A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has successfully launched 51 upgraded laser-linked Starlink satellites from its Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) – the first mission of its kind out of the company’s west coast launch facilities.
Known as Starlink Group 2-1, the mission debuted the operational design of new V1.5 Starlink satellites with laser interlinks that will eventually let the constellation route its own communications almost anywhere on Earth – regardless of ground station locations. Aside from potentially allowing SpaceX to flout local regulations in countries with oppressive communications restrictions, firewalls, or censors, those lasers will also give Starlink the ability to easily deliver internet to moving vehicles – including aircraft traveling over oceans – and in even the remotest locations with no ground infrastructure for hundreds of miles.
Independent of its main purpose, the Starlink 2-1 mission also saw SpaceX tie its internal Falcon booster reusability record. Following in the footsteps of younger booster B1051, Falcon 9 B1049, which debuted in September 2018, successfully completed its tenth orbital-class launch and landing with Starlink 2-1. Originally scheduled to launch as early as July, apparent hiccups mass-producing new Starlink V1.5 satellites and their laser interlinks delayed the mission by about two months, causing SpaceX to launch just once in 11 weeks preceding the mission.
In comparison, Falcon 9 B1051 debuted in March 2019 and became the first booster to cross the ten-flight mark in May 2021, just 26 months later. B1049 took almost exactly 36 months to accomplish the same feat – almost 40% slower but still faster than any of the four NASA Space Shuttles that successfully reached similar milestones.
SpaceX also says that Starlink 2-1 is the 24th time the company has successfully launched a flight-proven Falcon 9 payload fairing, reusing a normally expendable component that CEO Elon Musk once likened to a pallet of $6 million in cash. Ultimately, the company gave up on efforts to catch parasailing fairing halves out of the air with giant ship-based nets and has instead refocused on perfecting the reuse of fairings that gently land in the ocean. For the most part, that’s been accomplished by designing Starlink satellites themselves to tolerate a much dirtier, louder launch environment than most other spacecraft, letting SpaceX remove sponge-like foam sound suppression tiles normally found inside fairings and worry less about needing to deep-clean the giant nosecones.
Nevertheless, SpaceX has technically launched 150+ commercial payloads – and one major geostationary commsat (SXM-7) – over three launches with flight-proven fairings, suggesting that there is a path to wider commercial acceptance of the brand new technology and the direct cost savings it brings.
With Starlink 2-1 safely in orbit, SpaceX now likely operates more space-based laser interlinks than the rest of the world combined. Eventually, once enough satellites with laser links are in orbit, SpaceX will be able to dramatically expand Starlink coverage almost independent of the construction of new ground stations – a heavily bureaucratic process that has proven to make for agonizingly slow progress in a number of the 15+ countries with active service. Instead of requiring that the satellite a given user terminal (dish) is communicating with be in direct line of sight of a ground station dish to route a user’s communications, thus connecting them to the internet, a constellation with widespread lasers will allow a dish’s active satellite to relay that connection through other satellites.
As a result, ground stations can be significantly further away from the users they end up supporting. Further, given that SpaceX has no plans to stop building new ground stations despite the bureaucratic hell it can involve, a well-linked Starlink constellation will ultimately be able to beat most wired connections by using lasers to route user communications to the ground stations closest to the real-world servers or services they’re trying to access.
Stay tuned for updates on SpaceX’s next polar Starlink launch(es) with ‘space lasers.’
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Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Marie Nilsson, chair of Sweden’s IF Metall union and a prominent critic of Tesla, has left X and is urging audiences to follow the union on Meta’s Threads instead.
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Anti-Tesla union leader exits X
In a comment to Dagens Arbete (DA), Nilsson noted that her exit from X is not formally tied to IF Metall’s long-running labor dispute with Tesla Sweden. Still, she stated that her departure is affected by changes to the platform under Elon Musk’s leadership.
“We have stayed because many journalists pick up news there. But as more and more people have left X, we have felt that the standard has now been reached on that platform,” she said.
Jesper Pettersson, press officer at IF Metall, highlighted that the union’s departure from X is only indirectly linked to Tesla Sweden and Elon Musk. “Indirectly it does, since there is a lot of evidence that his ownership has caused the change in the platform to be so significant.
