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SpaceX’s Mr Steven just misses catch, returns with intact Falcon 9 fairing
SpaceX appears to have successfully retrieved both halves of a Falcon 9 payload fairing intact, despite failing to catch them with recovery vessel Mr Steven.
Near the end of the company’s Iridium-6/GRACE-FO launch webcast, SpaceX engineer John Insprucker said that Falcon 9’s two payload fairing halves had both successfully deployed their parachutes and landed in the Pacific Ocean, also stating that Mr Steven “came very close” to success in an attempt to catch a fairing half in an upgraded net. The vessel’s return to port confirmed this, showing both fairing halves on board Mr Steven’s long utility deck, apparently intact and in great condition aside from saltwater immersion.
Per SpaceX VP of Mission Assurance Hans Koenigsmann, anything more than incidental exposure to sea spray appears to preempt any attempt at fairing reuse, meaning that perfectly intact fairing halves recovered from the surface of the ocean are incapable of flying on future commercial Falcon 9 missions. While he did not go into detail, it’s probable that SpaceX’s inability to reuse ocean-retrieved fairings derives from the extremely clean environments satellites are designed to survive in. Before reaching the vacuum of space, arguably the ‘cleanest’ environment that exists, satellite payloads (be it cameras, antennae, solar panels, can be generalized as extraordinarily sensitive collections of electronics and sensors that remain in clean-room environments throughout their time on Earth. This extends to the environment inside the payload fairing, and cleaning a fairing from seawater organics, particulate matter, and the general risk of outgassing would likely be so expensive and tedious that it would run counter to SpaceX’s goal of lowering the cost of launch with reusability.
- Both fairing halves from SpaceX’s Iridiium-6/GRACE-FO spied aboard Mr Steven after docking. (Pauline Acalin)
- While unreusable due to seawater immersion, it’s possible that these halves will take part in a drop test campaign mentioned by CEO Elon Musk. (Pauline Acalin)
Although they cannot be operationally reused, these and past halves presumably have been or will be invaluable as hardware pathfinders, assisting engineers and technicians in their pursuit of ultra-precise, reliable landings in Mr Steven’s net.
Mr Steven, a shiny new Fast Supply Vessel, has been extensively modified by SpaceX in its role as recovery vessel, most notably including massive claw-arms and a large, yellow net intended to allow the boat to catch parasailing payload fairings just before they impact the ocean surface. This requires an impressive level of accuracy and precision, given the fact that SpaceX’s payload fairings are typically traveling more than two kilometers per second at a peak at altitude of anywhere from 100-200 kilometers (functionally in space) at the point of separation, while Mr Steven’s net (the landing target) is at least a magnitude smaller than even SpaceX’s drone ships. With that in mind, it should come as little surprise that SpaceX has required ten or more failed attempts to get to the point where they are confident that a fairing half can successfully be captured in Mr Steven’s net.
- By all appearances, both Iridium-6/GRACE-FO fairing halves were retrieved intact from the ocean surface. Note the tiny technician installing a tarp inside one half. (Chuck Bennett, Instagram @chuckbennett)
- SpaceX’s fairing recovery vessel Mr Steven captured at high speed from a drone. (SpaceX)
Given how close SpaceX apparently was this time around, it’s all but inevitable that one of the next two or three California launches will feature the first truly successful fairing catch, paving the way for routine reuse of the ~800 kg, $3m halves. SpaceX’s next launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base are tentatively scheduled for the first half of July, late September, and October.
Thanks to Chuck Bennett for permitting Teslarati to use several of his photos of Mr Steven’s sunset return to Port of San Pedro. Follow him at his Instagram account @chuckbennett.
News
Tesla prepares for full-throttle manufacturing of major product
Tesla has the second quarter of 2026 as its projected start date for Cybercab production. It also plans to launch Semi and Megapack 3 for “volume production” starting next year, which will also be two major contributors to the company.
Tesla is preparing for a full-throttle manufacturing effort of potentially its biggest product in company history, job postings on the company’s website show.
In preparation for its foray into fully autonomous travel, Tesla is gearing up for Cybercab manufacturing with 30 job postings, ranging from repair technicians to manufacturing specialists.
Elon Musk sets definitive Tesla Cybercab production date and puts a rumor to rest
The jobs are all located in Austin, Texas, where the company’s Gigafactory Texas facility is located. This is where Cybercab production is going to take place.
Tesla has made major strides in the Cybercab project over the past few months, including launching the vehicle on the Fremont Test Track in California and conducting crash testing at Gigafactory Texas.
All of these indicate the company is preparing for an imminent production effort of the vehicle, which, as Elon Musk said during last week’s Earnings Call, will be void of a steering wheel or pedals.
