News
SpaceX just caught its first rocket nosecone in 5 months (and the booster landed, too)
One of SpaceX’s net-outfitted recovery ships has just completed the company’s first successful Falcon 9 nosecone (payload fairing) catch in more than five months, although the ship’s twin was not so lucky.
Known as GO Ms. Tree (formerly Mr. Steven) and GO Ms. Chief, today’s recovery attempt marked the second time ever that both ships simultaneously attempted to catch both halves of a Falcon 9 payload fairing. Outfitted with giant nets, those ships are meant to keep those featherweight fairings – flying with the help of GPS-guided parafoils – out of corrosive saltwater by being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time some 700-1000+ km (430-620+ mi) downrange. Unsurprisingly, consistently catching Falcon fairings has proven to be incredibly challenging — perhaps even more so than recovering Falcon 9 boosters.
As evidence, on today’s attempt – despite both ships being present in almost identical conditions, only one ship – Ms. Tree – managed to catch its assigned fairing half, while Ms. Chief missed her shot. For fairing recovery in general, this is SpaceX’s first successful catch in more than five months and third successful catch ever since attempts first began in early 2018.
Given the mechanics of the feat, it’s not all that surprising that Falcon fairing recovery has proven so exceptionally challenging. First and foremost, Falcon payload fairings are only worth around $6 million total – less than 10% of Falcon 9’s current base price and even less for Falcon Heavy, advertised with a base price of $90M per launch. If, for example, SpaceX ends up spending $100-200 million developing fairing recovery, it will take a bare minimum of 15-30+ flawless recoveries (of both halves, no less) to recoup the company’s investment.
Still, given that SpaceX will need no fewer than 75-190+ dedicated Falcon 9 launches to orbit its entire licensed Starlink constellation, it’s not surprising that the company has deemed the investment and major challenges worth it. While the payload fairing only represents 10% of the cost of a new Falcon 9, accounting for the booster reuse that is more or less guaranteed on all Starlink missions means that the fairing could actually represent more like 30%+ of the cost to SpaceX for each internal Starlink launch.
Ultimately, even on the low end of Starlink’s required Falcon 9 launches, recovering and reusing payload fairings could save SpaceX hundreds of millions of dollars. Not only that, reliable fairing recovery would mean that SpaceX can close the recovery loop on both Falcon 9 boosters and fairings, representing some 75-80% of the rocket’s total cost. In other words, recovering fairings could allow SpaceX to lower the cost of launch to something like $15 or $20M for each Starlink mission — simply inconceivable and definitely unbeatable for more than 15 metric tons (33,000 lb) to low Earth orbit (LEO).
Meanwhile, some 35 minutes before Ms. Tree caught her third Falcon fairing, Falcon 9 booster B1051 nailed its third drone ship landing in 10 months, setting the rocket up for a fourth launch and landing sometime in the near future.
A little over an hour after liftoff, Falcon 9’s second stage spun itself up like a propeller and released the fourth batch of 60 Starlink satellites, completing the company’s third flawless launch of 2020 and taking SpaceX a step towards providing Starlink internet to customers around the world.
Check out Teslarati’s Marketplace! We offer Tesla accessories, including for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Model 3.
News
Tesla FSD (Supervised) fleet passes 8.4 billion cumulative miles
The figure appears on Tesla’s official safety page, which tracks performance data for FSD (Supervised) and other safety technologies.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system has now surpassed 8.4 billion cumulative miles.
The figure appears on Tesla’s official safety page, which tracks performance data for FSD (Supervised) and other safety technologies.
Tesla has long emphasized that large-scale real-world data is central to improving its neural network-based approach to autonomy. Each mile driven with FSD (Supervised) engaged contributes additional edge cases and scenario training for the system.
The milestone also brings Tesla closer to a benchmark previously outlined by CEO Elon Musk. Musk has stated that roughly 10 billion miles of training data may be needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving at scale, citing the “long tail” of rare but complex driving situations that must be learned through experience.
The growth curve of FSD Supervised’s cumulative miles over the past five years has been notable.
As noted in data shared by Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt, annual FSD (Supervised) miles have increased from roughly 6 million in 2021 to 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and 4.25 billion in 2025. In just the first 50 days of 2026, Tesla owners logged another 1 billion miles.
At the current pace, the fleet is trending towards hitting about 10 billion FSD Supervised miles this year. The increase has been driven by Tesla’s growing vehicle fleet, periodic free trials, and expanding Robotaxi operations, among others.
