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Falcon 9 B1046 returned to Port of Los Angeles on December 5 after the rocket's historic third launch and landing. (Pauline Acalin) Falcon 9 B1046 returned to Port of Los Angeles on December 5 after the rocket's historic third launch and landing. (Pauline Acalin)

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SpaceX Falcon 9 booster sails into port after historic third launch and landing

Falcon 9 B1046 returned to Port of Los Angeles on December 5 after the rocket's historic third launch and landing. (Pauline Acalin)

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7 years ago

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Although a sister rocket did not fare nearly as well during a separate landing attempt 48 hours later, SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 booster B1046 nailed its third successful launch and landing on December 3rd and arrived in Port of Los Angeles a bit less than 48 hours later.

Greeting the rocket after its milestone third reuse was a rare Los Angeles rainstorm, lending a lovely reflective sheen to all uncovered surfaces as low clouds and an obscured sun bathed everything in a stark and uniform off-white light.

It is difficult to conceive of a set of conditions that might serve to better emphasize the well-worn patina of soot and charring now fully covering the once-shiny white exterior of B1046’s fuel and oxidizer tanks, a sort of literal badge of honor for the three orbital-class launches the booster has now supported in the last six months. Functionally speaking, cleaning a Falcon 9 booster from top to bottom would be an unbelievably tedious, time-consuming, and largely pointless task, requiring careful spot-cleaning of something like 400 square meters (4300 square feet).

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Falcon 9 B1046.3 sits aboard drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) shortly after arriving in port. (Pauline Acalin)

While SpaceX did repaint recovered Falcon 9 boosters a handful of times around the start of commercial reflights, it always served more of an aesthetic purpose over anything seriously utilitarian. Furthermore, aerospace-grade paint like that used by SpaceX is quite heavy potentially weighing several hundred kilograms per booster and requiring a week at minimum to fully apply a new coat. Some followers like to point out the lost benefits of Falcon 9’s reflective white paint, serving as a mild thermal insulator for Falcon 9’s tanks when filled with supercool propellant. While it certainly exists, the additional heating induced by soot coatings is completely negligible for Falcon 9, which is constantly topped off with chilled propellant prior to launch.

As such, sooty boosters will be around as long as the kerolox-power Falcon family remains in operation. Not too long from now, shiny new Falcon rockets will likely be as rare as the expendable rocket launches they partially represent – the launch vehicles of the future will be rugged workhorses more comparable to the 737s that fill the ranks of airliner fleets than to single-use works of art. Nevertheless, soot is by no means an innate feature of rockets, reusable or otherwise, instead deriving from Falcon 9’s pragmatic choice of kerosene as fuel – soot is simply an inevitable byproduct of kerosene combustion.

 

A long and sooty future

Whenever it begins flying, the sole byproducts of the combustion of BFR/Starlink/Super Heavy’s methane-oxygen (methalox) propellant are water vapor and carbon dioxide, although true methane supplies will inevitably have slight impurities and thus cause the negligible production of some less pleasant byproducts. Raptor, the methalox rocket engine that will power BFR, has been performing hot-fire tests for more than two years, and the sheer differences between the exhaust of Merlin and Raptor are a striking example of the different chemistries at work. As a result of much cleaner combustion, BFR may produce no soot byproducts whatsoever – enjoy it while it lasts!

In the meantime, Falcon 9 will continue to fly and refly for the foreseeable future. B1046’s third successful launch and recovery is a huge step in that direction and the very fact that the most noticeable difference is a new coating of soot at least partially hints at the efficacy of Block 5’s reusability-minded upgrades. Even when twice-flown Block 5 octaweb heat shields are glimpsed, it’s all but impossible to tell the difference between an unflown or twice-flown example, while the new jet-black thermal protection on Block 5 interstages and octawebs only exhibit subtle scarring after reentry heating.

It almost goes without saying that the real killer in multi-use aerospace products – fatigue – is rarely visible to the naked eye, so the external appearance of Falcon boosters is more of a swoon-worthy placebo than anything else. Still, Falcon 9 Block 5 continues to demonstrate that its external appearance is almost equally indicative of truly robust reusability engineering.

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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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Tesla Cybertruck gets Full Self-Driving v14 release date, sort of

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6 hours ago

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October 7, 2025

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Tesla Cybertruck owners are wondering when they will get access to the company’s Full Self-Driving version 14.1 that rolled out to other owners today for the first time.

Cybertruck owners typically receive Full Self-Driving updates slightly later than other drivers, as the process for the all-electric pickup is different. It is a larger vehicle that requires some additional attention from Tesla before FSD versions are rolled out, so they will be slightly delayed. CEO Elon Musk said the all-wheel steering technically requires a bit more attention before rollout as well.

After some owners got access to the v14.1 Full Self-Driving suite this morning, Cybertruck owners sought out a potential timeframe for when they would be able to experience things for themselves.

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Tesla owners show off improvements with new Full Self-Driving v14 rollout

They were able to get an answer from Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI, who said:

“We got you. Coming soon.”

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The release of FSD v14.1 for Cybertruck will not be tempered, either. Elluswamy then confirmed that Tesla would be rolling out the full-featured FSD v14 for the pickup, meaning it would be able to reverse and park itself, among other features.

Elluswamy said it would be capable of these features, which were void in other FSD releases for Cybertruck in the past.

