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SpaceX, NASA already planning its next astronaut mission following historic launch
SpaceX’s first launch of Crew Dragon with astronauts on board may have to wait a few more days to get off the ground, but that doesn’t mean that the company isn’t already looking forward to the future. Following Demo-2, and if all goes as planned, NASA is expected to certify the Crew Dragon spacecraft for regular flights to and from the space station.
At that time, SpaceX and NASA will start nailing down the details for its next crewed mission. Each Dragon spacecraft is certified to stay on orbit for no more than 120 days, so they have to time everything carefully. That’s why the length of Demo-2 is uncertain — it all depends on when the next spacecraft will be ready.
That could happen sooner rather than later. NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, explained during a pre-launch briefing that the next flight of the Crew Dragon could fly as soon as August 30. That flight, called Crew-1, would see the Dragon carry four astronauts to the space station for a six-month stay. On board will be three NASA astronauts — Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker — who will be joined by Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
However, before they can fly, the Demo-2 crew of Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are putting the Dragon through its paces. It’s their job to test out the craft’s various systems on this final test flight. Crew Dragon has already made one successful flight to the space station, but that was without a crew on board. When it flies this next time, Bob and Doug will not only test out manual controls of the Dragon’s flight systems, but also the craft’s ECLISS (or environmental control and life support system).
Bridenstine stresses that Demo-2 is a test flight. The mission is designed to test the vehicle, land it safely, and prepare to regularly launch crew. To that end, there will be several weeks in between the Demo-2 flight and the launch of Crew-1. This will allow SpaceX and NASA to inspect and certify the Dragon.
“They can be there probably until early August,” Bridenstine said, referring to the Demo-2 mission. “If we have a good window to come home and they are not necessary on the International Space Station, we will be taking it.”
“The goal is to get them to the International Space Station, test the systems and get them home,” he added. “If they can do more work than that while on the ISS, certainly that’s OK. But this is a test flight.”
Behnken and Hurley will be joining fellow NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy on station. Cassidy, along with two Russian cosmonauts, launched to the station in April. They’ve been serving as a skeleton crew, so the addition of two more astronauts will be welcomed.
SpaceX snagged a $2.6 billion contract in 2014, to fly six operational crewed missions for NASA. For nearly a decade now, NASA has been forced to rely on Russia as the sole means of transporting astronauts to and from the orbital outpost. This arrangement is expensive, with seats now costing NASA approximately $90 million each.
Once Crew Dragon is fully operational, NASA hopes to end its payments to Russia. It would lie to establish a barter system for seats instead. NASA is hopeful that the Russians will want to fly on the Dragon and are wanting to trade seats with the Russians in the near future.
That arrangement would see U.S. astronauts continue to fly on Soyuz spacecrafts as well as Russian cosmonauts fly on U.S. spacecraft with no money being exchanged. Russian officials have said they would be open to putting cosmonauts on U.S. vehicles after they’ve been fully certified.
Russia as well as many international partners participated in the Dragon’s readiness review process along with NASA. The Dragon passed both its flight readiness review and launch readiness reviews with flying colors. Right now, the only thing standing in its way is launch weather.
Currently, NASA and SpaceX are targeting Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m. for liftoff.
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Tesla rolls out xAI’s Grok to vehicles across Europe
The initial rollout includes the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain.
Tesla is rolling out Grok to vehicles in Europe. The feature will initially launch in nine European territories.
In a post on X, the official Tesla Europe, Middle East & Africa account confirmed that Grok is coming to Teslas in Europe. The initial rollout includes the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain, and additional markets are expected to be added later.
Grok allows drivers to ask questions using real-time information and interact hands-free while driving. According to Tesla’s support documentation, Grok can also initiate navigation commands, enabling users to search for destinations, discover points of interest, and adjust routes without touching the touchscreen, as per the feature’s official webpage.
The system offers selectable personalities, ranging from “Storyteller” to “Unhinged,” and is activated either through the App Launcher or by pressing and holding the steering wheel’s microphone button.
Grok is currently available only on Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and Cybertruck vehicles equipped with an AMD infotainment processor. Vehicles must be running software version 2025.26 or later, with navigation command support requiring version 2025.44.25 or newer.
