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SpaceX’s Starlink high-speed internet satellites alive and well in orbit

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Comments from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and other executives have confirmed that the company’s first two prototype Starlink internet satellites are healthy and progressing through a range of tests three months after launch.

Designed to flesh out a broad range of technologies and flight-test SpaceX’s ability to design, manufacture, and operate advanced communications satellites, what little public information available on the satellite constellation indicates that the test program is thus far a success. While it can be argued that SpaceX already has years of experience building and operating satellites in the form of Cargo Dragon and Falcon 9’s upper stage, small high-throughput communications satellites are a dramatic leap outside of the company’s demonstrated comfort zones. As such, the fact that the first true standalone Starlink prototypes have survived several months in orbit and managed to demonstrate at least a few of their complex technologies with some success.

A flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 launched two Starlink prototype satellites and the PAZ earth-imaging satellite in February 2018. (SpaceX)

Musk noted in a tweet that the first two Starlink satellites were doing “pretty good” and “closing the link to ground with phased array at high bandwidth, low latency (25 ms).” He also stated that there would likely be another hardware revision before settling on a final design for Starlink, indicating that at least one more batch of improved prototype satellites will likely be launched sometime this year.

Given the sheer number of new technologies built in-house for Starlink, ranging from optical (laser) interlink terminals to electric ion propulsion systems, it should come as little surprise that the satellite internet constellation team intends to continue iterative improvement and testing before transferring focus to mass-production and consumer operations.

Previously mentioned by Musk during Tesla’s Q1 2018 conference call, the CEO does not expect initial Starlink service to be available to consumers (and perhaps even to internal R&D teams at Tesla) for at least “three years”, indicating the beginning of operational connectivity no earlier than 2021 or 2022. This timeline allows SpaceX at least another 6-12 months of experimentation and flight testing before the first true production runs and launches would need to begin, giving the company roughly 12-18 months to build and launch the minimum of ~800 satellites required to begin offering consumers internet access.

A couple weeks after the FCC officially approved SpaceX’s full Starlink constellation in March 2018, SpaceX’s Patricia Cooper and Bryon Hargis met with several FCC commissioners and their staff to discuss “the operation of two experimental SpaceX satellites launched on February 22, 2018, including initial results from those test operations.” While about as vague as can be (PDF), this suggested that initial Starlink test operations were proceeding to some extent, whether that procession was nominal or otherwise. Musk’s comments approximately a month later corroborate that vague confirmation of success and reinforce the observation that SpaceX is continuing to make gradual but steady progress on their internet constellation ambitions.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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A Tesla just delivered itself to a customer autonomously, Elon Musk confirms

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the first self-delivery occurred today, one day ahead of schedule.

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Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer/X

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that a vehicle has, for the first time ever, delivered itself to a customer autonomously, one day ahead of the company’s original schedule.

To date, this is the first car to ever roll off a production line at a factory and transport itself to a customer for delivery.

Late last month, Musk announced that the first-ever fully autonomous delivery of a Tesla would take place on June 28. The plan was to have the car roll off the production lines at Gigafactory Texas and drive to a local customer without the assistance of anyone on board or remotely controlling the car through teleoperation.

Teslas will self-deliver to customers, Elon Musk says: here’s when

Musk said on Friday that it has officially happened:

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The vehicle traveled as fast as 72 miles per hour, according to Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI and Autopilot.

Musk continued on X:

“There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous! To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fully autonomous drive with no people in the car or remotely operating the car on a public highway.”

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He said a video of the delivery would be uploaded soon.

We have seen cars autonomously transport themselves from production line to logistics lot at Gigafactory Texas, but this is a whole new level.

Tesla’s Giga Texas vehicles now drive themselves to outbound lot

Tesla just recently launched its Robotaxi for the first time in Austin on Sunday. Opened to a limited number of people, the company rolled out an Early Access Riders Program, but has been expanding it to more people in recent days. These cars featured a Safety Monitor in the passenger’s seat to ensure safety.

