

News
SpaceX to kick off October with two launches and landings in 48 hours
SES-11 to be the last launch from LC-39A ahead of pad modifications for Falcon Heavy
After successfully weathering Hurricane Irma, SpaceX is preparing to remedy a slow month with three or even four launches in October.
Beginning on October 2nd, schedules have firmed up for the launch of SES-11 aboard a refurbished Falcon 9 first stage. SES, a Luxembourg-based satellite communications company, took the courageous and pioneering step of purchasing the first reused Falcon 9 for a commercial launch, culminating in the successful SES-10 mission in March 2017. Following that successful first reuse, SpaceX would later launch Bulgariasat-1 aboard a similarly-refurbished booster. SES-11 will become the third commercial reuse of an orbital rocket when it launches early next month from SpaceX’s LC-39A launch pad, and is currently expected to attempt a landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
All 10 Iridium NEXT satellites for the third launch are onsite at Vandenberg. Launching on a Falcon 9, October 4, 6:06am PDT (1:06pm UTC). pic.twitter.com/xBSWpYOx32
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) September 20, 2017
If all goes as planned, SpaceX will launch a second Falcon 9 as few as 36 hours after the SES-11 mission, this time carrying the third batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. All ten satellites have arrived at SpaceX’s VAFB facilities and will be attached to the payload dispenser and later encapsulated inside Falcon 9’s payload fairing over the next two weeks. The Iridium-3 launch will also see the Falcon 9 first stage land aboard SpaceX’s second drone ship, and is bound to be reminiscent of the two back-to-back launches SpaceX conducted on both coasts earlier this summer.

Iridum NEXT satellites being attached to the payload dispenser at SpaceX’s VAFB facilities. (Iridium)
Meanwhile, SpaceX has received an FCC license for first stage recovery activities beginning on October 14th, which meshes well with a scheduled launch date for KoreaSat-5, also 10/14. This date is dependent upon a number of variables that are currently hard to account for, and may slip further into October due to work expected to begin at the LC-39A pad after the launch of SES-11. Confirmed by Chris Bergin of NASASpaceflight.com, SpaceX is planning for SES-11 to be the last mission from the venerable launch pad for several weeks at a minimum, likely closer to several months.
10 days (Sept. 29) to SpaceX Falcon 9 (SES-11) Static Fire…at 39A. Oct. 2 launch, then all hands on deck to prep 39A TEL for Falcon Heavy. pic.twitter.com/B2zxLILqkU
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) September 19, 2017
This downtime is meant to begin at the same time LC-40, SpaceX’s second East coast pad, is reactivated for Falcon 9 launches. In the best-case scenario, this will allow the company to continue business as usual as it modifies LC-39A for Falcon Heavy, which is expected to begin on-pad testing later this year and potentially conduct an inaugural launch as early as November. As such, KoreaSat-5’s Falcon 9 may end up being the pathfinder SpaceX uses to solve the problems and squash the bugs that will inevitably arise while activating a new launch pad. Delays ought to be expected.
Following KoreaSat-5, the next SpaceX launch is not yet clear but will likely be Iridium-4, NEXT satellites 31-40. Including the three launches discussed above, SpaceX is likely to conduct 7-8 more launches before the end of 2017, not counting Falcon Heavy’s inaugural launch due to uncertainty.
News
These Tesla, X, and xAI engineers were just poached by OpenAI
The news is the latest in an ongoing feud between Elon Musk and the Sam Altman-run firm OpenAI.

OpenAI, the xAI competitor for which Elon Musk previously served as a boardmember and helped to co-found, has reportedly poached high-level engineers from Tesla, along with others from xAI, X, and still others.
On Tuesday, Wired reported that OpenAI hired four high-level engineers from Tesla, xAI, and X, as seen in an internal Slack message sent by co-founder Greg Brockman. The engineers include Tesla Vice President of Software Engineering David Lau, X and xAI’s head of infrastructure engineering Uday Ruddarraju, and fellow xAI infrastructure engineer Mike Dalton. The hiring spree also included Angela Fan, an AI researcher from Meta.
“We’re excited to welcome these new members to our scaling team,” said Hannah Wong, an OpenAI spokesperson. “Our approach is to continue building and bringing together world-class infrastructure, research, and product teams to accelerate our mission and deliver the benefits of AI to hundreds of millions of people.”
Lau has been in his position as Tesla’s VP of Software Engineering since 2017, after previously working for the company’s firmware, platforms, and system integration divisions.
“It has become incredibly clear to me that accelerating progress towards safe, well-aligned artificial general intelligence is the most rewarding mission I could imagine for the next chapter of my career,” Lau said in a statement to Wired.
🚨Optimistic projections point to xAI possibly attaining profitability by 2027, according to Bloomberg's sources.
If accurate, this would be quite a feat for xAI. OpenAI, its biggest rival, is still looking at 2029 as the year it could become cash flow positive.💰 https://t.co/pE5Z9daez8
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 18, 2025
READ MORE ON OPENAI: Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit clears hurdle as trial looms
At xAI, Ruddarraju and Dalton both played a large role in developing the Colossus supercomputer, which is comprised of over 200,000 GPUs. One of the major ongoing projects at OpenAI is the company’s Stargate program,
“Infrastructure is where research meets reality, and OpenAI has already demonstrated this successfully,” Ruddarraju told Wired in another statement. “Stargate, in particular, is an infrastructure moonshot that perfectly matches the ambitious, systems-level challenges I love taking on.”
Elon Musk is currently in the process of suing OpenAI for shifting toward a for-profit model, as well as for accepting an investment of billions of dollars from Microsoft. OpenAI retaliated with a counterlawsuit, in which it alleges that Musk is interfering with the company’s business and engaging in unfair competition practices.
Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event
News
SpaceX share sale expected to back $400 billion valuation
The new SpaceX valuation would represent yet another record-high as far as privately-held companies in the U.S. go.