Tesla’s rollout of FSD v14.1 brings several extremely notable changes and improvements to the suite, including more refined operation in parking garages, a new ability to choose parking preferences upon arriving at your destination, a new driving mode called “Sloth,” which is even more reserved than “Chill,” and general operational improvements.

Those who were lucky enough to receive the suite have already started showing off the improvements, and they definitely seem to be a step up from what v13’s more recent versions were capable of.

CEO Elon Musk called v14 “sentient” a few weeks back, and it seems that it is moving toward that. However, he did state that additional releases with more capabilities would be available in the coming weeks, but many owners are still waiting for this first version.

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Tesla launches two new affordable models with ‘Standard’ Model 3, Y offerings

It is the first time Tesla has revealed any details about what it planned to launch in terms of its new, lower-cost vehicles, which are mainly aimed at countering the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit.

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8 hours ago

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October 7, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has officially launched its affordable models with the new Model 3 and Model Y ‘Standard’ versions hitting the company’s Online Design Studio on Tuesday.

It is the first time Tesla has revealed any details about what it planned to launch in terms of its new, lower-cost vehicles, which are mainly aimed at countering the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit.

Here’s what Tesla went with for its release of the new affordable models.

Tesla Model Y ‘Standard’

The Model Y Standard is a stripped-down version of the all-electric crossover and starts at $39,990.

Deliveries are slated for November and December, the company says if you plan to order one, and it comes with a few major changes to improve efficiency and bring down cost for owners.

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  • New athletically tuned exterior and new alloy wheels to improve aerodynamics
  • 15.4″ touchscreen in the front, the same as the other trims
  • Available in three colors: Stealth Grey (free), White ($1,oo0 extra), Diamond Black ($1,500 extra)
  • Textile and vegan leather interior
  • Range sits at 321 miles
  • New front fascia
  • Covered glass roof (textile on inside)
  • Windows are not acoustically laminated for a quieter cabin
  • Manual mirrors and seats
  • Smaller frunk
  • No rear infotainment screen
  • No basic Autopilot
  • 69 kWh battery
  • New 19″ Aperture wheels
  • 0-60 MPH in 6.8 seconds
  • 7 speaker stereo, down from 15 speakers in premium models

Tesla Model 3 ‘Standard’

The Model 3 Standard was a surprise offering from Tesla, as many had only anticipated the company to refine and offer a more affordable version of the Model Y.

Coming in at $36,990, it features many of the same changes Tesla made with the Model Y “Standard,” all ways to improve price and make it less flashy than the more premium offerings.

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Deliveries are also slated for November for this vehicle, and it features relatively the same stripped-down offerings as the Model Y Standard.

  • Available in three colors: Stealth Grey (free), White ($1,oo0 extra), Diamond Black ($1,500 extra)
  • Textile and vegan leather interior
  • Range sits at 321 miles
  • Covered glass roof (textile on inside)
  • Manual mirrors and seats
  • No rear infotainment screen
  • No basic Autopilot
  • 69 kWh battery
  • New 19″ Aperture wheels
  • 0-60 MPH in 6.8 seconds
  • 7 speaker stereo, down from 15 speakers in premium models
@teslarati 🚨 Tesla’s Affordable Models are here! Let’s talk about them! #tesla #fyp #viral #teslaev #elonmusk ♬ Natural Emotions – Muspace Lofi

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Tesla owners show off improvements with new Full Self-Driving v14 rollout

Some of the big things that Tesla faced head-on with the development and release of v14 were navigating in parking garages and handling parking after arriving at a destination.

Published

10 hours ago

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October 7, 2025

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Credit: Tesla Europe & Middle East/X

Tesla owners with access to the company’s Full Self-Driving new version, v14, which rolled out on Tuesday morning, are showcasing some of the very impressive improvements that have arrived.

CEO Elon Musk called v14 “sentient” a few weeks ahead of its rollout, claiming the newest iteration of the company’s Full Self-Driving platform would be the most accurate to date.

Tesla FSD (Supervised) V14.1 with Robotaxi-style dropoffs is here

It was obvious this narrative had Tesla owners keeping their expectations high, as there were very evidently things that needed to be improved upon that were present in v13. I wrote about several improvements I was hoping to see, and based on the release notes for v14, Tesla did have these things in the works already.

Some of the big things that Tesla faced head-on with the development and release of v14 were navigating in parking garages and handling parking after arriving at a destination.

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Tesla said it was working to increase the capabilities of Summon within parking garages, as many owners believe that is where it would be the most beneficial.

While that does not appear to be part of this initial v14 rollout, it does seem Tesla is focused on improving the suite’s ability to navigate through these garages, including stopping for a ticket to enter the facility, finding a spot, and parking in an appropriate space.

It was evident this was a huge improvement based on one example from an owner who received v14:

If you look closely, you will even see the car shift slightly to the right when it arrives at the ticketing station, making it easier for the driver to hand over their ticket and payment. It then moves back out to the right when leaving to return to the center of the lane. It’s very intuitive.

Additionally, it appears to be more accurate when parking, thanks to improvements that enable owners to select the type of parking upon arrival at a destination.

In the v14.1 release notes, Tesla said that it has added “Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, in a Parking Garage, or at the Curbside.”

One owner chose to navigate home and chose a garage to park in. Full Self-Driving performed it without any issues:

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These are just two evident improvements so far, and there are likely many more on the way. The changes and fixes will be tracked by anyone with access to FSD v14 in the coming weeks.

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