News
SpaceX’s Japanese Moon lander launch back on the calendar after indefinite delay
Update: After indefinitely delaying ispace’s first Moon lander launch on November 30th to fix unspecified issues with its Falcon 9 rocket, multiple sources indicate that SpaceX has put the mission back on its calendar.
Barring additional issues, the private HAKUTO-R Moon lander is now scheduled to lift off from SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) LC-40 pad no earlier than (NET) 3:04 am EST (08:04 UTC) on Wednesday, December 7th. The mission’s quick return after just a few days of rework is a good sign that the issue that forced SpaceX to stand down was relatively minor. Simultaneously, SpaceX is moving ahead with plans to launch its first mission for OneWeb – a low Earth orbit satellite Internet provider competing directly with Starlink – less than ten hours prior, at 5:37 pm EST (22:37 UTC) on December 6th.
SpaceX support ship Doug departed Florida’s Port Canaveral on the afternoon of December 4th, likely en route to recover Falcon 9’s payload fairing after its first OneWeb launch. If SpaceX is, in fact, working towards a December 7th launch of HAKUTO-R, twin support ship Bob will likely also head to sea within the next 24 hours.
SpaceX has delayed the launch of Japanese startup ispace’s first Moon lander, HAKUTO-R, from Wednesday to Thursday, December 1st “to allow for additional pre-flight checkouts.”
The mission will be the third Moon launch from US soil in less than four months after SpaceX’s successful launch of the South Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) in August and the debut of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket earlier this month. Perhaps more importantly, ispace has the opportunity to become the first company in history to successfully land a privately-developed spacecraft on the Moon, a milestone that would arguably mark the start of a new era of lunar exploration.
The update that's rolling out to the fleet makes full use of the front and rear steering travel to minimize turning circle. In this case a reduction of 1.6 feet just over the air— Wes (@wmorrill3) April 16, 2024
ispace’s first HAKUTO-R Moon lander is expected to weigh approximately 1050 kilograms (~2300 lb) at liftoff and is designed to land up to 30 kilograms (~66 lb) of cargo on the lunar surface. The lander is made by several commercial partners: ispace has provided most of its design and structures, but Europe’s ArianeGroup supplied all of HAKUTO-R’s engines, plumbing, and propulsion hardware and was responsible for most of the final assembly process.
Because of ArianeGroup’s involvement, it’s likely that HAKUTO-R shares direct heritage with the European Service Module currently powering NASA’s Orion spacecraft on its first mission to the Moon. It also arguably makes the mission more of a collaboration between Europe and Japan than an exclusively Japanese mission, though HAKUTO-R will still technically be Japan’s first private mission to the Moon.
If successful, it could also become the first privately-funded Moon landing in history. But HAKUTO-R can’t claim to be the first private Moon landing attempt, a title held by Israeli company SpaceIL’s ill-fated Beresheet Moon lander. Launched by SpaceX as a rideshare passenger sitting on top of an Indonesian communications satellite, Beresheet propelled itself all the way from geostationary transfer orbit to lunar orbit over the course of about six weeks. Just a minute or so before touchdown, a manual command inadvertently shut down the spacecraft’s propulsion, causing it to impact the surface of the Moon at ~500 kilometers per hour (310 mph) – less than 8% away from a soft landing.
In September 2019, just five months later, India’s first nationally developed Moon lander got even closer to a successful landing, losing control at a velocity of just 210 km/h (~130 mph) and an altitude of 330 meters (1080 ft). Since the Soviet Union’s 1976 Luna-26 mission, only China’s national space agency (CNSA) has successfully landed on the Moon, completing three landings between 2013 and 2020. The last successful Western Moon landing (Apollo 17; also the last crewed Moon landing) occurred in 1972.
ispace’s ultimate goal is to help facilitate the creation of infrastructure capable of supporting a permanent population of 1000 people on the Moon by 2040. The Japanese startup has privately raised $210 million since it was founded in 2010. In 2022, it won a $73M NASA contract to develop a much larger SERIES-2 vehicle capable of sending either “500 kilograms to the [lunar] surface or as much as 2000 kilograms to lunar orbit.” SERIES-2 will be developed out of ispace’s US branch instead of its Japanese headquarters.
