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SpaceX’s mystery spy satellite launch to round out a busy month (update: maybe not)
Update: It’s now somewhat ambiguous if NROL-108 is still scheduled to launch on October 31st, with some signs pointing to a delay into November and after SpaceX’s next GPS III SV04 launch attempt on November 5th.
SpaceX is reportedly preparing to launch a mystery spy satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), potentially rounding out a record-breaking month for the company.
Known only as NROL-108, nothing else is specifically known about the US espionage (‘intelligence’) agency’s latest mission. Even for the NRO, wholly familiar with extreme secrecy, revealing a mission less than a month before liftoff is almost unheard of.
First spotted by NASASpaceflight.com forum member Ken The Bin on October 25th, a Notice To Mariners (NTM) filed the same day by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) suggests that an unknown rocket launch is scheduled no earlier than (NET) 9:55 am EDT (13:55 UTC) Saturday, October 31st.
Perhaps best known in the spaceflight media industry for its bravado and a tendency towards bizarre but iconic mission patch designs for each otherwise top-secret spacecraft, the NRO typically reveals launch plans and a mission logo months before liftoff. Only a few times in the recent history of US orbital spaceflight have plans for a significant satellite launch gone unclaimed just weeks before liftoff.
In general, thanks to a modern awareness of satellites and the proliferation of the internet, affordable consumer telescopes, and digital tracking and simulation tools, it’s difficult to imagine what kind of value a space agency might expect to derive from keeping a launch secret. Stealth satellites aside, amateur observers can easily locate and track satellites hours after they first reach orbit and the specifics of a satellite’s orbit – including orbital changes – can narrow down or determine its purpose (imaging, communications, early-warning, etc) and target(s).
If the mystery Notice To Mariners is indeed for SpaceX’s imminent NROL-108 launch, previously expected sometime in late October, the company is almost certainly in the late stages of preparing to static fire the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket. Barring the surprise reassignment of a new Falcon 9 booster to NROL-108, the mission is all but guaranteed to launch on a flight-proven booster. At the moment, the only options at hand are Falcon Heavy Block 5 side booster B1052 or B1053 (retrofitted for single-core operations) or Falcon 9 booster B1059 on what would be its fifth flight – also a first for a SpaceX customer launch.
Update: Around publishing time, Next Spaceflight reported that Falcon 9 B1059 has been assigned to launch NROL-108, making it the first time a SpaceX customer will launch on a four-flight rocket.
In the likely event that SpaceX static fires Falcon 9 before the NRO’s inaugural launch on a flight-proven booster, the rocket will likely roll out to the launch pad within the next 24-36 hours for a launch on October 31st.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has provided an updated estimate for the training data needed to achieve truly safe unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD).
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
10 billion miles of training data
Musk comment came as a reply to Apple and Rivian alum Paul Beisel, who posted an analysis on X about the gap between tech demonstrations and real-world products. In his post, Beisel highlighted Tesla’s data-driven lead in autonomy, and he also argued that it would not be easy for rivals to become a legitimate competitor to FSD quickly.
“The notion that someone can ‘catch up’ to this problem primarily through simulation and limited on-road exposure strikes me as deeply naive. This is not a demo problem. It is a scale, data, and iteration problem— and Tesla is already far, far down that road while others are just getting started,” Beisel wrote.
Musk responded to Beisel’s post, stating that “Roughly 10 billion miles of training data is needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving. Reality has a super long tail of complexity.” This is quite interesting considering that in his Master Plan Part Deux, Elon Musk estimated that worldwide regulatory approval for autonomous driving would require around 6 billion miles.
FSD’s total training miles
As 2025 came to a close, Tesla community members observed that FSD was already nearing 7 billion miles driven, with over 2.5 billion miles being from inner city roads. The 7-billion-mile mark was passed just a few days later. This suggests that Tesla is likely the company today with the most training data for its autonomous driving program.
The difficulties of achieving autonomy were referenced by Elon Musk recently, when he commented on Nvidia’s Alpamayo program. As per Musk, “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.” These sentiments were echoed by Tesla VP for AI software Ashok Elluswamy, who also noted on X that “the long tail is sooo long, that most people can’t grasp it.”
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Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla emerged as one of the most recognized automakers at MotorTrend’s 2026 Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) Innovator Awards.
As could be seen in a press release from the publication, two key Tesla employees were honored for their work on AI, autonomy, and vehicle software. MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla leaders and engineers recognized
The fourth annual SDV Innovator Awards celebrate pioneers and experts who are pushing the automotive industry deeper into software-driven development. Among the most notable honorees for this year was Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Vice President of AI Software, who received a Pioneer Award for his role in advancing artificial intelligence and autonomy across the company’s vehicle lineup.
Tesla also secured recognition in the Expert category, with Lawson Fulton, a staff Autopilot machine learning engineer, honored for his contributions to Tesla’s driver-assistance and autonomous systems.
Tesla’s software-first strategy
While automakers like General Motors, Ford, and Rivian also received recognition, Tesla’s multiple awards stood out given the company’s outsized role in popularizing software-defined vehicles over the past decade. From frequent OTA updates to its data-driven approach to autonomy, Tesla has consistently treated vehicles as evolving software platforms rather than static products.
This has made Tesla’s vehicles very unique in their respective sectors, as they are arguably the only cars that objectively get better over time. This is especially true for vehicles that are loaded with the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which are getting progressively more intelligent and autonomous over time. The majority of Tesla’s updates to its vehicles are free as well, which is very much appreciated by customers worldwide.
Elon Musk
Judge clears path for Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit to go before a jury
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder.
A U.S. judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding nonprofit mission can proceed to a jury trial.
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder. These claims are directly opposed by OpenAI.
Judge says disputed facts warrant a trial
At a hearing in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that there was “plenty of evidence” suggesting that OpenAI leaders had promised that the organization’s original nonprofit structure would be maintained. She ruled that those disputed facts should be evaluated by a jury at a trial in March rather than decided by the court at this stage, as noted in a Reuters report.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 but left the organization in 2018. In his lawsuit, he argued that he contributed roughly $38 million, or about 60% of OpenAI’s early funding, based on assurances that the company would remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages tied to what he describes as “ill-gotten gains.”
OpenAI, however, has repeatedly rejected Musk’s allegations. The company has stated that Musk’s claims were baseless and part of a pattern of harassment.
Rivalries and Microsoft ties
The case unfolds against the backdrop of intensifying competition in generative artificial intelligence. Musk now runs xAI, whose Grok chatbot competes directly with OpenAI’s flagship ChatGPT. OpenAI has argued that Musk is a frustrated commercial rival who is simply attempting to slow down a market leader.
The lawsuit also names Microsoft as a defendant, citing its multibillion-dollar partnerships with OpenAI. Microsoft has urged the court to dismiss the claims against it, arguing there is no evidence it aided or abetted any alleged misconduct. Lawyers for OpenAI have also pushed for the case to be thrown out, claiming that Musk failed to show sufficient factual basis for claims such as fraud and breach of contract.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers, however, declined to end the case at this stage, noting that a jury would also need to consider whether Musk filed the lawsuit within the applicable statute of limitations. Still, the dispute between Elon Musk and OpenAI is now headed for a high-profile jury trial in the coming months.
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
