Connect with us

News

SpaceX on track for last Cargo Dragon launch, first Falcon 9 land landing in months

A Falcon 9 booster prepares to land at SpaceX Cape Canaveral Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) in 2018. (SpaceX)

Published

on

SpaceX is hours away from its Cargo Dragon (Dragon 1) spacecraft’s last space station resupply mission, a historic launch that will also include a Falcon 9 booster’s first land landing attempt in more than half a year.

Scheduled to lift off no earlier than 11:50 pm EST (04:50 UTC) on March 6th (March 7th UTC), flight-proven Falcon 9 booster B1059 rolled out to SpaceX Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) – part of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) – on Thursday afternoon. Carrying twice-flown Dragon capsule C112, set to smash SpaceX’s orbital spacecraft turnaround record, tonight’s launch will mark SpaceX’s last International Space Station (ISS) mission under its first NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract – awarded in 2008.

Aside from Cargo Dragon’s historic final launch and record spacecraft turnaround time, CRS-20 will also mark SpaceX’s first attempted land landing – meaning a Falcon 9 booster landing at LZ-1 or LZ-2 – since July 2019. Thanks in part to SpaceX’s Starlink launch priorities and Falcon Heavy’s intermittent launch cadence, the sonic booms of Falcon booster reentries have been a relative rarity at Landing Zones for the last half-year. CRS-20 will thankfully end that faux-drought and may even be followed just weeks later by a second Falcon booster return to LZ-1.

The last Cargo Dragon (Dragon 1) capsule scheduled to launch was likely shipped to from California to Florida in mid-February. (SpaceX)

A decade of success in orbit

Over Dragon 1’s decade of service, the spacecraft has successfully delivered more than 40 metric tons (90,000 lb) of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) and returned almost as much from the station to Earth – still the only operational spacecraft capable of doing so since the Space Shuttle’s 2011 retirement.

If CRS-20 goes as planned, NASA will have awarded SpaceX a total of $3.1B for its finished CRS Phase 1 contract, translating to an average of $147M apiece for 21 missions (including the CRS-7 failure and Dragon’s first space station demo mission) to the ISS.

Pictured here, Cargo Dragon C102 became the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous and berth with the ISS in May 2012. CRS-1, Dragon’s first operational resupply mission, launched six just months later. (NASA)

In other words, each kilogram of cargo Falcon 9 and Dragon delivered to the space station wound up costing NASA a bit less than $80,000, admittedly eye-watering but quite favorable compared to the Space Shuttle’s ~$340,000/kg (assuming program cost of $240B (c. 2020) and STS-135’s ~5300 kg of cargo).

Small steps towards full reusability

SpaceX’s CRS Phase 1 successes have also helped NASA cautiously accept flight-proven commercial rockets and spacecraft as the company has gradually introduced Falcon 9 booster and Cargo Dragon capsule reusability. Now, more than two years since SpaceX’s first capsule (June 2017) and booster reuses (December 2017) on NASA CRS missions, the company has launched two Dragon capsules to the space station for the third time and flown Dragons on flight-proven boosters four times.

Advertisement

CRS-20 will mark the third time a Cargo Dragon capsule (C112) flies a third orbital resupply mission, as well as the fifth time a CRS mission will launch on a flight-proven booster (B1059). Compared to the sheer scale and ambition of SpaceX’s next-generation, fully-reusable Starship and Super Heavy launch system, Dragon and Falcon 9 may seem rather diminutive. However, it’s hard to exaggerate just how much reusability expertise SpaceX has gained through their development.

And after launch. (Richard Angle)
B1059 returned to Port Canaveral on December 7th, 2019 and will launch CRS-20 – its second Dragon mission – almost exactly three months later. (Richard Angle)
Cargo Dragon C112 launched for the second time in December 2018, supporting NASA’s CRS-16 resupply mission. (Teslarati)
A great deal of work undoubtedly remains, but SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon rockets are the foundation upon which Starship will (hopefully) one day succeed. (SpaceX)

Set to take over resupply missions and ferry astronauts to and from the space station, SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk already considered Dragon 2 (Crew Dragon) to be dramatically simpler, faster, and cheaper to reuse. Starship will ultimately build off those significant improvements, enabling another leap (or several) forward. Perhaps just as importantly, Falcon and Dragon reuse will likely continue to make profound political and bureaucratic inroads over the next 5-10 years, gradually eroding and reshaping the status quo. Their progress will thus hopefully set both the technical and societal stages for widespread success and acceptance by the time Starship can be declared operational.

Weather is currently 60% GO for CRS-20, and the rocket and spacecraft are likely just hours from going vertical at the LC-40 launch pad. As always, tune into SpaceX’s official webcast approximately 15 minutes before liftoff to catch the Falcon 9 launch and landing live.

Check out Teslarati’s Marketplace! We offer Tesla accessories, including for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Model 3.

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.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla rolling out Robotaxi pilot in SF Bay Area this weekend: report

Similar to the Austin pilot, the Robotaxi rides will reportedly be a paid service.

Published

on

Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla is reportedly preparing to launch a Robotaxi pilot program in the Bay Area this weekend, with invites to a select number of customers reportedly being sent out as early as this Friday.

The update was shared in a report from Insider, which cited an internal memo from the electric vehicle maker.