HAKUTO-R will carry seven payloads:
- A solid-state battery for ispace corporate partner NGK SPARK PLUG CO
- A Moon rover (Rashid) for the United Arab Emirates space agency
- JAXA’s transformable lunar robot
- A Canadian Space Agency flight computer prototype
- A camera system built by Canda’s Canadensys
- A panel engraved with the names of HAKUTO’s crowdfunding supporters
- A music disc containing Japanese rock band Sakanaction’s song “SORATO”
In addition to HAKUTO-R, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will simultaneously launch the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Lunar Flashflight ice surveyor as a rideshare payload. After launch, Lunar Flashlight will attempt to enter an elliptical lunar orbit and use an infrared laser to (invisibly) illuminate the surface of craters that have been in shadow for millions of years. The way the surface reflects that laser light will allow the spacecraft to prospect for water ice deposits that could one day be mined and converted into rocket propellant.
Tune in below around 3:20 am EST (08:25 UTC) on Thursday, December 1st to watch SpaceX launch Japan’s first privately-developed Moon lander.
Elon Musk
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla rescheduled its final Model S farewell to May 20 after Musk joined Trump in China.
Tesla has rescheduled its Model S and Model X Signature Edition delivery event to Wednesday, May 20, 2026, after abruptly calling off the original May 12 celebration. The event will take place at Tesla’s factory at 45500 Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, California, the same location where the Model S first rolled off the line in 2012. Invitees received a follow-up email asking them to reconfirm attendance and download a new QR code ticket, with Tesla noting that all travel and accommodation expenses remain the buyer’s responsibility.
The reason behind the original cancellation came into focus the same day it was announced. President Trump invited Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Meta to join his trip to China this week for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The agenda covers trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, following weeks of escalating friction between Washington and Beijing over AI technology, sanctions, and rare earth exports. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am very much looking forward to my trip to China, an amazing Country, with a Leader, President Xi, respected by all.”
Tesla launches 200mph Model S “Gold” Signature in invite-only purchase
The vehicles at the center of all this are the last Model S and Model X units Tesla will ever build. Priced at $159,420 each, the 250 Model S and 100 Model X Signature Edition units come finished in Garnet Red with a one-year no-resale agreement, giving Tesla right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell. As Teslarati reported, the Model S defined Tesla’s early identity as a serious luxury automaker, and the Fremont factory line that built it is now being converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots.
Musk’s inclusion in the China delegation drew attention given his very public relationship with Trump, and the invitation signals the two have moved past and past grievances. Trump originally brought Musk on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency following his inauguration, and despite a sharp public dispute in mid-2025, the two have appeared together repeatedly in recent months. A seat on the China trip, the most diplomatically consequential visit of Trump’s current term, puts Musk back at the table on U.S. economic policy at a moment when Tesla’s China revenue remains one of the company’s most important financial pillars.
Tesla has launched a new solution to a rare but relevant Supercharger problem with a new Virtual Waitlist, a remedy that will solve sequencing confusion when there is a line to charge at one of the company’s locations.
Teslarati reported on what we called the Virtual Queue last month. In rare occurrences, there were physical altercations at Superchargers when someone might have cut in line to charge. Tesla started to develop some sort of system that would resolve this issue, and now it is finally rolling it out.
Tesla launches solution to end Supercharger fights once and for all
It will start with a Pilot Program, and Tesla is calling it the ‘Waitlist.’
Announced on May 11 on the official TeslaCharging X account, the pilot program is currently active at sites in Los Gatos, Mountain View, and San Francisco in California, as well as San Jose, CA, and the Bronx, NY (East Gun Hill Road). Drivers are encouraged to share feedback directly through the Tesla app to refine the system before a potential broader rollout.
We’re now testing a new waitlist feature at 5 Supercharger sites. Share feedback through the Tesla app to help us make it better.
