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SpaceX’s Elon Musk talks next goals for Falcon rocket reusability
CEO Elon Musk has reiterated that SpaceX is still pursuing a major rocket reuse milestone he originally set for the company several years ago and revealed that its Falcon rockets could ultimately soar far beyond it.
Musk has been talking publicly about reusable rockets for well over a decade but the first hard numbers linked to real hardware came with the debut of Falcon 9’s Block 5 upgrade in May 2018. In a conference call with reporters, Musk famously revealed that the Block 5 upgrade incorporated design changes that would ultimately allow SpaceX to reuse orbital-class Falcon boosters at least ten times each. An upper bound of 100+ flights per booster would also be possible with regular maintenance and part replacements every ten or so launches.
Since the upgrade’s May 11th, 2018 launch debut, Falcon 9 and Heavy Block 5 rockets have completed 37 launches – all successful – with only one in-flight anomaly, a March 2020 engine failure that prevented booster recovery but didn’t preclude mission success. Excluding three flawless Falcon Heavy launches, SpaceX’s 34 Falcon 9 Block 5 launches were collectively completed by 11 boosters – an average of >3 launches per rocket. In fewer words, SpaceX has accumulated a vast wealth of data with which it can judge the Block 5 design and CEO Elon Musk has some choice observations more than two years after his Block 5 press conference.
In the simplest possible terms, Musk’s August 19th comments strongly suggest that the Block 5 upgrade has more than met the goals laid out for it back in 2018.
The fact alone that the average Falcon 9 Block 5 booster (even including one expendable mission) has launched more than three times is a major credit to the design. At the same time, SpaceX flew the same booster for the sixth time just days ago and achieved the fifth launch of three separate Falcon 9 boosters between March and August of 2020.
Now, with all that experience in hand and a Falcon 9 Block 5 booster already 60% of the way to the ten-flight reuse milestone, Musk says that “100+ flights are possible” and that “there isn’t an obvious limit.” While “some parts will need to be replaced or upgraded” to achieve dozens or hundreds of booster reuses, Musk says that SpaceX “almost never need[s] to replace a whole [Merlin 1D] engine.
Given that a Falcon 9 booster’s nine M1D engines are likely the most difficult part of each rocket to quickly and safely reuse, it’s extremely easy to believe that individual boosters can launch dozens – if not hundreds – of times with just a small amount of regular maintenance and repairs. In that sense, SpaceX has effectively achieved Musk’s long-lived dream of building a rocket that is (more or less, at least) approaching the reusability of aircraft.
Of course, even 100-flight Falcon boosters would still be at least one or two orders of magnitude distant from most modern aircraft, but that would still be a vast improvement over any other launch vehicle in history (especially including the Space Shuttle).
Musk says that SpaceX is still actively pushing to fly a Falcon 9 booster ten times and Starlink missions – allowing the company to mitigate risk on its own launches – will leave plenty of opportunities. If SpaceX can fly Falcon 9 booster B1049 every 60 days on average, the company could hit that ten-flight milestone as early as Q2 2021.
The SpaceX CEO also responded to a classic head-in-the-sand claim from traditional aerospace companies like United Launch Alliance (ULA), refuting the theoretical supposition that booster reuse “doesn’t make sense” until ten-flight reuse is achieved. Instead, Musk says that SpaceX only needs to fly each booster three times to ensure that booster reuse is cheaper than just building new rockets.
In short, despite the ad hoc rationalizations competitors continue to use to excuse years of denial and laurel-resting, SpaceX is routinely reusing rockets, saving major resources by doing so, and has still just barely scratched the surface of what is ultimately possible.
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Tesla hasn’t adopted Apple CarPlay yet for this shocking reason
Many Apple and iPhone users have wanted the addition, especially to utilize third-party Navigation apps like Waze, which is a popular alternative. Getting apps outside of Tesla’s Navigation to work with its Full Self-Driving suite seems to be a potential issue the company will have to work through as well.
Perhaps one of the most requested features for Tesla vehicles by owners is the addition of Apple CarPlay. It sounds like the company wants to bring the popular UI to its cars, but there are a few bottlenecks preventing it from doing so.
The biggest reason why CarPlay has not made its way to Teslas yet might shock you.
According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Tesla is still working on bringing CarPlay to its vehicles. There are two primary reasons why Tesla has not done it quite yet: App compatibility issues and, most importantly, there are incredibly low adoption rates of iOS 26.
Tesla’s Apple CarPlay ambitions are not dead, they’re still in the works
iOS 26 is Apple’s most recent software version, which was released back in September 2025. It introduced a major redesign to the overall operating system, especially its aesthetic, with the rollout of “Liquid Glass.”
