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SpaceX’s rapid pace continues, 16th Falcon 9 launch set for Monday
SpaceX is deep into preparations for its 16th launch of 2017 and is scheduled to carry KT Sat’s Koreasat 5A communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) at 3:34 p.m. EDT October 30.
As is routine for SpaceX, the Falcon 9 booster performed a brief ~3 second static fire of its 9 Merlin 1D engines at its LC-39A pad on Thursday, Oct. 26. However, SpaceX’s static fire procedure is better described as a complete launch rehearsal that includes everything except the rocket’s liftoff. This serves to thoroughly test Falcon 9’s mission-critical avionics and hardware and thus catch any latent bugs that managed to slip through quality assurance checks in the Hawthorne, CA factory and similar static fire procedures conducted at SpaceX’s McGregor, TX test facilities.
Koreasat 5A, Falcon 9’s Halloween payload of choice, is a geostationary communications satellite owned by the Korean satellite operator KT Sat, a subsidiary of KT Corporation. Manufactured by Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia Space, the satellite is estimated to weigh approximately 3500 kg or 7500 lb, and will thus allow Falcon 9’s first stage, numbered 1042, to be recovered aboard the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You some 650 miles off the coast of Florida. While the vessel’s friendly robot companion and several onboard components were thoroughly roasted in a small fire that followed the recovery of SES-11’s booster stage, SpaceX’s exceptional recovery crew managed to rapidly conduct repairs of OCISLY in time to catch Falcon 9 1042 tomorrow afternoon. Roomba/Optimus Prime has been removed from the drone ship indefinitely, but there is hope that the robot will be able to return to its boat garage after some thorough refurbishment.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaRGO3tH5Sg/
Regardless of recent trauma, OCISLY is marching straight back into the line of fire and is likely already at its holding position, ready to catch yet another Falcon 9. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the relatively lightweight commsat being launched will permit SpaceX to notch its 19th successful recovery of a Falcon 9. This is an incredible accomplishment, given that the company achieved its first successful recovery less than two years ago, on December 21 2015.
2017 has been a year of milestones after milestones, including a major internal launch cadence record, the first three commercial reflights of Falcon 9s, the first commercial reuse of an orbital spacecraft (Cargo Dragon), and even an updated strategy for the colonization of Mars. The year is not over yet, however, and SpaceX may have one or two additional milestones to check off before 2018 arrives.
While a link to the launch’s livestream has not yet been provided, you can expect to be able to follow along live tomorrow afternoon (3:34 p.m. EDT, 12:34 p.m PDT) on YouTube or Facebook as SpaceX continues to make the extraordinary look ordinary.
Join us onย Instagram as we share behind the scenes live action directly from the Kennedy Space Center, courtesy ofย launch photographer Tom Cross.
Tesla is dominating in the United Kingdom so far through 2025, and with about two weeks left in the year, the Model Y and Model 3 are leading the way.
The Model Y and Model 3 are the two best-selling electric vehicles in the United Kingdom, which is comprised of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and it’s not particularly close.
According to data gathered byย EU-EVs, the Model Y is sitting at 18,890 units for the year, while the Model 3 is slightly behind with 16,361 sales for the year so far.
The next best-selling EV is the Audi Q4 e-tron at 10,287 units, lagging significantly behind but ahead of other models like the BMW i4 and the Audi Q6 e-tron.
GOOD NEWS ๐ฌ๐ง Tesla is absolutely crushing the UK electric vehicle market in 2025 ๐ฅ
The numbers are in, and the dominance is clear. With an impressive amount of 42,270 vehicles delivered year-to-date, the brand now commands a solid 9.6% market share of the total auto market ๐โฆ pic.twitter.com/dkiGX9kzd0
โ Ming (@tslaming) December 18, 2025
The Model Y has tasted significant success in the global market, but it has dominated in large markets like Europe and the United States.
For years, it’s been a car that has fit the bill of exactly what consumers need: a perfect combination of luxury, space, and sustainability.
Both vehicles are going to see decreases in sales compared to 2024; the Model Y was the best-selling car last year, but it sold 32,610 units in the UK. Meanwhile, the Model 3 had reached 17,272 units, which will keep it right on par with last year.
Tesla sold 50,090 units in the market last year, and it’s about 8,000 units shy of last year’s pace. It also had a stronger market share last year with 13.2 percent of the sales in the market. With two weeks left in 2025, Tesla has a 9.6 percent market share, leading Volkswagen with 8 percent.
The company likely felt some impact from CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration and, more specifically, his role with DOGE. However, it is worth mentioning that some months saw stronger consumer demand than others. For example, sales were up over 20 percent in February. A 14 percent increase followed this in June.
News
Tesla Insurance officially expands to new U.S. state
Tesla’s in-house Insurance program first launched back in late 2019, offering a new way to insure the vehicles that was potentially less expensive and could alleviate a lot of the issues people had with claims, as the company could assess and repair the damage itself.
