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SpaceX launches NASA mission to study black holes, dead stars, and more
SpaceX has successfully launched NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer telescope, paving the way for a unique aspect of black holes, a variety of dead stars, and other odd phenomena to be explored in unprecedented breadth and detail.
Marking the first time a NASA payload has launched on the fifth flight of a reused SpaceX rocket, Falcon 9 booster B1061 lifted off at 1am EST (06:00 UTC) to kick off the 330 kg (~730 lb) IXPE spacecraft’s journey to orbit. SpaceX’s workhorse rocket performed flawlessly. Just over eight minutes after liftoff, Falcon 9’s upper stage completed the first of two planned burns, entering a low parking orbit. About thirty seconds later, Falcon 9 B1061 stuck its fifth drone ship landing in 13 months, marking the end of another successful high-profile launch for the booster and ensuring that it will be able to complete many more such launches over the next few years.
The first portion of the launch completed, Falcon 9’s upper stage then coasted in orbit for about 20 minutes before ignited for one last (very expensive) burn to place IXPE in its desired orbit. Known as a plane or inclination change, the maneuver – especially when performed deep in a large gravitational well – is exceptionally expensive, requiring an unintuitively large amount of launch vehicle performance (known as delta-V). The reason: IXPE’s nominal orbit is almost exactly equatorial, which Falcon 9’s Cape Canaveral launch site is about 28.5 degrees north of.
Lowering that inclination after launch requires a very energetic maneuver. Before Falcon 9 beat it out for the launch contract, IXPE was expected to launch on Orbital ATK’s air-launched Pegasus XL rocket, which would have allowed IXPE to be launched at the equator. However, SpaceX ultimately submitted a bid to launch IXPE for just ~$50M – cheaper than its competitor despite the fact that Falcon 9 is more than 20 times larger and could potentially launch an entire Pegasus XL into orbit. However, while Falcon 9 is designed to launch almost 23 tons into orbit in an expendable configuration and more than 16 tons with booster and fairing recovery, it’s only capable of launching about 1-2 tons to IXPE’s desired combination of an equatorial inclination and a ~600 km (~370 mi) orbit.
Ultimately, Falcon 9 completed the inclination change without issue, marking the successful completion of its first equatorial launch ever and SpaceX’s 28th successful launch in 2021 alone. Unlike a significant majority of spacecraft, IXPE was launched directly into its operational orbit and will likely need just a few days to refine its position and a few weeks after that for ground controllers to verify the health of all its systems and deploy a 4m (`13 ft) long ‘boom’ needed to operate its unique telescope.
If or when everything is up and running, IXPE will spend a minimum of two years observing at least 50 of the weirdest objects and phenomena in the universe. While many of those objects can’t be directly imaged, IXPE’s goal is to analyze the polarization of X-rays – high-energy beams of radiation – they produce at sensitivities two orders of magnitude greater than any previous experiment. In theory, that should allow IXPE to put long-held laws of relativity and quantum physics to the test in some of the most extreme environments in the universe, including particularly exotic nebulae (giant gas clouds), black holes, and bizarre neutron stars (including lighthouse-like pulsars and magnetars – dead stars with magnetic fields strong enough to compress atoms into cylindrical rods and make the actual vacuum of space refract light like a crystal).
Tesla Cybercab units finally got a definitive date for when they will be able to be purchased by consumers, ending speculation regarding whether the fully autonomous vehicle would be available in the near term.
During Tesla’s third-quarter 2026 earnings call on October 21, Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy said the company is aiming to begin delivering its purpose-built Cybercab robotaxi to customers before year-end.
🚨 In short, Cybercabs are slated to go to customers by end of the year. All units are going into Robotaxi fleet currently, per @larsmoravy
Cybercab will be “transport-as-a-service,” but vast majority of Cybercab will be “Tesla-owned,” @elonmusk says https://t.co/R8Qu8QWdmp
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 21, 2026
“We’re trying to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year, 2026,” Moravy said. He added that production is underway on the line at Gigafactory Texas, but “all of those are currently going to our own internal Robotaxi fleet.”
Moravy explained that as operations scale, Tesla will “mainly deliver fully designed autonomous vehicles to our customers,” with the Cybercab as the first such vehicle. Initial customer deliveries will start small while the company gains experience with delivery logistics, ownership models, fleet management, and operating autonomous vehicles outside its direct control.
CEO Elon Musk reinforced the limited nature of private sales, describing the Cybercab primarily as a “transport-as-a-service” offering rather than a personal ownership vehicle like the Model 3, Model Y, or upcoming Roadster. “The vast majority of the Cybercab stuff will be Tesla-owned and transport-as-a-service,” Musk said.
The Cybercab is a two-seater vehicle developed by Tesla without a steering wheel or pedals. It relies completely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite and has been in production since February. Early units have been put in Tesla’s Robotaxi service as of early September, when the company launched rides to the public. Tesla previously indicated it would aim to sell Cybercabs for about $30,000.