However, despite the many changes and updates, Apple users have not been too keen on the iOS 26 update, and the low adoption rates have been a major sticking point for Tesla as it looks to develop a potential alternative for its in-house UI.
It was first rumored that Tesla was planning to bring CarPlay out in its cars late last year. Many Apple and iPhone users have wanted the addition, especially to utilize third-party Navigation apps like Waze, which is a popular alternative. Getting apps outside of Tesla’s Navigation to work with its Full Self-Driving suite seems to be a potential issue the company will have to work through as well.
According to the report, Tesla asked Apple to make some changes to improve compatibility between its software and Apple Maps:
“Tesla asked Apple to make engineering changes to Maps to improve compatibility. The iPhone maker agreed and implemented the adjustments in a bug fix update to iOS 26 and the latest version of CarPlay.”
Gurman also said that there were some issues with turn-by-turn guidance from Tesla’s maps app, and it did not properly sync up with Apple Maps during FSD operation. This is something that needs to be resolved before it is rolled out.
There is no listed launch date, nor has there been any coding revealed that would indicate Apple CarPlay is close to being launched within Tesla vehicles.
Elon Musk
Starlink restrictions are hitting Russian battlefield comms: report
The restrictions have reportedly disrupted Moscow’s drone coordination and frontline communications.
SpaceX’s decision to disable unauthorized Starlink terminals in Ukraine is now being felt on the battlefield, with Ukrainian commanders reporting that Russian troops have struggled to maintain assault operations without access to the satellite network.
The restrictions have reportedly disrupted Moscow’s drone coordination and frontline communications.
Lt. Denis Yaroslavsky, who commands a special reconnaissance unit, stated that Russian assault activity noticeably declined for several days after the shutdown. “For three to four days after the shutdown, they really reduced the assault operations,” Yaroslavsky said.
Russian units had allegedly obtained Starlink terminals through black market channels and mounted them on drones and weapons systems, despite service terms prohibiting offensive military use. Once those terminals were blocked, commanders on the Ukrainian side reported improved battlefield ratios, as noted in a New York Post report.
A Ukrainian unit commander stated that casualty imbalances widened after the cutoff. “On any given day, depending on your scale of analysis, my sector was already achieving 20:1 (casuality rate) before the shutdown, and we are an elite unit. Regular units have no problem going 5:1 or 8:1. With Starlink down, 13:1 (casualty rate) for a regular unit is easy,” the unit commander said.
The restrictions come as Russia faces heavy challenges across multiple fronts. A late January report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that more than 1.2 million Russian troops have been killed, wounded, or gone missing since February 2022.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War also noted that activity from Russia’s Rubikon drone unit declined after Feb. 1, suggesting communications constraints from Starlink’s restrictions may be limiting operations. “I’m sure the Russians have (alternative options), but it takes time to maximize their implementation and this (would take) at least four to six months,” Yaroslavsky noted.
Elon Musk
Tesla Korea hiring AI Chip Engineers amid push for high-volume AI chips
Tesla Korea stated that it is seeking “talented individuals to join in developing the world’s highest-level mass-produced AI chips.”
In a recent post on X, Tesla Korea announced that it is hiring AI Chip Design Engineers as part of a project aimed at developing what the company describes as the world’s highest-volume AI chips. CEO Elon Musk later amplified the initiative.
Tesla Korea stated that it is seeking “talented individuals to join in developing the world’s highest-level mass-produced AI chips.”
“This project aims to develop AI chip architecture that will achieve the highest production volume in the world in the future,” Tesla Korea wrote in its post on X.
As per Tesla Korea, those who wish to apply for the AI Chip Design Engineer post should email Ai_Chips@Tesla.com and include “the three most challenging technical problems you have solved.”
Elon Musk echoed the hiring push in a separate post. “If you’re in Korea and want to work on chip design, fabrication or AI software, join Tesla!” he wrote.
The recruitment effort in South Korea comes as Tesla accelerates development of its in-house AI chips, which power its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, Optimus humanoid robot, and data center training infrastructure.
Tesla has been steadily expanding its silicon development teams globally. In recent months, the company has posted roles in Austin and Palo Alto for silicon module process engineers across lithography, etching, and other chip fabrication disciplines, as noted in a Benzinga report.
Tesla Korea’s hiring efforts align with the company’s long-term goal of designing and producing AI chips at massive scale. Musk has previously stated that Tesla’s future AI chips could become the highest-volume AI processors in the world.
The move also comes amid Tesla’s broader expansion into AI initiatives. The company recently committed about $2 billion into xAI as part of a Series E funding round, reinforcing its focus on artificial intelligence across vehicles, robotics, and compute infrastructure.
Tesla hasn’t adopted Apple CarPlay yet for this shocking reason
Starlink restrictions are hitting Russian battlefield comms: report
