For Business’ Supercharger program that it launched last year, as yet another company is using the platform to attract EV owners to its business and utilize a unique advertising opportunity.
Francis Energy of Oklahoma is launching four Superchargers in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located. The Superchargers, which are fitted with branding for Francis Energy, will officially open tomorrow.
It will not be the final Supercharger location that Francis Energy plans to open, the company confirmed to EVWire.
Back in early September, Tesla launched the new “Supercharger for Business” program in an effort to give businesses the ability to offer EV charging at custom rates. It would give their businesses visibility and would also cater to employees or customers.
“Purchase and install Superchargers at your business,” Tesla wrote on a page on its website for the new program. “Superchargers are compatible with all electric vehicles, bringing EV drivers to your business by offering convenient, reliable charging.”
The first site opened in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, which is Northeast of Tampa, as a company called Suncoast launched the Superchargers for local EV owners.
Tesla launches its new branded Supercharger for Business with first active station
The program also does a great job at expanding infrastructure for EV owners, which is something that needs to be done to encourage more people to purchase Teslas and other electric cars.
Francis Energy operates at least 14 EV charging locations in Oklahoma, spanning from Durant to Oklahoma City and nearly everywhere in between. Filings from the company, listed by Supercharge.info, show the company’s plans to convert some of them to Tesla Superchargers, potentially utilizing the new Supercharger for Business program to advertise.
Moving forward, more companies will likely utilize Tesla’s Supercharger for Business program as it presents major advantages in a variety of ways, especially with advertising and creating a place for EV drivers to gain range in their cars.
Tesla Cybercab is perhaps the most highly-anticipated project that the company plans to roll out this year, and as it is undergoing its testing phase in pre-production currently, there are some things to work through with it.
Over the weekend, an image of the Cybercab being loaded onto a tow truck started circulating on the internet, and people began to speculate as to what the issue could be.
Hmmmmmm… https://t.co/L5hWcOXQkb pic.twitter.com/OJBDyHNTMj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 11, 2026
The Cybercab can clearly be seen with a Police Officer and perhaps the tow truck driver by its side, being loaded onto, or even potentially unloaded from, the truck.
However, it seems unlikely it was being offloaded, as its operation would get it to this point for testing to begin with.
It appears, at first glance, that it needs assistance getting back to wherever it came from; likely Gigafactory Texas or potentially a Bay Area facility.
The Cybercab was also spotted in Buffalo, New York, last week, potentially undergoing cold-weather testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s where this incident took place.
It is important to remember that the Cybercab is currently undergoing some rigorous testing scenarios, which include range tests and routine public road operation. These things help Tesla assess any potential issue the vehicle could run into after it starts routine production and heads to customers, or for the Robotaxi platform operation.
This is not a one-off issue, either. Tesla had some instances with the Semi where it was seen broken down on the side of a highway three years ago. The all-electric Semi has gone on to be successful in its early pilot program, as companies like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. have had very positive remarks.
The Cybercab’s future is bright, and it is important to note that no vehicle model has ever gone its full life without a breakdown. It happens, it’s a car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that there has been no official word on what happened with this particular Cybercab unit, but it is crucial to remember that this is the pre-production testing phase, and these things are more constructive than anything.
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Tesla expands its branded ‘For Business’ Superchargers
Tesla Cybercab ‘breakdown’ image likely is not what it seems