– Los Gatos, CA – Los Gatos Boulevard
– Mountain View, CA – El Monte Avenue
– San Francisco, CA – Lombard Street
– San Jose, CA – Saratoga Avenue
-… pic.twitter.com/epTVzpJxgW— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) May 11, 2026
Tesla released the video above to showcase the feature, which automatically joins the waitlist when your vehicle has the Supercharger with the wait as the destination in the navigation. There is also a notification that lets you know your place in line.
In this specific example, the video shows that the wait is less than five minutes, and that there are two cars ahead of the one in the video:
Credit: Tesla
Having a wait at a Supercharger is relatively rare, but it does happen. It is even more frequent now that there are more EVs allowed to use the Supercharger Network. Those non-Tesla EVs can also join the queue, as Tesla added in its social media release of the pilot program that they can join the waitlist using the Tesla app.
The release of this program should help alleviate the rare risk of incidents at Superchargers. Tesla will expand this program as it sees fit, and it gathers valuable data and reviews from users.
Investor's Corner
Tesla Optimus is already benefiting investors, top Wall Street firm says
Piper Sandler has updated its detailed valuation model for Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), concluding that at recent share prices around $400–$420, investors are essentially acquiring the company’s ambitious Optimus humanoid robot project at no extra cost.
Tesla Optimus is already benefiting investors from a fiscal standpoint, at least that is what Alexander Potter at Piper Sandler, a top Wall Street firm covering the company, says.
Piper Sandler has updated its detailed valuation model for Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), concluding that at recent share prices around $400–$420, investors are essentially acquiring the company’s ambitious Optimus humanoid robot project at no extra cost.
Analyst Alexander Potter, in the firm’s latest “Definitive Guide to Investing in Tesla,” built a comprehensive framework covering 17 separate product lines.
This granular approach values Tesla’s core businesses—including electric vehicles, energy storage, Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, in-house insurance, Supercharging network, and a standalone robotaxi operation—at approximately $400 per share, without assigning any value to Optimus or related inference-as-a-service opportunities.
“At $400/share, we think investors can buy Optimus for ‘free,’” Potter stated in the note. Piper Sandler maintained its Overweight rating on Tesla shares and a $500 price target, which implicitly attributes roughly $100 per share to the robot-related businesses— a figure the analyst views as potentially conservative.
The updated model incorporates elements often overlooked by other sell-side analysts, such as detailed forecasts for Tesla’s insurance operations, Supercharger revenue, and a distinct valuation for the robotaxi business separate from FSD software licensing. It also accounts for Tesla’s 2025 CEO compensation plan for the first time.
Potter acknowledged that his estimates for 2026 and 2027 fall below Wall Street consensus, citing factors like declining deliveries from certain discontinued models and reduced regulatory credit income.
However, he expressed limited concern, noting that traditional vehicle delivery metrics are expected to matter less over time as FSD subscriber growth and robotaxi deployment metrics gain prominence. On Optimus specifically, Potter suggested the humanoid robot program, combined with inference services, “arguably will be worth more than Tesla’s other businesses combined,” though the firm has not yet produced formal long-term forecasts for these segments.
Tesla shares have traded near the $400 range in recent sessions, reflecting ongoing investor focus on the company’s autonomous driving progress and expansion into robotics and AI. The Optimus project remains in early development stages, with Tesla aiming to deploy the robots initially for internal factory tasks before broader commercial applications.
This Piper Sandler analysis highlights the growing emphasis among some investors and analysts on Tesla’s long-term technology platform potential beyond its current automotive and energy businesses.
As with any forward-looking valuation, outcomes will depend on execution timelines, technological breakthroughs, regulatory approvals for autonomous systems, and market adoption of humanoid robotics—areas that carry significant uncertainty and execution risk.
The note underscores a common theme in Tesla coverage: differing views on how to quantify emerging high-growth opportunities like robotics within the company’s overall enterprise value. Investors are advised to consider their own risk tolerance and conduct thorough due diligence regarding these speculative elements.
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla launches its solution to rare but relevant Supercharger problem
