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SpaceX expends “old-gen” Falcon 9 to ready for upcoming rapid reuse rocket
Falcon 9 B1039 completed its fourteenth Cargo Dragon (CRS-14) launch with a dramatic, Falcon Heavy-esque hard impact into the Atlantic Ocean – as an expendable mission, its purpose, in this case, was to gather data on Falcon 9’s performance during extreme reentry conditions.
Aside from the inherent benefits of gathering critical data ahead of the April 24 debut of Falcon 9 Block 5, a rapid reuse version of the booster that SpaceX is not likely to be keen on expending, exploring the limits of Falcon 9’s ability to reenter Earth’s atmosphere could enable a greater proportion of missions to be recoverable in the future. In the past, Falcon 9 Block 3 was effectively limited to recovery attempts for geostationary payloads below 5400 kg, evidenced by three intentionally expendable (no recovery attempt) 2017 launch with satellites that weighed anywhere from 5500-6700kg.
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- CRS-14. (Tom Cross)
Soon after, however, SpaceX introduced Block 4 of Falcon 9, most prominently featuring uprated Merlin 1D engines capable of around 10% more thrust than Block 3. Presumably related to this thrust upgrade, SpaceX recently announced that they would attempt an exceptionally hot booster recovery following the launch of the 6100 kg Hispasat 30W-6 communications satellite, an intent that was confirmed by the presence of titanium grid fins. Sadly, bad sea conditions in the Atlantic scrubbed the launch attempt, and the booster (B1044) instead attempted a soft landing in the ocean. Still, the intent alone demonstrated that SpaceX believed it could potentially land a Falcon 9 first stage despite the considerable mass of the satellite, effectively a 15% capability upgrade that would allow SpaceX to recover boosters after all but a tiny proportion.
Falcon 9 B1039 takes to the stormy skies. (Tom Cross)
It may feel unintuitive (perhaps even sad) seeing SpaceX expend booster after recoverable booster, but the company is almost certainly making a pragmatic decision to use the final flight-proven Block 3 and Block 4 first stages to flesh out the full range of their capabilities and explore the edge of the envelope ahead of the next generation. As SpaceX’s Jessica Jensen noted in both pre- and post-launch press conferences, these decisions to expend recoverable boosters are made on a case-by-case basis after considerable thought and cost-benefit analysis – in other words, the decisions to send these boosters to their watery graves are made with an eye on the future of Falcon 9 and Heavy.
Tom Cross’ incredible photos from this launch truly manage to capture the wildly dramatic mood of rocketry – even expendable vehicles never cease to amaze. In the background, a thunderstorm loomed large over the mission, but thankfully allowed a flight-proven Dragon and Falcon 9 booster to squeak by on their way to orbit.
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- Falcon 9 B1039 takes to the stormy skies. (Tom Cross)
Follow us for live updates, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and a sea of beautiful photos from our East and West coast photographers.
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Elon Musk
Tesla Semi finally has an FSD timeline and it’s waiting on the Cybercab
Elon Musk told investors Semi self-driving should start working by early 2027, per today’s earnings.
During Wednesday’s’ Tesla Q2 earnings call, an analyst asked Elon Musk when Tesla would look at autonomy for the Semi. His answer set a real timeline for the first time, noting that self-driving on the Tesla Semi is expected to start working “around the end of this year or early next year”.
Musk framed the delay as a matter of priority, not capability. Tesla’s self-driving team is currently focused on Model 3, Model Y, and Cybercab, the vehicles that make up the overwhelming majority of Tesla’s fleet. Since Semi trucks on the road remain a small fraction of that total even after the recent Nevada factory ramp, Musk said it made more sense to keep the software team’s attention on what he called “the march of nines of safety” for the higher volume vehicles first. Autonomous Semi development is “taking a bit of a backseat for the next six months or so,” he said, before adding that it “will definitely be working next year and in time for the scale-up to high production of the Tesla Semi.”
Tesla Semi’s official battery capacity leaked by California regulators
The timeline lines up with what’s already been showing up on public roads. In June, a Tesla Semi was spotted in Sunnyvale wearing a full validation rig, the same rooftop sensor array Tesla mounts on vehicles ahead of an FSD milestone.
A second unit was seen near Fremont days later with a matching camera suite and lens washers. Separately, Tesla analyst Nic Cruz Patane posted video this month of the production Semi’s exterior camera array, ten AI4 based units built directly into the truck rather than added later.
Tesla Semi AI4 cameras. The production version has 10 cameras on its exterior.
These trucks are designed to be autonomous. pic.twitter.com/GH3BamxIBQ
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) April 14, 2026
Musk also gave the reason autonomy on the Semi matters in the first place, a persistent shortage of qualified truck drivers. “There is a really serious shortage of truckers,” he said on the call, framing a self-driving Semi as important both for addressing that shortage and for improving safety and comfort for the drivers running the truck today.
The timing also tracks with the Semi’s production reality. Tesla’s Q2 shareholder letter, dropped language promising the Semi would reach volume production this year. Musk pointed to 4680 battery cell output as the near-term constraint on Semi and Cybercab production. A software timeline landing in early 2027 gives Tesla’s autonomy team room to work while the hardware ramp catches up behind it.
It’s worth nothing that this isn’t necessarily a promise the Semi ships driverless next year. Musk’s own language, self-driving “working” by early 2027, describes internal validation catching up to hardware already riding on every production truck, not a public unsupervised rollout.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.
The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.
This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.
Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results
- Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
- Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
- Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
- Profit -$ 4.751B
Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.
Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.
In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.
Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.
You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.
Q2 2026 Earnings Call https://t.co/zZS6ii2TWK
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.
Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:
It’s coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.
Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.
Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.
The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.
Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.
Elon Musk’s answer to Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey got way more specific
Tesla Semi finally has an FSD timeline and it’s waiting on the Cybercab