New Robotaxi service launch

According to Insider, the Robotaxi service in the Bay Area is set to launch as soon as Friday. Thus, some Tesla owners in the area should receive invites to use the driverless ride-hailing service. Similar to the Austin pilot, the Robotaxi rides will reportedly be a paid service.

The publication noted that the Robotaxi service’s geofence in its Bay Area launch will be quite large, as it will include Marin, much of the East Bay, San Francisco, and San Jose. This is not surprising as California has long been saturated with Teslas, and it is home to several of the electric vehicle maker’s key facilities.

Unlike the Austin pilot, the Tesla Robotaxi service’s pilot in the Bay Area will use safety drivers seated in the driver’s seat. These drivers will be able to manually take over using the steering wheel and brakes as needed. As per a spokesperson from the California DMV, the agency recently met with Tesla but the company is yet to submit a formal application to operate fully driverless cars. 

Advertisement

Tesla Robotaxi expansion

Interestingly enough, Tesla did tease the release of its Robotaxi service to the Bay Area in its second quarter earnings call. While discussing the service, Tesla VP of Autopilot/AI Software Ashok Elluswamy mentioned that the company will initially be rolling out Robotaxis with safety drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area. He did, however, also highlight that the electric vehicle maker is working hard to get government permission to release the service for consumers.

“The next thing to expand would be in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are working with the government to get approval here and, in the meanwhile, launch the service without the person in the driver seat just to expedite and while we wait for regulatory approval,” he stated.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla is ready with a perfect counter to the end of US EV tax credits

Tesla executives have mentioned that these more affordable models would resemble the company’s current lineup.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla Asia/X

The United States’ electric vehicle tax credit is coming to an end at the end of the third quarter. Tesla, the country’s leading electric vehicle maker, is ready to meet this challenge with a rather simple but clever counter. 

Tesla executives outlined this strategy in the recently held Q2 2025 earnings call.

End of the US EV tax credit

While Elon Musk has always maintained that he prefers a market with no EV tax credit, he also emphasized that he supports the rollback of any incentives given to the oil and gas industry. The Trump administration has not done this so far, instead focusing on the expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit at the end of the third quarter.

Tesla has been going all-in on encouraging customers to purchase their vehicles in Q3 to take advantage of lower prices. The company has also implemented a series of incentives across all its offerings, from the Cybertruck to the Model 3. This, however, is not all, as the company seems to be preparing a longer-term solution to the expiration of the EV tax credit.

Affordable variants

During the Q2 2025 earnings call, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moray stated that Tesla really did start the production of more affordable models in June. Quality builds of these vehicles are being ramped this quarter, with the goal of optimizing production over the remaining months of the year. If Tesla is successful, these models will be available for everyone in Q4. 

Advertisement

“We started production in June, and we’re ramping quality builds and things around the quarter. And given that we started in North America and our goal is to maximize production with a higher rate. So starting Q3, we’re going to keep pushing hard on our current models to avoid complexity… We’ll be ready with new, more affordable models available for everyone in Q4.,” Moravy stated. 

These comments suggest that Tesla should be able to offer vehicles that are competitively priced even after the EV tax credit has been phased out. Interestingly enough, previous comments from Tesla executives have mentioned that these more affordable models would resemble the company’s current lineup. This suggests that the more affordable models may indeed be variations of the Model Y and Model 3, but offered at a lower price.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk reveals Tesla’s next Robotaxi expansion in more ways than one

Tesla Robotaxi is growing in more ways than one. Tesla wants to expand and hopes to reach half the U.S. population by the end of the year.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the company’s plans for its next expansion of the Robotaxi in terms of both the geofence in Austin and the platform overall, as it looks to move to new areas outside of Texas.

Tesla launched the Robotaxi platform last month on June 22, and has since expanded both the pool of users and the area that the driverless Model Y vehicles can travel within.

The first expansion of the geofence caught the attention of nearly everyone and became a huge headline as Tesla picked a very interesting shape for the new geofence, resembling male reproductive parts.

The next expansion will likely absolve this shape. Musk revealed last night that the new geofence will be “well in excess of what competitors are doing,” and it could happen “hopefully in a week or two.”

Musk’s full quote regarding the expansion of the geofence and the timing was:

“As some may have noted, we have already expanded our service area in Austin. It’s bigger and longer, and it’s going to get even bigger and longer. We are expecting to greatly increase the service area to well in excess of what competitors are doing, hopefully in a week or two.”

The expansion will not stop there, either. As Tesla has operated the Robotaxi platform in Austin for the past month, it has been working with regulators in other areas, like California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, to get the driverless ride-hailing system activated in more U.S. states.

Tesla confirmed that they are in talks with each of these states regarding the potential expansion of Robotaxi.

Musk added:

“As we get the approvals and prove out safety, we will be launching the autonomous ride-hailing across most of the country. I think we will probably have autonomous ride-hailing in probably half the population of the US by the end of the year.”

We know that Tesla and Musk have been prone to aggressive and sometimes outlandish timelines regarding self-driving technology specifically. Regulatory approvals could happen by the end of the year in several areas, and working on these large metros is the best way to reach half of the U.S. population.

Tesla said its expansion of the geofence in Austin is conservative and controlled due to its obsession with safety, even admitting at one point during the Earnings Call that they are being “paranoid.” Expanding the geofence is necessary, but Tesla realizes any significant mistake by Robotaxi could take it back to square one.

Continue Reading

Trending