Unsupervised Full Self-Driving is expected to ship to consumer cars during Q2 2027, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI, indicated during the call. Early buyers or fleet operators may receive vehicles whose autonomous operation remains geographically restricted due to lagging regulatory agencies. There are some hurdles that remain ahead of Cybercab deliveries.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the third quarter of 2026, marking a reasonable performance on the various financial metrics. Tesla still plans to hold a call that will field investor questions at 5:30 p.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. CT.
Here’s where Earnings came in:
- Total Revenues: $28.046 reported vs. $28.34B expected
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48 reported vs. $0.45 expected
- Operating Margin: 2.6 % reported vs. 2.5% expected
- Operating Income: $718M reported vs. $721M expected
- Free Cash Flow: $1.531B reported vs. ~-$4.51B expected
Tesla $TSLA Earnings Results:
Revenues: $28.046B
Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48
Operating Margin: 2.6%
Operating Income: $718M
FCF: $1.531B— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 21, 2026
Major Takeaways
Full Self-Driving (Supervised)
“FSD (Supervised)⁴ attach rate continued to grow, reaching over 75% of new vehicle deliveries in North America – our most mature market – a nearly twenty percentage point sequential increase. We believe that FSD is driving demand in markets where it is available, and we continue to work with regulators to get it approved in other markets.”
Tesla Semi
“We began volume production of Tesla Semi, our Class 8 heavy-duty truck. The top variant can go 500 miles at full 82,000 lbs gross combination weight while achieving an efficiency of 1.7 kWh/mile. That efficiency allows the Tesla Semi to use a third of the energy used by a comparable diesel truck to haul the same payload. In a transportation market where energy is one of the largest components of total cost per mile, this will provide a meaningful advantage to Tesla Semi operators.”
SI Compute
“We plan to reach 400 MW of SI training compute by the end of the year, supporting the development of both vehicle and humanoid robot autonomy software. Additionally, we continued construction for the Austin Fab, where we plan to start commissioning equipment in 2027.”
Robotaxi
“We began deployment of Cybercab into our Robotaxi fleet in Austin. We reached nearly two million cumulative unsupervised miles for our Robotaxi service as of the end of the quarter. Operating hours in Austin are now 6am to midnight, and we expect to reduce wait times via increased fleet supply and improvement of Robotaxi orchestration algorithms. Grok is available in Cybercab with access to Grok Bot and Connectors, which allows users to manage their inbox, calendars, files, chats and tasks – all hands free via voice command – making Cybercab a mode of transport, a productivity space and, with our entertainment options, a second living room.”
Interested in ordering a Tesla? Use my referral code for three free months of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) here.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reports its earnings for Q3 today. Here’s what to expect, as the company will reveal its balance sheet after the market closes on Wednesday.
Tesla already reported deliveries just after Q3 ended, and it demolished Wall Street consensus estimates of roughly 462,000 vehicles. Tesla delivered 486,532 cars in the third quarter, which was a big beat, but was down 2.1 percent from the same quarter last year. Energy storage deployments were 13.7 GWh, up year-over-year.
Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong
For the quarter, analysts have already compiled their predictions for what Tesla will report this afternoon:
- Total Revenues: $28.34B
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.43
- Operating Margin: 2.5%
- Operating Income: $721M
- Free Cash Flow: ~-$4.51B
Here are a few things we are looking forward to hearing about on the call:
Automotive Gross Margin and Overall Profitability
This was 16.3 percent in Q2, down from 19.2 percent in Q1, and was impacted by warranty charges and some fading regulatory credits. Consensus implies overall gross margin near 18 percent, but a miss here would potentially reinforce concerns about pricing pressure on its vehicles.
Pay attention to energy storage margins as well, especially since Tesla missed GWh expectations, although it was still a strong quarter.
Robotaxi/Cybercab, Unsupervised FSD, and Optimus Progress
The Say questions from retail investors usually focus on these types of projects, and this quarter is no different. Scaling the Cybercab fleet beyond Austin amid the open NHTSA safety review, timeline for Unsupervised FSD in customer cars, Robotaxi unit economics, and Optimus cost per unit plus when it could start generating revenue, are all things to be looking for.
Any concrete timelines or regulatory path details will likely move the stock more than the near-term numbers. SpaceX merger speculation, which was detailed during SpaceX’s earnings call last night, may also surface, although the key details were shared last night.
Elon Musk just confirmed the Tesla and SpaceX merger step everyone was waiting for
Say Investor Questions
- How does the Cybercab fleet scale past Austin, and what’s the regulatory path outside Texas given NHTSA’s open safety review?
- When can we anticipate FSD unsupervised in customer cars?
- When will the CyberCab be available for customer purchase/ownership?
- What’s the unit economics per paid robotaxi mile, and how does it compare to the thirty-cent target?
- Tesla has acknowledged that HW3 vehicles cannot support unsupervised FSD. When will owners know whether they can upgrade their hardware for free, and when will Tesla provide a clear plan?
The full Earnings Call will be streamed this evening after market close around 5 p.m. this evening.
Tesla Cybercab gets a for sale date at last
Tesla Q3 2026 Earnings results: in-line revenues, slight beat on EPS