Tesla has the second quarter of 2026 as its projected start date for Cybercab production. It also plans to launch Semi and Megapack 3 for “volume production” starting next year, which will also be two major contributors to the company.
Musk spoke in great detail during the Earnings Call last week about Cybercab’s potential to change the grand picture of the automotive market, comparing other vehicles in the Tesla lineup to “a little bit of the horse-carriage thing.”
He said:
“That’s really a vehicle that’s optimized for full autonomy. It, in fact, does not have a steering wheel or pedals and is really an enduring optimization on minimizing cost per mile for fully considered cost per mile of operation. For our other vehicles, they still have a little bit of the horse carriage thing going on where, obviously, if you’ve got steering wheels and pedals and you’re designing a car that people might want to go very direct past acceleration and tight cornering, like high-performance cars, then you’re going to design a different car than one that is optimized for a comfortable ride and doesn’t expect to go past sort of 85 or 90 miles an hour.”
Cybercab production is imminent, given the job postings and the company’s proposed timeline for manufacturing to begin. Of course, there is always the potential that Tesla is late to the party, as it has been with other projects.
Elon Musk
xAI’s Grokipedia goes live, gets praise from Wikipedia co-founder
xAI’s latest creation, Grokipedia, has gone live, and even if it’s only at Version 0.1, it is already receiving positive reviews from some users.
xAI’s latest creation, Grokipedia, has gone live, and even if it’s only at Version 0.1, it is already receiving positive reviews from some users. These include Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia, which has become quite controversial in recent years over accusations of bias.
Grokipedia launches
Immediately after Grokipedia went live, the AI-powered Wikipedia alternative was tested by numerous users. So far, a good number of testers have responded positively to the online encyclopedia, with many observing that Grokipedia does tend to be more neutral than Wikipedia. This was particularly evident in controversial topics, from alternative medicine to events like Gamergate.
Among these users was Larry Sanger, who noted that while Grokipedia still has a lot of areas of improvement, it is already very promising. “My initial impression, looking at my own article and poking around here and there, is that Grokipedia is very OK. The jury’s still out as to whether it’s actually better than Wikipedia. But at this point I would have to say “maybe!” He wrote in a post on X.
Musk responded to Sanger’s comments, stating that the Wikipedia co-founder’s observations are “accurate.” The xAI founder also noted in a separate X post that even in its V0.1 form, Grokipedia is already better than Wikipedia.
Why Grokipedia exists
During an interview on the Tucker Carlson Show, Sanger point out that Wikipedia has become a far cry from his initial vision for the online encyclopedia, and a lot of this was because of the its “Reliable sources/Perennial sources” page, which categories publications and sources into tiers of credibility. Sanger noted that the list leaned heavily left, with conservative publications getting effectively blacklisted in favor of their more liberal.
Musk responded to Sanger’s comments by stating that Grokipedia will be created as a step towards xAI’s broader goal of “understanding the Universe.” He added that Grokipedia, which will use xAI’s Grok, would provide broader sourcing and a freer exchange of information compared to Wikipedia’s current system.
One month after Elon Musk’s comments, Grokipedia has gone live in its V0.1 form.
News
Tesla Fremont Factory celebrates 15 years of electric vehicle production
Since opening in 2010, the Fremont Factory has produced all four “S3XY” models while creating tens of thousands of jobs.
Tesla is marking the 15-year anniversary of its Fremont Factory in California, the first automotive mass-manufacturing plant acquired by the electric car maker.
Since opening in 2010, the Fremont Factory has produced all four “S3XY” models while creating tens of thousands of jobs and investing billions of dollars in the region.
Celebrating 15 years of EV production
The Fremont Factory’s milestone was celebrated by the official Tesla Manufacturing account on X, which posted a photo of several Teslas forming a “15” in front of the facility’s iconic white facade. As per the electric vehicle maker, the Fremont Factory has now produced 3.6 million vehicles so far, and it has also created over 20,000 jobs in the state.
“15 years ago, we opened Fremont factory. Today, the Fremont team is producing all 4 S3XY models, totaling 3.6M vehicles made so far. 20k+ California jobs created w/ billions of dollars invested,” the official Tesla Manufacturing account on X wrote in its post.
The Fremont Factory’s transformation
Tesla acquired the Fremont Factory from the defunct NUMMI joint venture between General Motors and Toyota in May 2010 for $42 million. The facility had produced more than 8 million vehicles under GM and Toyota over 26 years. Following its acquisition, Tesla retooled the 5.3-million-square-foot plant to support the production of the Model S sedan.
Over the past 15 years, the factory has evolved into Tesla’s primary North American production hub, assembling the Model S, 3, X, and Y. Annual output has exceeded 550,000 vehicles, including nearly 560,000 produced in 2023 alone. Expectations are high that other products, such as the next-generation Roadster and Optimus, might be produced in the Fremont Factory as well.
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