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The first stage of Falcon 9 landed at LZ-1 following the launch of CRS-10 in February 2017. Expect a similar spectacle this Monday! (SpaceX) The first stage of Falcon 9 landed at LZ-1 following the launch of CRS-10 in February 2017. Expect a similar spectacle this Monday! (SpaceX)

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SpaceX preparing for a return to flight on Monday, August 14

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After almost exactly one month without the roar of rockets, SpaceX is preparing to return Kennedy Space Center to active launch status with its twelfth Commercial Resupply Services mission.

The static fire of Dragon’s first stage, 1039, is scheduled for no earlier than tomorrow, August 10th, with the launch planned for 9:56 a.m. PST/12:56 p.m. EST on Monday, August 14th. In what has become routine for CRS missions, 1039 will return to SpaceX’s Florida-based LZ-1 landing facility after it separates from the second stage.

The Dragon it is to launch to the International Space Station marks its own milestone as the last “new” vehicle that SpaceX will launch during its remaining eight CRS-1 missions. Following CRS-12, every subsequent CRS launch will utilize reused hardware. Discussed at the ISS R&D Conference just a few weeks ago, Musk revealed that while the reused flight of CRS-11’s Dragon likely cost at least as much or more than flying new hardware, future reuses of Dragon would likely drop the cost by as much as half, resulting in significant cost savings for the company. As of June 2016, CRS-12 is expected to bring with it 7,300 lbs of cargo.

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3 years later, CRS-4’s capsule is captured once more at the ISS as CRS-11. This placed Dragon in a league of just three other orbital capsules to have ever been reused. (Photo: Jack Fischer)

Over the course of the last three weeks, CRS-12’s launch date has pinballed around due to issues with a ULA payload originally intended to launch before SpaceX. After suffering damage during integration, the satellite had to be repaired and the launch date delayed. As the delay lengthened, SpaceX jumped ahead of ULA and was scheduled to launch on Sunday, August 13th. Launch was initially scheduled for August 10th, pushed to August 14th, moved up to August 13th, and then moved back to August 14th as of yesterday. Access to space is never without drama, although this level of launch date bouncing is rather unusual.

The weather at Cape Canaveral looks to be quite bad during CRS-12’s launch week, with a high probability of both rain and lightning. As we get closer to the launch date, we’ll see if SpaceX chooses to continue with the planned Monday attempt. After a month without East Coast launches* as a result of required range maintenance, it will be exciting to see the U.S. return to flight regardless of the launch date.

 

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla Sweden’s port deal sparks political clash in Trelleborg

The extension of Tesla’s lease has drawn criticism from the local Social Democratic opposition.

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Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tesla Sweden’s lease agreement at the Port of Trelleborg has triggered a political dispute, with local leaders divided over whether the municipally owned port should continue renting space to the electric vehicle maker amidst its ongoing conflict with the IF Metall union.

Tesla Sweden’s recently extended contract with the Port of Trelleborg has triggered calls for greater political oversight of future agreements.

Tesla has used the Port of Trelleborg to import vehicles into Sweden amid a blockade by the Transport Workers’ Union, as noted in a report from Dagens Arbete (DA). By routing cars via trucks on passenger ferries, the company has maintained deliveries despite the labor dispute. Vehicles have also been stored and prepared in facilities leased from the municipal port company.

The extension of Tesla’s lease has drawn criticism from the local Social Democratic opposition. Initially, the Port of Trelleborg hinted that it would not enter into new agreements with Tesla, but it eventually opted to renew its existing contract with the EV maker anyway.

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Lennart Höckert, an opposition councilor, described the port’s decision as a “betrayal of the Swedish model,” arguing that a municipally owned entity should not appear to side with one party in an active labor dispute.

“If you want to protect the Swedish model, you shouldn’t get involved in a conflict and help one of the parties. When you as a company do this, it means that you are actually taking a position and making things worse in an already ongoing conflict,” Höckert said. 

He added that the party now wants politicians to review and approve future rental agreements involving municipal properties at the port.

