News
SpaceX high-altitude Starship debut go for a second launch attempt
Update (Dec 9th): All signs point to a second attempt at SpaceX’s high-altitude Starship launch debut sometime near the end of today’s window, likely no earlier than 3:30-4 pm CST (UTC-6).
Amazingly, the actual pilot of the NASA WB-57 reconnaissance aircraft tasked with capturing aerial photos and videos of Starship SN8’s first flight is on Twitter and confirmed that the aircraft had been just a few minutes from takeoff before SpaceX chose to delay the launch for a few more hours. Thankfully, as of 2 pm CST, ground equipment activity at the pad is rapidly picking up – a good sign that SN8 launch preparations are well underway.
Stay tuned for SpaceX’s official Starship SN8 launch livestream around five minutes before liftoff and tune into NASASpaceflight.com’s excellent coverage below to keep up to date on launch proceedings.
Update: Starship serial number 8 (SN8) aborted its high-altitude launch debut at the last second, ending today’s attempt for SpaceX.
Depending on why one or several of the steel rocket’s three advanced Raptor engines aborted their ignition, SpaceX has backup launch windows and airspace closures from 8am to 5pm CST (UTC-6) on December 9th and 10th. Stay tuned for updates on the cause of the abort and whether Starship SN8 can be prepared for another attempt less than a day from now.
In a last-minute surprise, SpaceX appears to have secured NASA support for Starship SN8’s first flight in the form of a space agency reconnaissance jet often used to capture aerial photos and videos of spaceflight events.
Primarily intended to capture those views for developmental, data-gathering purposes, NASA WB-57 jets have recently been used to milestones like SpaceX’s explosive Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort test and Demo-2 astronaut launch/reentry debut. Likely made possible by a $135 million Starship Moon lander development contract awarded by NASA in April, the space agency has positioned itself to benefit from SpaceX’s success and leverage the company’s extensive internal investments.
Aside from exemplifying NASA’s new and promising relationship with SpaceX’s Starship development program, the use of space agency surveillance assets also serves as a convenient barometer to judge Starship SN8’s launch timing with.
As of publishing (1:30 pm EST, UTC-5), NASA’s WB-57 jet is scheduled to take off from Houston’s Ellington Airport at 2:12 pm CST, arriving ‘on station’ in the vicinity of SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas launch pad around 3:10 pm. With NASA assets now in play, Starship SN8 is unlikely to lift off before the jet is in place, meaning that the rocket’s 12.5 km (~7.8 mi) launch debut is now scheduled sometime between ~3:15 pm and 5 pm CST (UTC-6).
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently reiterated his prediction that Starship SN8 has a ~33% chance of successfully launching, reaching an apogee of ~12.5 km, free-falling belly-first most of the way back to earth, performing a radical flip maneuver, and landing intact. With Starship SN9 – effectively a refined clone of SN8 – practically complete and ready to roll to the launch pad, SpaceX’s hardware-rich development program means that almost any SN8 outcome at all will produce valuable data.
For a program like Starship, the success of any early prototype is better judged on the quantity and quality of data gathered and lessons learned than on the survival of hardware. Even so, SpaceX is clearly working to give Starship SN8 the best possible shot at survival and a successful landing would be a truly spectacular outcome. Stay tuned for updates as we track towards SN8’s first flight!
News
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang regrets not investing more in Elon Musk’s xAI
The CEO stated that Nvidia is already an investor in xAI, but he wished he had given the artificial intelligence startup more money.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed that one of his investment regrets is not putting more money into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI.
Speaking in a CNBC interview, Huang said Nvidia is already an investor in xAI but wished he had given the artificial intelligence startup more money. This was due to Musk’s record of building transformative companies such as Tesla and SpaceX.
A new wave of transformative AI firms
Huang said he’s very excited about xAI’s latest financing round. He described Musk’s company as part of a powerful new generation of AI developers, alongside OpenAI and Anthropic. that are reshaping the computing landscape.
“I’m super excited about the financing opportunity they’re doing. The only regret I have about xAI, we’re an investor already, is that I didn’t give him more money. You know almost everything that Elon’s pat of, you really want to be part of as well,” the Nvidia CEO stated.
The CEO also clarified Nvidia’s investment in xAI, revealing that Elon Musk had offered the investment opportunity to the chipmaker. “He (Musk) gave us the opportunity to invest in xAI. I’m just delighted by that,” Huang stated.