This seems to be something Tesla would like to perform more frequently in the coming months, especially locally. Eventually, it seems that Tesla will plan to have every vehicle it manufactures self-deliver, as a hauler would transport it to local delivery centers, then the car would drive itself to the customer’s house.

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This is likely a few years off, but Tesla has already completed one self-delivery, which is an incredible accomplishment.

Yesterday, I wrote about Tesla’s two big milestones that are still planned for launch before the end of Q2. This was one of them. One to go: unveiling of the affordable models.

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Tesla dispels reports that it hired ex-Cruise Autonomy head Henry Kuang

Tesla has denied reports that it hired former head of GM’s Cruise Henry Kuang.

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tesla showroom
(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla has dispelled reports that it has hired ex-Cruise Head of Autonomy Henry Kuang.

This morning, several media outlets reported that Tesla had filled the position of Director of AI and Deep Learning for Autonomous Driving with Kuang, who was the Head of Autonomy at General Motors’ failed autonomous vehicle company, Cruise.

The rumor then circulated to X, but Tesla has now denied that those reports are true.

Tesla’s Head of Autopilot and AI, Ashok Elluswamy, revealed that the reports are false:

It would be easy to see how the hire might have been construed as real. Someone appears to have created a fake LinkedIn profile for Kuang, listing the new role at Tesla as their latest career move. The account appeared legitimate and bore all the hallmarks of a genuine page for Kuang, but it has since been removed from the site.

Additionally, there has been some rather high-level turnover at Tesla in recent days. The company recently let go of Omead Afshar, who was widely recognized as CEO Elon Musk’s right-hand man. Afshar assumed the role of North American sales head and European operations head late last year. He has been relieved of his duties, according to a Bloomberg report.

Tesla’s Omead Afshar, known as Elon Musk’s right-hand man, leaves company: reports

Alongside the loss of Afshar, Tesla’s Human Resources Head in Austin, Jenna Ferrua, also left the company this week.

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This past week, Tesla launched its Robotaxi platform to a handful of people, marking the first time the company has given driverless rides to members of the public.

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JB Straubel’s Redwood launches energy business focused on second-life EV batteries

Redwood stated that many EV battery packs retain more than 50% of their capacity after being retired from vehicles.

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Credit: Redwood Materials

Redwood Materials, the battery recycling firm founded by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, has launched a new venture called Redwood Energy. The business aims to repurpose used electric vehicle batteries into large-scale, low-cost energy storage systems.

In a post on X, Redwood revealed that it has already deployed a 12 MW, 63 MWh microgrid powered entirely by second-life EV batteries. The system is currently powering a modular data center for Crusoe AI, and it already operates at a lower cost than conventional solutions.

Repurposed batteries for scalable storage

Redwood Energy is designed to bridge the gap between battery recovery and recycling by extracting value from discarded EV packs that still hold usable charge. In a blog post, Redwood stated that many EV battery packs retain more than 50% of their capacity after being retired from vehicles. That remaining energy is well suited for stationary storage applications even without recycling.

The process begins with Redwood’s collection and diagnostics system, which identifies battery packs that are still suitable for reuse. Those packs are then integrated into modular energy systems that can store energy from solar, wind, or the grid. Once the batteries reach true end-of-life, they are recycled through Redwood’s closed-loop system to recover critical minerals.

Meeting the demands of an AI-driven grid

Redwood estimates that more than 100,000 EVs will be retired this year in the United States, with millions more currently on the road. These vehicles represent hundreds of gigawatt-hours of storage potential. These resources are coming in at the right time, as electricity demand is rising rapidly amid the rise of artificial intelligence, which tends to be power-hungry.

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Redwood Energy already has more than 1 GWh of second-life batteries in its deployment pipeline. That figure is expected to grow to 5 GWh in the coming year. Larger 100 MW projects are also in development.

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