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SpaceX’s Pacific rocket recovery fleet heads to sea for Western Block 5 debut
SpaceX drone ship Just Read The Instructions was spotted by Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin departing Port of Los Angeles on the evening of July 22, while fairing catcher Mr Steven completed final checkouts and full installation of his massive new net, hopefully just days away from the first successful fairing catch. Their call to action, Iridium NEXT-7, is scheduled to launch NET 04:39 PDT/11:39 UTC, July 25th.
Over the course of July, both vessels have been undergoing significant maintenance and upgrades. Mr Steven’s was perhaps the most extreme – his original arm and net apparatus was removed in its entirety and replaced with a massively upgraded system of arms, booms, and a brand new net, well and truly expanding the vessel’s catching area by a factor of four.
With a new net and arm span stretching at least 60 meters by 60 meters, Mr Steven’s improved fairing catching mechanism is now almost the same size as the landing area aboard SpaceX’s two autonomous spaceport drone ships – roughly 200ft x 300ft (60m x 90m). While presumably a pure coincidence, the size parallels apparently necessary to recover two very different components of Falcon 9 – the booster rocket and the payload fairings – is rather satisfying.
A last hurrah?
Intriguingly, ASDS Just Read The Instructions has stoically remained at SpaceX’s Port of San Pedro, CA berth for more than nine months, wholly unused despite the fact that the company has completed four additional missions since its last tasked booster recovery (October 2017, Iridium-3). It’s not a coincidence that all four of those Vandenberg AFB missions featured boosters that had already successfully launched and landed once before – SpaceX made a habit over the last four months of intentionally expending Falcon 9 boosters after their second missions, even when the launch conditions would allow for booster recovery.
This mission will thankfully bring an end to that understandable but still-painful practice, thanks to Iridium-7’s new Block 5 booster, B1048. Many of the months JRTI spent at berth were without the pod thrusters the drone ship needs to keep itself at the proper landing point once at sea, but JRTI departed the port with a full complement of four blue thrusters on the evening of July 22. However, it’s unclear how much SpaceX will need the vessel within just a month or two from today.
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- A SpaceX technician works aboard the rain-soaked drone ship Just Read The Instructions, March 2018. (Pauline Acalin)
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- More recently, all four thrusters were installed and tested both while berthed and at sea. May 11. (Pauline Acalin)
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- JRTI captured conducting sea-trials by photographer Chuck Bennett. (Instagram, @chuckbennett)
At long last, SpaceX’s planned, built, and now-patiently-waiting West Coast landing zone is finally finished, permitted, and in the green to begin supporting Falcon 9 return-to-launch-site (RTLS) recoveries at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Effectively a basic copy of SpaceX’s now well-worn landing zone pair in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the company’s VAFB LZ-1 has been hinted at in two FCC launch permits for launches as early as the first and last weeks of September. Aside from Iridium launches, of which just one will remain after Iridium-7, nearly all of SpaceX’s West Coast launches are for fairly lightweight payloads that should easily allow Falcon 9 RTLS recoveries.
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- Iridium-1’s successful and scenic landing on Pacific drone ship JRTI, January 2017. This could be an increasingly rare occurrence in the Pacific, thanks to SpaceX’s new land-based landing zone. (SpaceX)
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- SpaceX’s West Coast landing zone is preparing for its debut, currently NET October 6th 2018. (Pauline Acalin/Teslarati)
Environmental conditions mean that JRTI will still be needed regularly for a handful of months (March through June) to avoid disrupting baby seals (pups, technically), but the vessel’s recovery efforts this week may be one of the last ‘off-season’ examples for months or even years to come. On the plus side, RTLS recovery at SpaceX’s VAFB landing zone will be an absolute dream for recovery technicians, as the LZ is directly beside the launch pad and hangar, where recovered Block 5 boosters can likely be refurbished or at least easily packaged and shipped to the Hawthorne factory.
For more sneak peeks and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet, including drone ship Just Read The Instructions, be sure to subscribe to our exclusive membership program!
Tesla unveiled a juicy new detail on the Roadster, its long-delayed supercar project, and additionally hinted at a new unveiling timeline, as it appears yet another month will pass without seeing the capabilities of the vehicle.
Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla, Lars Moravy, revealed on the Ride the Lightning podcast that the Roadster will be built at Gigafactory Texas, adding that “you’ll start to see a lot of things unfold in the next months.”
While we get a good detail on the plant of manufacture, we also get another letdown, as it appears the unveiling event will not take place in May, as CEO Elon Musk hinted during the Earnings Call.
Franz von Holzhausen revealed in the Ride the Lightning podcast that the Tesla Roadster will be built at Gigafactory Texas https://t.co/t9Bu9k824Q pic.twitter.com/TT01IWJaFD
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 24, 2026
The Roadster was first unveiled back in 2017, alongside the Semi, which entered production earlier this year. It was Tesla’s attempt at a true supercar; it would be rare, expensive, and lightning quick, among other incredible capabilities, like potentially hovering for a short period thanks to a collaboration project with SpaceX.
However, the vehicle was set to be delivered in 2020. Parts and supply chain issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic started these delays, and since then, Tesla, and specifically Musk, have wanted to push the capabilities of the Roadster to somewhere the human mind may not be able to currently comprehend.
