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SpaceX, NASA investigating parachute ‘lag’ during latest Dragon recovery
On February 2nd, NASA officials reported that a SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft suffered a minor parachute anomaly during its most recent reentry, descent, and splashdown.
On January 23rd, SpaceX’s CRS-24 Cargo Dragon 2 vehicle departed the International Space Station for the second time in less than six months with about 2.2 tons (~5000 lb) of science experiments, equipment, and refuse in tow. On January 24th, the Dragon successfully deorbited, reentered Earth’s atmosphere, deployed parachutes, and splashed down off of Florida’s Gulf Coast, where a SpaceX team quickly recovered the spacecraft and loaded time-sensitive cargo onto a waiting helicopter. Oddly, in an attempt to save perhaps a quarter of a percent of the total cost of the mission, NASA offered zero live coverage and didn’t even publish photos or videos of the Dragon recovery taken after the fact.
That left little more than social media posts for taxpayers who paid for the mission to experience it live. Ultimately, while those posts simply stated that the CRS-24 Dragon recovery was a success, they weren’t entirely accurate.
Mirroring behavior seen on Crew Dragon’s Crew-2 recovery in November 2021, NASA and SpaceX waited more than a week after the fact to report that one of Cargo Dragon’s four main parachutes also failed to fully inflate exactly when expected. However, while NASA and SpaceX withholding information is unsavory at best, the issue was once again minor.
Just like Crew-2, the ‘lagging’ CRS-24 chute took about a minute longer than its siblings to fully inflate but did so well before splashdown. More importantly, CRS-24’s chute lag also failed to register in telemetry or recovered data, meaning that it had no significant impact on capsule descent rate or the force of impact upon splashdown. According to senior SpaceX flight reliability engineer Bill Gerstenmaier, “if you [only] look at the…data, you wouldn’t even detect the fact that the chutes [lagged on Crew-2 or CRS-24].”
In other words, the lagging chute inflation has been entirely harmless and completely inconsequential. Further, because Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon 2 use four main chutes, they can safely return to Earth even if one of those chutes fails entirely. The fact that the actual telemetry shows nothing amiss with three – instead of – four chutes fully deployed effectively confirms as much, though SpaceX also completed more than a hundred different parachute drop tests verifying as much before Dragon 2’s first flight.
However, in human spaceflight, the saying “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” could not be further from reality. Any deviation from expected behavior – no matter how harmless – must be carefully investigated because a lack of full understanding in one area may be a symptom of a larger organizational error or a sign of other unknown issues. Even if that’s rarely the case, NASA – where Gerstenmaier was an executive for 17 years – knows the cost of systemic complacency better than any other company or space agency on Earth. There is no room for it.
As such, even if the communication of the event was lacking, it’s abundantly clear that NASA and SpaceX are doing what needs to be done to remain vigilant and ensure the safety of Dragon and its parachutes.
Tesla has adjusted the functionality of a crucial climate feature as Winter weather has started to arrive throughout some parts of the United States. The new feature was highly requested by owners.
Tesla has a Cabin Overheat Protection feature that helps keep the temperature regulated if it reaches a certain threshold. Inversely, it can be used in cold weather as well, which will automatically warm the cabin if it sinks to a temperature that is too low for the owner’s comfort.
This is a great way to keep the cabin either warmed up just enough or cooled down just enough so that it never gets too hot or too cold. Extreme temperatures could damage certain parts of the vehicle or damage personal belongings that are kept inside the car.
Overheat protection is a great thing to have in hot climates like Arizona or Texas, especially with the Premium trims of the Model 3 and Model Y, which feature a glass roof.
Many owners appreciate the feature, but they argue that using it at home will utilize too much energy, especially during extreme temperatures. For a while, many Tesla fans have requested an option to disable this feature when the car is parked at home, which the company recently added, according to Not a Tesla App.
The feature is part of Software Version 2025.44.3, and the release notes state:
“You can now choose Exclude Home when Cabin Overheat Protection or No A/C is enabled.”
