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SpaceX Inspiration4 Dragon, Falcon 9 booster return to port after flawless mission
After acing a flawless commercial astronaut launch debut, SpaceX’s Inspiration4 Crew Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9 booster, and the four private astronauts they carried have been safely returned to dry land.
Simultaneously, thanks to a decently executed media strategy, a well-received Netflix documentary, and the spectacular overall success of the Inspiration4 launch, a senior SpaceX engineer and manager says that the company is seeing a major influx in new demand from the ultrawealthy for more private free-flyer missions to orbit. In fact, the amount of interest is so significant that SpaceX may even consider building one or more Dragon spacecraft that would be solely dedicated to private astronaut missions.
Around 8:03pm EDT on Wednesday, September 15th, a twice-flown SpaceX Falcon 9 booster and a new expendable upper stage flawlessly delivered a once-flown Crew Dragon spacecraft and the world’s first all-private crew of astronauts to orbit. As is now routine, Falcon 9 booster B1062 landed on a drone ship without issue, where a robot and human team secured the booster for transport back to Florida. On September 18th, after spending almost three days in orbit, reaching heights higher than any private astronauts have ever experienced, and enjoying the first flight of the world’s largest window in space, Crew Dragon lowered its orbit and completed its fourth successful orbital reentry, descent, and splashdown.
In a post-splashdown press conference, after plenty of congratulations, SpaceX Director of Dragon Mission Management Benji Reed revealed that Inspiration4 appears to have inspired a dramatic uptick in the amount of interest the company’s private spaceflight sales and marketing teams are experiencing. More specifically, Inspiration4 has effectively proven that free-flyer missions in a spacecraft as small as Crew Dragon are not only doable – but potentially enjoyable, too.
As a result, SpaceX is suddenly seeing far more interest in similar free-flyer missions. While not nearly as extensive as one or two-week-long private missions to the International Space Station (ISS), of which SpaceX already has several under contract, free-flyer missions are both substantially cheaper (likely >$25M) and a magnitude easier to coordinate. Due to a combination of apparently poor planning on NASA’s part and a years-old SpaceX launch failure in 2015, the ISS only has two docking ports available to US crewed spacecraft – one of which is likely to be almost permanently occupied for the indefinite future. That lone free port is the only place SpaceX’s new Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft can dock and must also host a second Crew Dragon (or Boeing Starliner, eventually) every ~6 months during crew hand-offs.
That ultimately means that the slots for additional crew or cargo spacecraft in need of those specific docking ports are incredibly few and far between, while the few that do exist are fickle at best given the high probability of minor launch delays when planning missions months or even years in advance. Put simply, if SpaceX’s prospective private spaceflight customers are interested enough in free-flyer missions to overlook the tradeoffs, it would allow the company to fly private astronauts far more easily, frequently, and cheaply.
Thanks in large part to reusability, which also made Inspiration4 possible anywhere close to the timeframe it actually happened in, private orbital spaceflight could also become far more accessible than it’s ever been as SpaceX gains experience and confidence in Crew Dragon reuse. Prior to Inspiration4, a total of seven private citizens (all extremely wealthy) were able to pay approximately $30M in 2021 dollars to launch to the ISS in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spent around two weeks in orbit. Using a flight-proven Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 booster, it’s entirely possible that SpaceX could eventually sell free-flyer missions for as little as $15-20M per seat – and possibly even less – while still ensuring a small profit.
For now, according to Eric Berger and SpaceX customer Axiom Space, that price is closer to ~$40M per free-flyer seat and $55M for a seat on a ~10-day Axiom mission to and from the ISS. It’s quite likely that with those prices, SpaceX’s profit margins on four-person private astronaut launches approach 50%, if not more.
Ferrari’s first electric vehicle, the Luce, is fully sold out for 2027, according to CEO Benedetto Vigna.
Presenting third-quarter results, he stated: “Everything we plan to sell next year is already fully allocated. Client test drives, scheduled for next year, will help further boost demand. We have no critical issues, neither on manufacturing nor on the demand side. Obviously, the car is more complex because it has many new parts and many new technologies.”
First customer deliveries are expected before the end of 2026, with the model already commanding waitlists despite a turbulent debut.
The Luce is a five-seat, four-door liftback saloon—the longest Ferrari ever produced—powered by four electric motors producing approximately 1,035 horsepower.
It features an 800-volt architecture, a 122-kWh battery, a claimed WLTP range of around 329 miles, 0-62 mph acceleration in 2.5 seconds, and a starting price near €550,000 in Europe (roughly $560,800–$615,000 in the U.S. depending on configuration).
Developed in collaboration with Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s LoveFrom studio alongside Ferrari’s own Centro Stile, it represents a deliberate departure from the brand’s traditional mid-engine sports cars toward a more spacious, grand-touring format.
Its exterior has proven deeply polarizing. Unveiled in Rome in May 2026, the design features smooth, sweeping surfaces, a large glass roof, and restrained detailing that critics described as bland, generic, or more reminiscent of an Apple product or mass-market EV than a Ferrari.
Ferrari unveils its Luce EV, and its reception has been a disaster
Online reactions included memes comparing it to a Nissan Leaf or Polestar, while former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo publicly warned of “the destruction of a myth” and suggested the prancing horse logo be removed. Italian politicians and longtime owners joined the chorus of disappointment, and Ferrari’s shares dropped roughly 8% in a single day, erasing billions in market value.
Design experts noted the absence of the brand’s signature tension, aggression, and emotional drama.
Yet the controversy has not translated into weak demand among the ultra-wealthy clientele who actually buy Ferraris. Production volumes remain tightly limited, as reports suggest fewer than 500 units in the current year and a longer-term pace of roughly 600 annually through 2030, preserving exclusivity.