A new report this week suggests that Elon Musk-led rocket company SpaceX is considering an insider share sale that would value the company at $400 billion.
SpaceX is set to launch a primary fundraising round and sell a small number of new shares to investors, according to the report from Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous due to the information not yet being public. Additionally, the company would sell shares from employees and early investors in a follow-up round, while the primary round would determine the price for the secondary round.
The valuation would represent the largest in history from a privately-owned company in the U.S., surpassing SpaceX’s previous record of $350 billion after a share buyback in December. Rivaling company valuations include ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, as well as OpenAI.
Bloomberg went on to say that a SpaceX representative didn’t respond to a request for comment at the time of publishing. The publication also notes that the details of such a deal could still change, especially depending on interest from the insider sellers and share buyers.
Axiom’s Ax-4 astronauts arriving to the ISS! https://t.co/WQtTODaYfj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 26, 2025
READ MORE ON SPACEX: SpaceX to decommission Dragon spacecraft in response to Pres. Trump war of words with Elon Musk
SpaceX’s valuation comes from a few different key factors, especially including the continued expansion of the company’s Starlink satellite internet company. According to the report, Starlink accounts for over half of the company’s yearly revenue. Meanwhile, the company produced its 10 millionth Starlink kit last month.
The company also continues to develop its Starship reusable rocket program, despite the company experiencing an explosion of the rocket on the test stand in Texas last month.
The company has also launched payloads for a number of companies and government contracts. In recent weeks, SpaceX launched Axiom’s Ax-4 mission, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 14-day stay to work on around 60 scientific experiments. The mission was launched using the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a new Crew Dragon capsule, while the research is expected to span a range of fields including biology, material and physical sciences, and demonstrations of specialized technology.
News
Tesla Giga Texas continues to pile up with Cybercab castings
Tesla sure is gathering a lot of Cybercab components around the Giga Texas complex.

Tesla may be extremely tight-lipped about the new affordable models that it was expected to start producing in the first half of the year, but the company sure is gathering a lot of Cybercab castings around the Giga Texas complex. This is, at least, as per recent images taken of the facility.
Cybercab castings galore
As per longtime drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer, who has been chronicling the developments around the Giga Texas complex for several years now, the electric vehicle maker seems to be gathering hundreds of Cybercab castings around the factory.
Based on observations from industry watchers, the drone operator appears to have captured images of about 180 front and 180 rear Cybercab castings in his recent photos.
Considering the number of castings that were spotted around Giga Texas, it would appear that Tesla may indeed be preparing for the vehicle’s start of trial production sometime later this year. Interestingly enough, large numbers of Cybercab castings have been spotted around the Giga Texas complex in the past few months.
Cybercab production
The Cybercab is expected to be Tesla’s first vehicle that will adopt the company’s “unboxed” process. As per Tesla’s previous update letters, volume production of the Cybercab should start in 2026. So far, prototypes of the Cybercab have been spotted testing around Giga Texas, and expectations are high that the vehicle’s initial trial production should start this year.
With the start of Tesla’s dedicated Robotaxi service around Austin, it might only be a matter of time before the Cybercab starts being tested on public roads as well. When this happens, it would be very difficult to deny the fact that Tesla really does have a safe, working autonomous driving system, and it has the perfect vehicle for it, too.
-
Elon Musk1 week ago
Tesla investors will be shocked by Jim Cramer’s latest assessment
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla Robotaxi’s biggest challenge seems to be this one thing
-
Elon Musk1 day ago
Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event
-
News2 weeks ago
Watch the first true Tesla Robotaxi intervention by safety monitor
-
News5 days ago
Tesla Model 3 ranks as the safest new car in Europe for 2025, per Euro NCAP tests
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
A Tesla just delivered itself to a customer autonomously, Elon Musk confirms
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
xAI welcomes Memphis pollution results, environmental groups push back
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
Elon Musk confirms Tesla Optimus V3 already uses Grok voice AI