Tesla has been great at listening to what owners want with new features, and this is one that will reserve some charge and prevent unnecessary utilization of available power, especially as the car is parked at home. If owners want to condition the cabin or get the car ready for operation with a comfortable interior, they can utilize the Tesla app to adjust the climate.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed today on the social media platform X that legacy automakers, such as Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, do not want to license the company’s Full Self-Driving suite, at least not without a long list of their own terms.
“I’ve tried to warn them and even offered to license Tesla FSD, but they don’t want it! Crazy,” Musk said on X. “When legacy auto does occasionally reach out, they tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years with unworkable requirements for Tesla, so pointless.”
I’ve tried to warn them and even offered to license Tesla FSD, but they don’t want it! Crazy …
When legacy auto does occasionally reach out, they tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years with unworkable requirements for Tesla, so pointless. 🤷♂️
🦕 🦕
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2025
Musk made the remark in response to a note we wrote about earlier today from Melius Research, in which analyst Rob Wertheimer said, “Our point is not that Tesla is at risk, it’s that everybody else is,” in terms of autonomy and self-driving development.
Wertheimer believes there are hundreds of billions of dollars in value headed toward Tesla’s way because of its prowess with FSD.
A few years ago, Musk first remarked that Tesla was in early talks with one legacy automaker regarding licensing Full Self-Driving for its vehicles. Tesla never confirmed which company it was, but given Musk’s ongoing talks with Ford CEO Jim Farley at the time, it seemed the Detroit-based automaker was the likely suspect.
Tesla’s Elon Musk reiterates FSD licensing offer for other automakers
Ford has been perhaps the most aggressive legacy automaker in terms of its EV efforts, but it recently scaled back its electric offensive due to profitability issues and weak demand. It simply was not making enough vehicles, nor selling the volume needed to turn a profit.
Musk truly believes that many of the companies that turn their backs on FSD now will suffer in the future, especially considering the increased chance it could be a parallel to what has happened with EV efforts for many of these companies.
Unfortunately, they got started too late and are now playing catch-up with Tesla, XPeng, BYD, and the other dominating forces in EVs across the globe.
Tesla is backtracking on a strange adjustment it made to its in-car Navigation feature after numerous complaints from owners convinced the company to make a change.
Tesla’s in-car Navigation is catered to its vehicles, as it routes Supercharging stops and preps your vehicle for charging with preconditioning. It is also very intuitive, and features other things like weather radar and a detailed map outlining points of interest.
However, a recent change to the Navigation by Tesla did not go unnoticed, and owners were really upset about it.
For trips that required multiple Supercharger stops, Tesla decided to implement a naming change, which did not show the city or state of each charging stop. Instead, it just showed the business where the Supercharger was located, giving many owners an unwelcome surprise.
However, Tesla’s Director of Supercharging, Max de Zegher, admitted the update was a “big mistake on our end,” and made a change that rolled out within 24 hours:
The naming change should have happened at once, instead of in 2 sequential steps. That was a big miss on our end. We do listen to the community and we do course-correct fast. The accelerated fix rolled out last night. The Tesla App is updated and most in-car touchscreens should…
— Max (@MdeZegher) November 20, 2025
The lack of a name for the city where a Supercharging stop would be made caused some confusion for owners in the short term. Some drivers argued that it was more difficult to make stops at some familiar locations that were special to them. Others were not too keen on not knowing where they were going to be along their trip.
Tesla was quick to scramble to resolve this issue, and it did a great job of rolling it out in an expedited manner, as de Zegher said that most in-car touch screens would notice the fix within one day of the change being rolled out.
Additionally, there will be even more improvements in December, as Tesla plans to show the common name/amenity below the site name as well, which will give people a better idea of what to expect when they arrive at a Supercharger.
Tesla adjusts crucial feature as winter weather arrives
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sends rivals dire warning about Full Self-Driving