Drivers must also have Premium Connectivity or a stable Wi-Fi connection to use the feature. Tesla notes that Grok does not currently replace standard voice commands for vehicle controls such as climate or media adjustments.
The company has stated that Grok interactions are processed securely by xAI and are not linked to individual drivers or vehicles. Users do not need a Grok account or subscription to enable the feature at this time as well.
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Tesla ends Full Self-Driving purchase option in the U.S.
In January, Musk announced that Tesla would remove the ability to purchase the suite outright for $8,000. This would give the vehicle Full Self-Driving for its entire lifespan, but Tesla intended to move away from it, for several reasons, one being that a tranche in the CEO’s pay package requires 10 million active subscriptions of FSD.
Tesla has officially ended the option to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright, a move that was announced for the United States market in January by CEO Elon Musk.
The driver assistance suite is now exclusively available in the U.S. as a subscription, which is currently priced at $99 per month.
Tesla moved away from the outright purchase option in an effort to move more people to the subscription program, but there are concerns over its current price and the potential for it to rise.
In January, Musk announced that Tesla would remove the ability to purchase the suite outright for $8,000. This would give the vehicle Full Self-Driving for its entire lifespan, but Tesla intended to move away from it, for several reasons, one being that a tranche in the CEO’s pay package requires 10 million active subscriptions of FSD.
Although Tesla moved back the deadline in other countries, it has now taken effect in the U.S. on Sunday morning. Tesla updated its website to reflect this:
🚨 Tesla has officially moved the outright purchase option for FSD on its website pic.twitter.com/RZt1oIevB3
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) February 15, 2026
There are still some concerns regarding its price, as $99 per month is not where many consumers are hoping to see the subscription price stay.
Musk has said that as capabilities improve, the price will go up, but it seems unlikely that 10 million drivers will want to pay an extra $100 every month for the capability, even if it is extremely useful.
Instead, many owners and fans of the company are calling for Tesla to offer a different type of pricing platform. This includes a tiered-system that would let owners pick and choose the features they would want for varying prices, or even a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual pricing option, which would incentivize longer-term purchasing.
Although Musk and other Tesla are aware of FSD’s capabilities and state is is worth much more than its current price, there could be some merit in the idea of offering a price for Supervised FSD and another price for Unsupervised FSD when it becomes available.
Elon Musk
Musk bankers looking to trim xAI debt after SpaceX merger: report
xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. A new financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year.
Elon Musk’s bankers are looking to trim the debt that xAI has taken on over the past few years, following the company’s merger with SpaceX, a new report from Bloomberg says.
xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. Bankers are trying to create some kind of financing plan that would trim “some of the heavy interest costs” that come with the debt.
The financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year. Musk has essentially confirmed that SpaceX would be heading toward an IPO last month.
The report indicates that Morgan Stanley is expected to take the leading role in any financing plan, citing people familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley, along with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are all expected to be in the lineup of banks leading SpaceX’s potential IPO.
Since Musk acquired X, he has also had what Bloomberg says is a “mixed track record with debt markets.” Since purchasing X a few years ago with a $12.5 billion financing package, X pays “tens of millions in interest payments every month.”
That debt is held by Bank of America, Barclays, Mitsubishi, UFJ Financial, BNP Paribas SA, Mizuho, and Société Générale SA.
X merged with xAI last March, which brought the valuation to $45 billion, including the debt.
SpaceX announced the merger with xAI earlier this month, a major move in Musk’s plan to alleviate Earth of necessary data centers and replace them with orbital options that will be lower cost:
“In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale. To harness even a millionth of our Sun’s energy would require over a million times more energy than our civilization currently uses! The only logical solution, therefore, is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space. I mean, space is called “space” for a reason.”
The merger has many advantages, but one of the most crucial is that it positions the now-merged companies to fund broader goals, fueled by revenue from the Starlink expansion, potential IPO, and AI-driven applications that could accelerate the development of lunar bases.
Tesla rolls out xAI’s Grok to vehicles across Europe
Tesla ends Full Self-Driving purchase option in the U.S.
