News
SpaceX preparing Dragon 2 for Feb. 2018 launch, progressing Dragon 1 reuse efforts
NASA has released tentative flight schedules for the first Commercial Crew Program missions of Boeing and SpaceX, aligning with recent suggestions that SpaceX’s schedule had slipped by several months. SpaceX’s first Commercial Crew mission, an uncrewed inaugural test of Dragon 2, has moved from late 2017 into early 2018, and is now targeting a launch no earlier than February.
Presenting at the 2017 ISS R&D Conference in D.C. earlier this week, chief Elon Musk reiterated that SpaceX was laser-focused on doing everything possible to ensure that Falcon 9 and Dragon 2 are as reliable and safe as can be. The company’s first crewed launch is subsequently planned for no earlier than June 2018, under the condition of a nominal demonstration flight of Dragon 2 four months prior. The choice to end development of propulsive landing of Dragon 2 will likely help the company more easily meet their schedule goals.
During the same talk, Musk took time to address what he considered a missed opportunity, SpaceX’s historic reuse of a Dragon spacecraft with the launch of NASA’s CRS-11 mission in June. In Musk’s opinion, SpaceX should have taken the opportunity to promote the genuinely unique and difficult accomplishment. He certainly isn’t wrong. To paraphrase, a private company conducted the first orbital reuse of a spacecraft since the Space Shuttle retired in 2011, and also became one of only three other orbital vehicles to have ever flown to orbit more than once.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks after unveiling the Dragon V2 spacecraft in Hawthorne, California May 29, 2014. Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Furthermore, SpaceX has suggested for quite some time that the company was planning on ending the manufacture of Dragon 1 pressure vessels in order to retool the assembly line and begin fully focusing on Dragon 2 manufacturing. Recent persistent rumors would seem to suggest that this may have already occurred, or is at least very close to occurring. SpaceX is likely to benefit considerably by exploiting the opportunity they have to refurbish and reuse orbital spacecraft, and it is likely that a majority of the nine cargo missions left in its first CRS contract will be conducted with refurbished Dragon capsules.
Of course, a great deal of the capsule must be replaced with new parts as a result of ocean landings, but Musk said he expects the next Dragon reuse and all future reuses to save the SpaceX nearly 50% of the cost of manufacturing an entirely new spacecraft. Musk admitted that the first refurbishment of Dragon likely ended up costing as much or more than a new vehicle, but this is to be expected for the first attempt to reuse any sort of space hardware that must survive some form of reentry heating and saltwater immersion.
Throughout the discussion, Elon Musk frequently and wholeheartedly praised NASA for enabling SpaceX to exist and to remain the agile aerospace company it wants to be while still working as a private partner of the agency. It is indeed exceptional that NASA’s CRS team has allowed SpaceX to upgrade and iterate Falcon 9 and Dragon hardware and procedures, with NASA expressing an uncharacteristic level of flexibility by permitting the many small additional risks the constant state of flux of SpaceX’s hardware has inevitably introduced.
Musk went so far as to state flat-out that Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s longstanding head of manned spaceflight, was “one of [his] favorite people in the world”. SpaceX and Musk’s consistent willingness to publicly thank and praise NASA has been an exception to the norm of the aerospace industry, and SpaceX and NASA will undoubtedly continue their strong relationship well into the future.
Tesla has expanded its branded ‘For Business’ Supercharger program that it launched last year, as yet another company is using the platform to attract EV owners to its business and utilize a unique advertising opportunity.
Francis Energy of Oklahoma is launching four Superchargers in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located. The Superchargers, which are fitted with branding for Francis Energy, will officially open tomorrow.
It will not be the final Supercharger location that Francis Energy plans to open, the company confirmed to EVWire.
Back in early September, Tesla launched the new “Supercharger for Business” program in an effort to give businesses the ability to offer EV charging at custom rates. It would give their businesses visibility and would also cater to employees or customers.
“Purchase and install Superchargers at your business,” Tesla wrote on a page on its website for the new program. “Superchargers are compatible with all electric vehicles, bringing EV drivers to your business by offering convenient, reliable charging.”
The first site opened in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, which is Northeast of Tampa, as a company called Suncoast launched the Superchargers for local EV owners.
Tesla launches its new branded Supercharger for Business with first active station
The program also does a great job at expanding infrastructure for EV owners, which is something that needs to be done to encourage more people to purchase Teslas and other electric cars.
Francis Energy operates at least 14 EV charging locations in Oklahoma, spanning from Durant to Oklahoma City and nearly everywhere in between. Filings from the company, listed by Supercharge.info, show the company’s plans to convert some of them to Tesla Superchargers, potentially utilizing the new Supercharger for Business program to advertise.
Moving forward, more companies will likely utilize Tesla’s Supercharger for Business program as it presents major advantages in a variety of ways, especially with advertising and creating a place for EV drivers to gain range in their cars.
Tesla Cybercab is perhaps the most highly-anticipated project that the company plans to roll out this year, and as it is undergoing its testing phase in pre-production currently, there are some things to work through with it.
Over the weekend, an image of the Cybercab being loaded onto a tow truck started circulating on the internet, and people began to speculate as to what the issue could be.
Hmmmmmm… https://t.co/L5hWcOXQkb pic.twitter.com/OJBDyHNTMj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 11, 2026
The Cybercab can clearly be seen with a Police Officer and perhaps the tow truck driver by its side, being loaded onto, or even potentially unloaded from, the truck.
However, it seems unlikely it was being offloaded, as its operation would get it to this point for testing to begin with.
It appears, at first glance, that it needs assistance getting back to wherever it came from; likely Gigafactory Texas or potentially a Bay Area facility.
The Cybercab was also spotted in Buffalo, New York, last week, potentially undergoing cold-weather testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s where this incident took place.
It is important to remember that the Cybercab is currently undergoing some rigorous testing scenarios, which include range tests and routine public road operation. These things help Tesla assess any potential issue the vehicle could run into after it starts routine production and heads to customers, or for the Robotaxi platform operation.
This is not a one-off issue, either. Tesla had some instances with the Semi where it was seen broken down on the side of a highway three years ago. The all-electric Semi has gone on to be successful in its early pilot program, as companies like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. have had very positive remarks.
The Cybercab’s future is bright, and it is important to note that no vehicle model has ever gone its full life without a breakdown. It happens, it’s a car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that there has been no official word on what happened with this particular Cybercab unit, but it is crucial to remember that this is the pre-production testing phase, and these things are more constructive than anything.
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Tesla expands its branded ‘For Business’ Superchargers
Tesla Cybercab ‘breakdown’ image likely is not what it seems