AI investment boom
Huang contrasted today’s AI-driven economy with the early days of the internet. “Back then, all the internet companies combined were maybe $30 or $40 billion in size,” he said. “If you look at the hyperscalers now, that’s about $2.5 trillion of business already operating today.”
He also stated that the ongoing shift from CPU-based computing to GPU-powered generative AI represents a “multi-trillion-dollar buildout” that Nvidia is looking to support. Huang added that every Nvidia engineer now works with AI coding assistants such as Cursor, which he called his “favorite enterprise AI service,” and it has led to a major productivity boost across the company.
Watch Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s CNBC interview in the video below.
Investor's Corner
Stifel raises Tesla price target by 9.8% over FSD, Robotaxi advancements
Stifel also maintained a “Buy” rating for the electric vehicle maker.
Investment firm Stifel has raised its price target for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares to $483 from $440 over increased confidence in the company’s self-driving and Robotaxi programs. The new price target suggests an 11.5% upside from Tesla’s closing price on Tuesday.
Stifel also maintained a “Buy” rating despite acknowledging that Tesla’s timeline for fully unsupervised driving may be ambitious.
Building confidence
In a note to clients, Stifel stated that it believes “Tesla is making progress with modest advancements in its Robotaxi network and FSD,” as noted in a report from Investing.com. The firm expects unsupervised FSD to become available for personal use in the U.S. by the end of 2025, with a wider ride-hailing rollout potentially covering half of the U.S. population by year-end.
Stifel also noted that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet could expand from “tiny to gigantic” within a short time frame, possibly making a material financial impact to the company by late 2026. The firm views Tesla’s vision-based approach to autonomy as central to this long-term growth, suggesting that continued advancements could unlock new revenue streams across both consumer and mobility sectors.
Tesla’s FSD goals still ambitious
While Stifel’s tone remains optimistic, the firm’s analysts acknowledged that Tesla’s aggressive autonomy timeline may face execution challenges. The note described the 2025 unsupervised FSD target as “a stretch,” though still achievable in the medium term.
“We believe Tesla is making progress with modest advancements in its Robotaxi network and FSD. The company has high expectations for its camera-based approach including; 1) Unsupervised FSD to be available for personal use in the United States by year-end 2025, which appears to be a stretch but seems more likely in the medium term; 2) that it will ‘probably have ride hailing in probably half of the populations of the U.S. by the end of the year’,” the firm noted.
Tesla Cybertruck owners are wondering when they will get access to the company’s Full Self-Driving version 14.1 that rolled out to other owners today for the first time.
Cybertruck owners typically receive Full Self-Driving updates slightly later than other drivers, as the process for the all-electric pickup is different. It is a larger vehicle that requires some additional attention from Tesla before FSD versions are rolled out, so they will be slightly delayed. CEO Elon Musk said the all-wheel steering technically requires a bit more attention before rollout as well.
The all-wheel steering of Cybertruck requires a bit more Autopilot training
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 7, 2025
After some owners got access to the v14.1 Full Self-Driving suite this morning, Cybertruck owners sought out a potential timeframe for when they would be able to experience things for themselves.
Tesla owners show off improvements with new Full Self-Driving v14 rollout
They were able to get an answer from Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI, who said:
“We got you. Coming soon.”
We got you. Coming soon.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) October 7, 2025
The release of FSD v14.1 for Cybertruck will not be tempered, either. Elluswamy then confirmed that Tesla would be rolling out the full-featured FSD v14 for the pickup, meaning it would be able to reverse and park itself, among other features.
Elluswamy said it would be capable of these features, which were void in other FSD releases for Cybertruck in the past.
Tesla’s rollout of FSD v14.1 brings several extremely notable changes and improvements to the suite, including more refined operation in parking garages, a new ability to choose parking preferences upon arriving at your destination, a new driving mode called “Sloth,” which is even more reserved than “Chill,” and general operational improvements.
Those who were lucky enough to receive the suite have already started showing off the improvements, and they definitely seem to be a step up from what v13’s more recent versions were capable of.
CEO Elon Musk called v14 “sentient” a few weeks back, and it seems that it is moving toward that. However, he did state that additional releases with more capabilities would be available in the coming weeks, but many owners are still waiting for this first version.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang regrets not investing more in Elon Musk’s xAI
Stifel raises Tesla price target by 9.8% over FSD, Robotaxi advancements
Tesla Cybertruck’s Full Self-Driving update is ‘coming soon’
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