With the fleet now past 8.4 billion cumulative miles, Tesla’s supervised system is approaching that threshold, even as regulatory approval for fully unsupervised deployment remains subject to further validation and oversight.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk fires back after Wikipedia co-founder claims neutrality and dubs Grokipedia “ridiculous”
Musk’s response to Wales’ comments, which were posted on social media platform X, was short and direct: “Famous last words.”
Elon Musk fired back at Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales after the longtime online encyclopedia leader dismissed xAI’s new AI-powered alternative, Grokipedia, as a “ridiculous” idea that is bound to fail.
Musk’s response to Wales’ comments, which were posted on social media platform X, was short and direct: “Famous last words.”
Wales made the comments while answering questions about Wikipedia’s neutrality. According to Wales, Wikipedia prides itself on neutrality.
“One of our core values at Wikipedia is neutrality. A neutral point of view is non-negotiable. It’s in the community, unquestioned… The idea that we’ve become somehow ‘Wokepidea’ is just not true,” Wales said.
When asked about potential competition from Grokipedia, Wales downplayed the situation. “There is no competition. I don’t know if anyone uses Grokipedia. I think it is a ridiculous idea that will never work,” Wales wrote.
After Grokipedia went live, Larry Sanger, also a co-founder of Wikipedia, wrote on X that his initial impression of the AI-powered Wikipedia alternative was “very OK.”
“My initial impression, looking at my own article and poking around here and there, is that Grokipedia is very OK. The jury’s still out as to whether it’s actually better than Wikipedia. But at this point I would have to say ‘maybe!’” Sanger stated.
Musk responded to Sanger’s assessment by saying it was “accurate.” In a separate post, he added that even in its V0.1 form, Grokipedia was already better than Wikipedia.
During a past appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show, Sanger argued that Wikipedia has drifted from its original vision, citing concerns about how its “Reliable sources/Perennial sources” framework categorizes publications by perceived credibility. As per Sanger, Wikipedia’s “Reliable sources/Perennial sources” list leans heavily left, with conservative publications getting effectively blacklisted in favor of their more liberal counterparts.
As of writing, Grokipedia has reportedly surpassed 80% of English Wikipedia’s article count.
News
Tesla Sweden appeals after grid company refuses to restore existing Supercharger due to union strike
The charging site was previously functioning before it was temporarily disconnected in April last year for electrical safety reasons.
Tesla Sweden is seeking regulatory intervention after a Swedish power grid company refused to reconnect an already operational Supercharger station in Åre due to ongoing union sympathy actions.
The charging site was previously functioning before it was temporarily disconnected in April last year for electrical safety reasons. A temporary construction power cabinet supplying the station had fallen over, described by Tesla as occurring “under unclear circumstances.” The power was then cut at the request of Tesla’s installation contractor to allow safe repair work.
While the safety issue was resolved, the station has not been brought back online. Stefan Sedin, CEO of Jämtkraft elnät, told Dagens Arbete (DA) that power will not be restored to the existing Supercharger station as long as the electric vehicle maker’s union issues are ongoing.
“One of our installers noticed that the construction power had been backed up and was on the ground. We asked Tesla to fix the system, and their installation company in turn asked us to cut the power so that they could do the work safely.
“When everything was restored, the question arose: ‘Wait a minute, can we reconnect the station to the electricity grid? Or what does the notice actually say?’ We consulted with our employer organization, who were clear that as long as sympathy measures are in place, we cannot reconnect this facility,” Sedin said.
The union’s sympathy actions, which began in March 2024, apply to work involving “planning, preparation, new connections, grid expansion, service, maintenance and repairs” of Tesla’s charging infrastructure in Sweden.
Tesla Sweden has argued that reconnecting an existing facility is not equivalent to establishing a new grid connection. In a filing to the Swedish Energy Market Inspectorate, the company stated that reconnecting the installation “is therefore not covered by the sympathy measures and cannot therefore constitute a reason for not reconnecting the facility to the electricity grid.”
Sedin, for his part, noted that Tesla’s issue with the Supercharger is quite unique. And while Jämtkraft elnät itself has no issue with Tesla, its actions are based on the unions’ sympathy measures against the electric vehicle maker.
“This is absolutely the first time that I have been involved in matters relating to union conflicts or sympathy measures. That is why we have relied entirely on the assessment of our employer organization. This is not something that we have made any decisions about ourselves at all.
“It is not that Jämtkraft elnät has a conflict with Tesla, but our actions are based on these sympathy measures. Should it turn out that we have made an incorrect assessment, we will correct ourselves. It is no more difficult than that for us,” the executive said.
Tesla FSD (Supervised) fleet passes 8.4 billion cumulative miles
Elon Musk fires back after Wikipedia co-founder claims neutrality and dubs Grokipedia “ridiculous”
