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SpaceX’s month-long launch blitz adds Korean military satellite mission

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Preliminary schedules show that SpaceX – on top of plans for a record-breaking four-launch month – wants to add a Korean military satellite launch to the mix, meaning that the company could attempt five launches in five weeks.

SpaceX partially broke the news on June 9th when it opened media accreditation for the Korean military mission, scheduled to launch no earlier than (NET) July. LaunchPhotography.com was able to get even more specific, stating that South Korea’s ANASIS II communications satellite could lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket sometime in early July, while Teslarati has learned that the mission is tentatively scheduled to launch as soon as the second week of the month.

If SpaceX manages to launch Starlink-8, Starlink-9, and GPS III SV03 on time this month and can turn its Kennedy Space Center (KSC) LC-39A pad around in time for South Korea’s ANASIS II by July 8th, it’ll have sustained a weekly launch cadence for well over a month. The odds are heavily stacked against SpaceX’s favor but with Starlink V1 L8 on track for a June 12th launch and Starlink V1 L9 expedited from June 24th to June 22nd, the company actually has a shot at completing five launches in five weeks.

To achieve five launches in five weeks, SpaceX will have to dig deep into its rocket reusability expertise. (Richard Angle)

To achieve that feat, SpaceX will have to rely heavily on its small fleet of flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters and – barring a surprise – will need to smash its record for time between flights of the same rocket. On June 3rd, Falcon 9 booster B1049 successfully launched the 7th Starlink v1.0 mission while also becoming the first SpaceX rocket to complete five orbital-class launches and landings.

B1049 lifts off on SpaceX’s Starlink V1 L7 mission. (Richard Angle)

Up next, Falcon 9 B1059 is scheduled to launch the 8th batch of 60 upgraded Starlink satellites as early as 5:42 am EDT (09:42 UTC) on June 12th – hopefully the booster’s third successful launch and landing in six months.

A long-exposure of Falcon 9 B1059’s CRS-20 launch (left) and landing (right), less than six miles apart. (Richard Angle)
B1059 last touched down at LZ-1 on March 7th. (SpaceX)

Third in line for the month of June, Starlink V1 L9 is scheduled to launch no earlier than (NET) 6:20 pm EDT (22:20 UTC) on June 22nd. Falcon 9 B1051.4 is likely assigned to the mission, meaning that SpaceX could launch a second booster for the fifth time less than three weeks after B1049 became the first to do so.

(Richard Angle)
B1051 completed its fourth launch on April 22nd and returned to dry land three days later. (Richard Angle)

Rounding out a potentially record-breaking June, new Falcon 9 booster B1060 could launch the US Air/Space Force’s third upgraded GPS III navigation satellite at 3:55 pm EDT (19:55 UTC) on June 30th, the last day of the month. Like all of the missions that preceded it, B1060 needs a drone ship to land on in the Atlantic Ocean, meaning that Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) and Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) will have to remain continually active throughout the month, taking turns on every other launch.

Pictured before leaving SpaceX’s Hawthorne, CA factory, this booster (likely B1060) is scheduled to launch an upgraded GPS III satellite late this month. (SpaceX)

This leaves South Korea’s ANASIS II military communications satellite, currently scheduled to launch in early July – about a week after SpaceX’s GPS III SV03 mission. Excluding a new booster assigned to Crew Dragon’s next astronaut mission and Falcon Heavy side boosters B1052 and B1053, AWOL since their second and most recent launches almost a year ago, the five launches prior to ANASIS II will have technically used SpaceX’s entire booster fleet.

Short of a miraculous few-week turnaround of B1049, B1059, or B1051, the likeliest candidate for the mission is the same booster that launched astronauts for the first time ever on May 30th – B1058. To launch ANASIS II in early July, B1058 would need to crush B1056’s previous record of 62 days by a third or more to perform two orbital-class missions in just 40 days or less. All things considered, if SpaceX can pull off such an ambitious string of launches while pushing several envelopes of rocket reusability, the company will have demonstrated the ability to sustain the near-weekly launch cadence it will need to efficiently complete its Starlink satellite constellation.

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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’s AI Chief just hinted at something big for FSD v14 lite owners

Tesla’s AI chief suggests the newest FSD v14 Lite build may finally go wide release.

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Tesla’s head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, noted on Sunday that the newest FSD v14 Lite build rolling out to Hardware 3 cars is likely the version that goes to wide release, the strongest signal yet that Tesla is near to closing out an early access phase that Hardware 3 owners have waited more than a year for.

Elluswamy made the comment in response to an extensive review from Tesla owner Zack, known on X as @BLKMDL3, who tested software version 2026.20.6.10 and detailed the changes in a lengthy post. “FSD v14 Lite (for Tesla AI3 hardware vehicles) review.

The update restarts a rollout that had stalled after its initial release. Tesla began pushing FSD v14 Lite to Hardware 3 early access drivers on June 29, bringing driving behavior learned on the newer Hardware 4 computer down to the more limited chip that has powered Tesla vehicles built between 2019 and early 2023. That release, as we covered in detail, gave roughly 4 million HW3 vehicles their first meaningful update since being frozen on version 12.6 in early 2025.