Both Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and Moravy have said many things about the Roadster over the past few years, hinting that the car truly could be worth the wait. However, the continuous delays we’ve seen have undoubtedly been discouraging.
With that being said, it’s not like Tesla has been doing nothing. Instead, the company has been focusing on revamping current models, phasing out others, and working on developing the cars of the future, specifically, the Cybercab, which entered production at Giga Texas in April.
Despite the Roadster’s delays, there is still a ton of anticipation for the vehicle to be released. It will have a steering wheel, as Musk said it will be “the best of the last of the human-driven cars.”
NASA has filed a procurement notice announcing its intent to add six post-certification missions to SpaceX’s existing Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract. The agency said it would order up to three of those missions immediately upon adding them to the contract, with the remaining three available as needed through the end of the International Space Station’s planned operations in 2030.
The reason for the expansion is straightforward. NASA cited recently shortened ISS mission durations, technical issues and schedule delays encountered by Boeing, the allocation of missions between Boeing and SpaceX, and the ongoing technical challenges of maintaining a reliable crew transportation capability as the driving factors behind the decision. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has still not been certified for crewed flights, and a cargo-only Starliner mission was not included on NASA’s most recent mission manifest. With Boeing effectively sidelined for the foreseeable future, SpaceX is the only American company capable of rotating crews to the station.
The history behind this contract tells the fuller story of how SpaceX got here. NASA originally awarded SpaceX its Commercial Crew contract in 2014 for $2.6 billion. In 2022 NASA modified the contract to add five missions covering Crew-10 through Crew-14, worth $1.436 billion, bringing the total contract value at that point to $4.9 billion. The recent May 18 filing by NASA extends that runway further, with Crew-12 currently docked at the station and Crew-13 assigned and targeting a mid-September 2026 launch.
According to a report by SpaceNews, NASA stated in its filing: “It is necessary to award additional PCMs to SpaceX given the recently shortened ISS mission durations, technical issues and schedule delays encountered by Boeing, the allocation of missions between Boeing and SpaceX, NASA’s projections for when an alternative crew transportation system may become available, and the ongoing technical challenges of maintaining a reliable capability for crewed flights to ISS.”
No dollar value for the new six missions has been publicly confirmed yet, but based on the 2022 precedent of roughly $287 million per mission, the new block could represent close to $1.7 billion in additional contract value. With SpaceX simultaneously preparing Starship as NASA’s Artemis lunar lander, filing its S-1 for a June IPO, and now absorbing more ISS crew rotation work, the company’s role as the primary contractor for American human spaceflight is no longer a matter of circumstance. It is NASA policy.
In a notable intersection of Big Tech powerhouses, Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, has partnered with Canadian energy infrastructure giant Enbridge on a significant renewable energy initiative that will rely on battery technology from Elon Musk’s Tesla.
The project, which was announced this week, marks another step in Meta’s aggressive push to power its expanding data center operations with clean energy, dispelling many of the complaints people have about them.
This new development is located near Cheyenne, Wyoming, and will feature a 365-megawatt (MW) solar farm paired with a 200 MW/1,600 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy storage system, also known as BESS. Tesla is providing the batteries for the project, valued at roughly $200 million.
The story was originally reported by Utility Dive.
This Wyoming project represents the first phase of Enbridge and Meta’s joint “Cowboy Project.” Once operational, it will deliver power to Meta’s regional data centers through Cheyenne Light, Fuel, and Power under Wyoming’s Large Power Contract Service tariff.
This tariff, originally developed in collaboration with Microsoft and Black Hills Energy, is designed specifically for large loads like data centers. It ensures that the renewable supply serves hyperscale customers without impacting retail electricity rates for other users.
The battery system will operate under a long-term tolling agreement, providing dispatchable capacity that enhances grid reliability. During periods of high demand, the utility can access the backup generation, addressing one of the key challenges of integrating large-scale renewables with the explosive growth of data center electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence.
This latest collaboration builds on prior joint efforts between Enbridge and Meta in Texas, including the 600 MW Clear Fork Solar, 152 MW Easter Wind, and 300 MW Cone Wind projects. Together with the Wyoming initiative, the companies have now partnered on roughly 1.6 gigawatts (GW) of combined solar, wind, and storage capacity.
The deal highlights the intensifying demand for reliable, low-carbon power from technology giants. Meta has committed to supporting its data center growth with renewable energy, joining peers like Microsoft and Google in seeking large-scale solutions. Enbridge’s Allen Capps described the project as “one of the larger utility-scale battery installations supporting U.S. data center operations and growth.”
The involvement of Tesla’s battery technology adds an intriguing layer, linking two of the world’s most prominent tech leaders—Zuckerberg and Musk—in the clean energy transition.
As data centers continue to drive unprecedented electricity load growth across the United States, projects like this one illustrate how hyperscalers are turning to strategic partnerships with traditional energy players and innovative storage solutions to meet both sustainability goals and reliability needs.
Tesla unveils juicy new detail on the Roadster and hints at new unveil timeline
NASA just gave SpaceX more crew missions because Boeing can’t certify