Tesla Insurance has officially expanded to a new U.S. state, its thirteenth since its launch in 2019.
Tesla has confirmed that its in-house Insurance program has officially made its way to Florida, just two months after the company filed to update its Private Passenger Auto program in the state. It had tried to offer its insurance program to drivers in the state back in 2022, but its launch did not happen.
Instead, Tesla refiled the paperwork back in mid-October, which essentially was the move toward initiating the offering this month.
BREAKING: Tesla Insurance has just officially launched in Florida.
This is the first new state to receive @Tesla Insurance in more than 3 years. In total, Tesla insurance is now available in 13 U.S. states (map in thread below of all the states).
Tesla Insurance in Florida usesโฆ pic.twitter.com/bDwh1IV6gD
โ Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 17, 2025
Tesla’s in-house Insurance program first launched back in late 2019, offering a new way to insure the vehicles that was potentially less expensive and could alleviate a lot of the issues people had with claims, as the company could assess and repair the damage itself.
It has expanded to new states since 2019, but Florida presents a particularly interesting challenge for Tesla, as the company’s entry into the state is particularly noteworthy given its unique insurance landscape, characterized by high premiums due to frequent natural disasters, dense traffic, and a no-fault system.
Annual average premiums for Florida drivers hover around $4,000 per year, well above the national average. Tesla’s insurance program could disrupt this, especially for EV enthusiasts. The state’s growing EV adoption, fueled by incentives and infrastructure development, aligns perfectly with Tesla’s ecosystem.
Moreover, there are more ways to have cars repaired, and features like comprehensive coverage for battery damage and roadside assistance tailored to EVs address those common painpoints that owners have.
However, there are some challenges that still remain. Florida’s susceptibility to hurricanes raises questions about how Tesla will handle claims during disasters.
Looking ahead, Tesla’s expansion of its insurance program signals the company’s ambition to continue vertically integrating its services, including coverage of its vehicles. Reducing dependency on third-party insurers only makes things simpler for the company’s automotive division, as well as for its customers.
News
Tesla Full Self-Driving gets sparkling review from South Korean politician
“Having already ridden in an unmanned robotaxi, the novelty wasnโt as strong for me, but it drives just as well as most people do. It already feels like a completed technology, which gives me a lot to think about.”
Tesla Full Self-Driving got its first sparkling review from South Korean politician Lee So-young, a member of the country’s National Assembly, earlier this week.
Lee is a member of the Strategy and Finance Committee in South Korea and is a proponent of sustainable technologies and their applications in both residential and commercial settings. For the first time, Lee was able to utilize Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology as it launched in the country in late November.
Her thoughts on the suite were complimentary to the suite, stating that “it drives just as well as most people do,” and that “it already feels like a completed technology.”
๋๋์ด ์ค๋, ์์ธ์์ ํ ์ฌ๋ผ FSD ์ฒดํ ํ์ต๋๋ค.
JiDal Papa๋์ ๋ชจ๋ธS ํ์ฐฌ์ ํ์ ์ด^^ ํํ๋ ์ ๋ง ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค.
๊ตญํ -> ๋ง์์์ฅ -> ํ์ต๋ -> ๊ตญํ ๋ณต๊ท ์ฝ์ค์๊ณ ์.
์ด๋ฏธ ๋ฌด์ธ ๋ก๋ณดํ์๋ฅผ ํ๋ด์ ๊ทธ๋ฐ์ง ์ ๊ธฐํจ์
๋ํ์ง๋ง, ์ฌ๋งํ ์ฌ๋๋งํผ ์ด์ ์ ์ํ๋ค์.์ด๋ฏธ ์์ฑ๋ ๊ธฐ์ ์ด๋ผ๊ณ โฆ pic.twitter.com/8pAidHBpRG
โ ์ด์์ ๊ตญํ์์ (Soyoung Lee) (@im_soyounglee) December 17, 2025
Her translated post says:
“Finally, today I got to experience Tesla FSD in Seoul. Thanks to the Model S sponsored by JiDal Papa^^, Iโm truly grateful to Papa. The route was from the National Assembly -> Mangwon Market -> Hongik University -> back to the National Assembly. Having already ridden in an unmanned robotaxi, the novelty wasnโt as strong for me, but it drives just as well as most people do. It already feels like a completed technology, which gives me a lot to think about. Once it actually spreads into widespread use, I feel like our daily lives are going to change a lot. Even I, with my license gathering dust in a drawer, donโt see much reason to learn to drive a manual anymore.”
Tesla Full Self-Driving officially landed in South Korea in late November, with the initial launch being one of Tesla’s most recent, v14.1.4.
It marked the seventh country in which Tesla was able to enable the driver assistance suite, following the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.
It is important to see politicians and figures in power try new technologies, especially ones that are widely popular in other regions of the world and could potentially revolutionize how people travel globally.
Tesla dominates in the UK with Model Y and Model 3 leading the way
Tesla Insurance officially expands to new U.S. state