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features

The latest build adds features that bring Hardware 3 closer in line with what Hardware 4 owners already have. FSD can now start directly from park without a brake pedal confirmation, a change Zack called a small but meaningful quality of life improvement. The interface also picks up the blue “P” park icon, approaching destination alerts, and a dedicated Self-Driving app with streak tracking, all details previously exclusive to the AI4 branch of v14, as outlined in Tesla’s original release notes.

The stakes around Hardware 3 go beyond software polish. Tesla sold the Full Self-Driving package for years on the promise that every vehicle equipped with it had the hardware needed to eventually drive itself without supervision. That promise broke down during Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call, when Musk acknowledged HW3 cars could not run unsupervised FSD, prompting Tesla to offer trade-in discounts and hardware retrofits alongside the Lite software track.

Tesla confirmed HW3 can’t do Unsupervised FSD but there’s more to the story

Tesla has continued to frame v14 Lite as the primary path forward for the HW3 fleet, telling owners in April that international markets would follow the U.S. rollout once regulatory approvals came through. For now, HW3 owners in the early access group are the only ones running the new build. A broader rollout would mark the second major software delivery to the legacy fleet since Tesla first released FSD v14 to Hardware 4 vehicles, and the first sign since June that the Lite program is still moving rather than stuck in early access limbo.

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Elon Musk sends first warning to SpaceX short sellers

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Credit: Grok

In a pointed message on X, Elon Musk warned that firms maintaining significant short positions in SpaceX over time face “very low” survival probability.

The statement comes amid post-IPO volatility for the rocket company, now trading under the ticker $SPCX.

Five weeks after what was described as the largest IPO in history, the stock had fallen roughly 30% from its peak above $2.6 trillion, briefly surpassing Microsoft and Amazon in market value. Short sellers celebrated gains of about $8.7 billion, but Musk’s reply underscores his long-term conviction.

The warning directly echoes a detailed bullish analysis arguing that Starship’s cost reductions could unlock a multi-trillion-dollar space economy. Projects ranging from solar power beamed from orbit and asteroid mining to orbital data centers and Mars terraforming were projected to create over $100 trillion in new market capitalization.

In this vision, SpaceX acts as the essential infrastructure provider, akin to AWS for cloud computing, capturing monopoly-like revenues from launches, crew transport, and data traffic across a rapidly expanding frontier.

This is far from the first time Musk has targeted short sellers. With Tesla, he has repeatedly framed persistent bears as destined for major losses. In July 2024, Musk declared that once Tesla achieves full autonomy and volume production of Optimus robots, “anyone still holding a short position will be obliterated. Even Gates,” referencing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ reported short bets.

Elon Musk reveals what Tesla stock surge could do to Bill Gates

Earlier, in 2018, he taunted shorts that they had “about three weeks before their short position explodes,” a remark followed by sharp stock gains. Musk has also called short selling “value destroying” and once suggested it “should be illegal,” viewing it as betting against innovation and progress.

Critics often dismiss Musk’s optimism as hype, especially when near-term metrics like quarterly deliveries or stock fluctuations disappoint.

Yet his pattern remains consistent: framing short positions against his companies as fundamentally misjudging exponential technological leaps. For SpaceX shorts, the message is clear: betting against multi-planetary ambitions and the infrastructure monopoly they enable carries existential risk for the firms involved.

As Musk and supporters see it, the space economy’s upside dwarfs Earth-bound valuation models, making today’s dips temporary in a decades-long ascent.

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Tesla reveals first vehicle model to receive Starlink integration

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Tesla has evidently revealed which of its vehicle models will be the first to receive Starlink integration: the Cybercab.

Tesla’s Santana Row showroom now has a full-fledged display of the Cybercab, with an extensive bit of information hung around an exhibit that seems to reveal the vehicle’s newest feature: an integrated Starlink antenna that will enable secure and reliable internet access during trips.

Credit: @Starscream_SJC | X

Cybercab is geared toward autonomous ride-hailing for one or two passengers. The production units rolling off the lines at Gigafactory Texas are built without steering wheels or pedals, meaning when public rides begin, passengers will not need to interact with a human being or control the vehicle in any way outside of what appears on the center screen for their entertainment during the ride.

Along the display, Tesla wrote this message about Cybercab:

“Cybercab is built for autonomy. It has no steering wheel, no side mirrors, and no pedals. It goes where you tell it to go and how you want it to, so you can relax along the way. It is hyper aware and responsive to your surroundings, monitoring other drivers, responding to emergency vehicles, utilizing its expertise in the rarest scenarios to help keep you safe.”

Tesla has been teasing a potential Starlink integration for quite some time now. In December, the company hinted at potential Starlink internet terminal integration within its vehicles in a patent that described a vehicle roof assembly with integrated radio frequency (RF) transparency.

Tesla hints at Starlink integration with recent patent

The company wrote in its patent application that a new roof design built with materials that differ from the standard metallic or glass elements used in today’s cars would allow it to integrate modern vehicular technologies, in particular, ones that require radio frequency transmission and reception.

Tesla suggested high-strength polymer blends, like Polycarbonate, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, or Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate.

This is the first time we’ve seen Tesla officially confirm the Starlink integration into the Cybercab. It’s not much of a surprise considering the company’s intention behind the Cybercab, which is to make travel autonomous.

Productivity will now be at a maximum during a work-related commute, while the center screen could be utilized for Netflix or potentially even live TV for those who are heading to dinner or to a fun activity.

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