The proposal has been sharply criticized by Mathias Andersson of the Sweden Democrats, who chairs the municipal board. In comments to local media, Andersson described the Social Democrats’ approach as “Kim Jong Un-style,” arguing that political leaders should not micromanage a company governed by its own board.

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“I believe that the port should be run like any other business,” Andersson said. He also noted that operational decisions fall under the authority of the Port of Trelleborg’s board instead of elected officials.

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Elon Musk’s X sees outage on Monday as users report issues

Monday’s outage follows a similar issue that befell the social media platform in mid-January.

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Credit: Linda Yaccarino/X

X experienced an outage on Monday morning, with tens of thousands of users reporting that the platform failed to load across both desktop and mobile. The disruption began around 8:02 a.m. ET, as per Downdetector data, and quickly escalated in the U.S. and U.K.

Monday’s outage follows a similar issue that befell the social media platform in mid-January.

Shortly after 8 a.m. ET, Downdetector showed a sharp rise in incident reports. At one point, U.S. complaints exceeded 40,000, while U.K. reports climbed past 6,000. Earlier in the outage, filings had already crossed 11,000 in the U.S. and 3,300 in the U.K., as noted in a TechRadar report. X users in other locations, such as the Philippines and Costa Rica, also reported similar issues.

Users attempting to access X were met with a “something went wrong” message. Feeds did not refresh, posts failed to appear, and both the social media platform’s app and web versions appeared affected by the issue. The outage struck during peak weekday usage, amplifying its visibility across regions worldwide.

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X has not issued an official explanation for the latest outage or confirmed what caused the service disruption. The scale of complaints drew comparisons to the platform’s major outage in November 2025, which resulted in users being met with “Internal server error / Error code 500” messages, as well as Cloudflare-related error notices.

The incident also comes just weeks after X experienced a similar downtime in mid-January. That outage seemed more notable, however, with more than 100,000 users reporting issues with the social media platform on Downdetector.

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New details emerge on The Boring Company’s Universal tunnel plans

The materials outline staffing, construction timelines, tunnel configuration, and operational details that were not previously public.

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Credit: Grok Imagine

Newly released bidding documents have shed light on how Elon Musk’s Boring Company plans to connect Universal Orlando Resort’s north campus to Universal Epic Universe. 

The materials outline staffing, construction timelines, tunnel configuration, and operational details that were not previously public about the planned Loop system.

The Shingle Creek Transit & Utility Community Development District voted Feb. 11 to begin contract negotiations with The Boring Company after ranking it the top bidder for the Universal Orlando transport project. Now, evaluation documents obtained by local news media reveal how the company intends to execute the project, according to Attraction Insight.

The proposal describes a twin-tunnel configuration, with one tunnel in each direction. It also noted that permitting, design, and construction could take roughly a year and a half once approvals are secured. The company indicated it could deploy multiple tunnel boring machines and install temporary support infrastructure, including muck storage pits and stormwater systems, during construction.

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Bid documents list eight internal specialists assigned to the project, including tunnel engineers, structural engineers, and tunnel boring machine experts. Six subcontractors would handle fire protection, communications, soil treatment, and concrete work.

The company stated it “has the necessary internally produced tunneling equipment and personnel immediately available to complete this project for the district as quickly as permits and approvals can be obtained.”

Operationally, the system would mirror the company’s Las Vegas Loop model, using Tesla vehicles to provide point-to-point transport rather than fixed-route buses. The proposal frames the concept as “on-demand, express transportation,” with vehicles dispatched as needed and capacity adjustable in real time.

Stations could be built underground or above ground with ramp access into tunnels. The documents also referenced potential future integration of a configurable Robovan for passengers and cargo, though capacity projections for the Orlando tunnels have not yet been disclosed.

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The proposal states that the Loop can integrate “easily into environmentally sensitive areas,” but it does not provide detailed mitigation plans for Central Florida’s high water table and limestone geology, which is susceptible to sinkholes. The company has stated that it intends to hire an Orlando-based geotechnical firm to evaluate soil conditions.

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