“We have nevertheless assessed that the platform had value for reaching journalists, politicians and other opinion leaders. But it is a microscopic proportion of the public and our members who are there, and now that value has decreased,” Petterson added.
IF Metall sees Threads as an X alternative
After leaving X, IF Metall has begun using Threads, Meta’s alternative to the social media platform. The union described the move as experimental, noting that it is still evaluating how effective the platform will be for outreach and visibility.
Pettersson acknowledged that Meta also does not operate under Sweden’s collective bargaining model, but said the union sees little alternative if it wants to remain visible online.
“In a perfect world, all large international companies would be supporters of the Swedish model when they come here. But unfortunately, the reality is not like that. If we are to be visible at all in this social media world, we have to play by the rules of the game. The alternative would be to become completely invisible, and that would not benefit our members,” he said.
Despite many recent rumors and various reports, Elon Musk confirmed today that SpaceX is not developing a phone based on Starlink, not once, but twice.
Today’s report from Reuters cited people familiar with the matter and stated internal discussions have seen SpaceX executives mulling the idea of building a mobile device that would connect directly to the Starlink satellite constellation.
Musk did state in late January that SpaceX developing a phone was “not out of the question at some point.” However, He also said it would have to be a major difference from current phones, and would be optimized “purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.”
Not out of the question at some point. It would be a very different device than current phones. Optimized purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2026
While Musk said it was not out of the question “at some point,” that does not mean it is currently a project SpaceX is working on. The CEO reaffirmed this point twice on X this afternoon.
Musk said, “Reuters lies relentlessly,” in one post. In the next, he explicitly stated, “We are not developing a phone.”
Reuters lies relentlessly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
We are not developing a phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
Musk has basically always maintained that SpaceX has too many things going on, denying that a phone would be in the realm of upcoming projects. There are too many things in the works for Musk’s space exploration company, most notably the recent merger with xAI.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
A Starlink phone would be an excellent idea, especially considering that SpaceX operates 9,500 satellites, serving over 9 million users worldwide. 650 of those satellites are dedicated to the company’s direct-to-device initiative, which provides cellular coverage on a global scale.
Nevertheless, there is the potential that the Starlink phone eventually become a project SpaceX works on. However, it is not currently in the scope of what the company needs to develop, so things are more focused on that as of right now.
Tesla has added a notable improvement to its Dashcam feature after complaints from owners have pushed the company to make a drastic change.
Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations that Tesla owners have communicated regarding the Dashcam feature is the lack of ability to retain any more than 60 minutes of driving footage before it is overwritten.
It does not matter what size USB jump drive is plugged into the vehicle. 60 minutes is all it will hold until new footage takes over the old. This can cause some issues, especially if you were saving an impressive clip of Full Self-Driving or an incident on the road, which could be lost if new footage was recorded.
This has now been changed, as Tesla has shown in the Release Notes for an upcoming Software Update in China. It will likely expand to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, and was first noticed by NotaTeslaApp.
The release notes state:
“Dashcam Dynamic Recording Duration – The dashcam dynamically adjusts the recording duration based on the available storage capacity of the connected USB drive. For example, with a 128 GB USB drive, the maximum recording duration is approximately 3 hours; with a 1 TB or larger USB drive, it can reach up to 24 hours. This ensures that as much video as possible is retained for review before it gets overwritten.”
Tesla Adds Dynamic Recording
Instead of having a 60-minute cap, the new system will now go off the memory in the USB drive. This means with:
- 128 GB Jump Drive – Up to Three Hours of Rolling Footage
- 1TB Jump Drive – Up to 24 Hours of Rolling Footage
This is dependent on the amount of storage available on the jump drive, meaning that if there are other things saved on it, it will take away from the amount of footage that can be retained.
While the feature is just now making its way to employees in China, it will likely be at least several weeks before it makes its way to the U.S., but owners should definitely expect it in the coming months.
It will be a welcome feature, especially as there will now be more customization to the number of clips and their duration that can be stored.
Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Elon Musk confirms SpaceX is not developing a phone