One early chassis sold for $40 million at auction. Vigna has indicated that seeing the car in person, along with upcoming client test drives, is expected to strengthen rather than weaken interest. Ferrari aims for fully electric models to comprise 20 percent of its lineup by 2030, with a second EV now delayed to 2028.
For a brand defined by scarcity and desirability, the Luce’s sell-out status suggests that among those who can afford it, the polarizing design has not proven to be a commercial liability.
Tesla and SpaceX shares fell on Wednesday after Democrats swept both chambers of Congress. The decline stood out as broader market securities recovered and turned positive, while both of Musk’s publicly traded companies lagged.
CEO Elon Musk already joked about the unsuccessful campaigning for the Republicans, but now the new party will make pretty drastic changes to how it handles Tesla and SpaceX, and those companies will adjust their outlook.
Let’s take a deeper look.
Tesla ($TSLA)
Tesla shares traded lower during the regular session after Democrats secured both the House and Senate. The stock was down 2.32 percent at around 1:45 p.m. on the East Coast, trading at around $389.30.
The pressure is tied to more than the raw scale of Musk’s political spending, estimated at $450–474 million this cycle with roughly $224 million directed at Texas. In that state, Tesla now faces a Democratic governor and a Democratic senator after Gina Hinojosa unseated Greg Abbott and James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton.
The Austin Gigafactory, Robotaxi pilot programs in multiple Texas cities, and any related AI compute expansion sit under a new state executive who campaigned against certain corporate subsidies and floated a moratorium on new data-center construction.
Federally, Democratic control of key committees opens the door to deeper examination of Tesla’s autonomous-driving safety record, federal energy-storage and manufacturing incentives, and the national-security implications of any combination with SpaceX.
Investors are also weighing whether the company’s historically close alignment with the prior Republican leadership will invite slower permitting, additional hearings, or tighter rules on Full Self-Driving deployment.
For Tesla, the political shift adds near-term friction around state permitting and federal regulatory approvals for autonomy and energy storage. A potential merger with SpaceX may face slower review even if it proceeds.
Core growth drivers such as vehicle deliveries, energy deployments, and robotaxi rollout remain intact, yet the stock now carries a higher political-risk premium that could weigh on valuation until the company demonstrates workable relationships with the new Texas leadership and congressional majorities.
SpaceX ($SPCX)
SpaceX shares also declined in live trading on November 4 following the Democratic midterm sweep. The stock traded at $134.97, down 4.49 percent. The drop occurred even as broader indexes stabilized, highlighting a company-specific reaction to the election outcome.
Musk’s large contributions, concentrated in Texas races that both companies lost, place SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility and headquarters under a new Democratic governor.
At the federal level, Democratic control of Congress enables greater scrutiny of NASA, the Department of Defense, and other contracts that support a meaningful share of revenue, along with reviews of Starlink national-security uses and any Tesla merger. Analysts have noted that empowered committees can hold hearings and request documents on these relationships.
For SpaceX, the results raise the risk of delayed contract awards, higher compliance costs, and tighter constraints on AI and satellite infrastructure expansion, particularly in Texas where a data-center moratorium has been discussed.
A merger with Tesla could encounter political friction that slows integration of launch, connectivity, and autonomy capabilities.
While Starlink growth and launch cadence continue as primary drivers, the company faces a more contested path for federal funding and state-level operations, requiring management to rebuild ties with the new congressional majorities and Texas leadership to limit the overhang.
Tesla’s new vehicle registrations in Germany rose sharply in October, nearly quadrupling from the same month a year earlier. That’s according to data from the KBA, Germany’s federal motor transport authority.
The KBA reported 2,932 Tesla vehicles registered in October, a 290.9 percent year-over-year- increase. For the first ten months of the year, Tesla’s cumulative registrations reached 47,742 units. This number is up 206.1 percent compared with the January-October period of 2025. These gains occurred against a backdrop of strong overall growth in the BEV sector as a whole.
Germany registered 94,086 new BEVs in October, a 79.5 percent rise that brought the BEV share of the passenger car market to 37 percent of the 254,492 total cars registered that month.
🇩🇪 Tesla’s new registrations in Germany nearly quadrupled in October, according to KBA data.
October: 2,932 units, +290.9% YoY Jan–Oct: 47,742 units, +206.1%
Germany’s overall BEV market grew 79.5% to 94,086 units last month. https://t.co/GMwNqsFAOC
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 4, 2026
Despite the percentage surge, Tesla’s absolute numbers left it with a 1.2 percent share of all new car registrations for October. Chinese competitors did record higher volumes, as BYD registered 5,173 vehicles, a 2 percent share, Leapmotor with 3,661 cars, which equates to 1.4 percent, and Xpeng had a 0.5 percent share.
Year-to-date through October, BYD edged ahead of Tesla with 47,961 registrations versus Tesla’s 47,742.
The October results follow a notably strong September for Tesla in Germany, when it registered 12,552 vehicles, an increase of roughly 269 percent year-over-year and one of its strongest monthly totals on record in the country. That month, the Model Y led all EVs and ranked among the top-selling vehicles of any powertrain.
The figures form part of a broader recovery in Tesla’s European registrations after an extended period of softer demand. While monthly volumes remain subject to typical quarter-end patterns and competitive pressure from both established European brands and rapidly expanding Chinese manufacturers, the year-to-date growth indicates improved traction in Europe’s largest car market.
Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg continues to supply the region, positioning the company to capture a share of the expanding German BEV market as overall EV adoptions looks to be accelerating.
Ferrari Luce sold out for 2027 after design controversy
Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX decline after Democratic Midterm sweep
