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SpaceX's latest reusable rocket booster returns to port to prepare for next launch
The first new Falcon 9 booster SpaceX has debuted in almost half a year safely returned to port after a successful first launch and landing, setting the reusable rocket up to fly again in the near future.
On December 5th, after a brief 24-hour weather-related delay, new Falcon 9 booster B1059 lifted off on its first mission, successfully sending flight-proven Cargo Dragon capsule C106 to orbit for the third time before the rocket slowed itself down and landed on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY).
Over the next three or so days, the SpaceX spacecraft gradually boosted and tweaked its orbit to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) and ultimately began its ISS approach and berthing maneuvers on December 8th. A few hours after that, ISS astronauts successfully ‘caught’ Dragon with the station’s massive robotic arm and gently berthed the spacecraft at an open port.
Less than a day before Dragon arrived at the ISS, effectively completing the majority of its CRS-19 resupply mission, the Falcon 9 booster that launched the spacecraft wrapped up a successful launch debut by returning to a different kind of port. Falcon 9 B1059 returned to Port Canaveral aboard drone ship OCISLY on the morning of December 7th and was quickly released from SpaceX’s robotic Octagrabber robot and lifted onto dry land.
SpaceX’s 13th successful Falcon booster recovery of 2019, B1059’s return to port also marked the first flight of a new Falcon booster since June 25th – almost half a year prior. By the numbers, B1059 was subjected to a relatively gentle atmospheric reentry prior to landing aboard OCISLY, meaning that it should be easier for SpaceX technicians and engineers to recertify the rocket and turn it around for its next launch.
Depending on where SpaceX and NASA stand, the booster’s second launch could happen anywhere from 2-4 months from now. Given that NASA currently allows SpaceX to fly reused boosters on NASA missions only if those boosters have exclusively flown NASA missions in the past, B1059 could end up supporting CRS-20, SpaceX’s next and last Cargo Dragon (Dragon 1) mission. CRS-20 is scheduled to launch no earlier than (NET) March 2020 and will be followed by the launch debut of Crew Dragon’s Cargo variant as soon as August 2020, another possibility for B1059’s second flight.
However, if SpaceX follows in the footsteps of CRS-19 and instead prioritizes rapid customer launches over saving a given gently-used booster for another NASA mission, B1059 could be a prime candidate for an extremely rapid turnaround, perhaps supporting an internal SpaceX Starlink launch or any number of other customer satellite launches in early 2020. On the other hand, it’s possible that B1059 suffered an unusually damaging reentry for unknown reasons, although it’s hard to judge from photos and a layperson perspective alone.
From a few angles, it almost appears as if B1059’s white paint was completely burned or scoured off in places, leaving a distinct transition between the edge of remaining paint and the booster’s distinctly metallic-looking skin underneath it. Falcon 9’s main structure is almost entirely built out of a high-performance aluminum-lithium alloy and sealed (and partially shielded) with a multilayer temperature and corrosion-resistant coating. If B1059’s tank coating was indeed partially burned off during reentry, SpaceX will almost certainly have to perform uniquely detailed inspections to verify the structural integrity of its propellant tanks, perhaps preventing a rapid (record-breaking) turnaround.
Either way, Falcon 9 B1059 was quickly lifted off of OCISLY and technicians even managed to retract all four of the new booster’s deployable landing legs, a great sign that SpaceX is confident that the booster is in fine shape. With the addition of B1059, SpaceX’s fleet of flight-proven, flightworthy Falcon 9 boosters is now eight strong – nine if Crew Dragon’s unflown Demo-2 booster is included. That fleet will continue to grow as SpaceX gradually introduces new boosters for increasingly rare military and NASA missions.
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SpaceX Starship Flight 13 faces wrath of the Texas skies
SpaceX pushed Starship Flight 13 to Friday, blaming weather instead of the previous engine issues.
SpaceX called off Thursday’s launch attempt of Starship Flight 13, pushing the mission to Friday because of weather tied to Tropical Storm Bertha. The company confirmed the delay on X, noting “Now targeting Friday, July 24 for Starship’s thirteenth flight test, due to weather. A key objective for the flight test is to get clear imagery from the ground of Starship’s heatshield as it flies at a higher dynamic pressure during ascent, which won’t be possible with today’s weather conditions.”
This is the second delay for Flight 13 in two weeks. SpaceX first tried to launch the mission on July 16, but the countdown ended in an automated abort at T-0 when four of Super Heavy Booster 20’s 33 Raptor engines failed to ignite. Musk said at the time that two Raptors would need to be removed and replaced, as Teslarati reported. The company spent the following week destacking Ship 40 and Booster 20, swapping engines, and running leak checks before restacking the vehicle on Pad 2 Wednesday night, according to Spaceflight Now’s live coverage.
Unlike the engine problem, Thursday’s delay has nothing to do with the hardware. SpaceX wants clean footage of Starship’s heat shield captured from the ground as the vehicle flies through max dynamic pressure, something the storm’s cloud cover over South Texas would not allow. The company said visibility should improve for Friday’s attempt, with the same 90 minute window opening at 5:45 p.m. CT.
Flight 13 will be the second outing for the V3 versions of Starship and Super Heavy, following their debut on Flight 12 in May. The mission carries 20 production Starlink V3 satellites, the first time SpaceX has flown operational satellites rather than mass simulators on Starship. Six of those satellites are fitted with cameras to inspect the heat shield from a different angle during ascent, giving engineers a second data source beyond the ground imagery the weather is currently blocking.
Booster 20 will attempt a boostback burn and a splashdown landing burn in the Gulf of America, while Ship 40 follows a suborbital trajectory toward a landing in the Indian Ocean. The flight plan largely mirrors Flight 12, though the booster will run a more aggressive ascent burn after max Q this time, and the ship’s heat shield includes load sensing tiles meant to measure stress at the higher dynamic pressure SpaceX is targeting.
If Friday’s attempt succeeds, Flight 13 could be the last suborbital test in the program. SpaceX is already looking to push for an orbital flight on Flight 14.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
Elon Musk clapped back at France’s decision to withhold the approval for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised system, projecting a clear and blunt message to French Transport Minister Phillippe Tabarot, after he publicly rejected the technology in its current form.
Tabarot outlines several concerns with Tesla Full Self-Driving in a detailed video statement, where he said, “The safety trade-offs are not yet sufficient to authorize it as it currently stands,” he said. He emphasized that FSD is not a true self-driving system and that the driver remains fully responsible.
Key issues Tabarot also brought up included allowing speeding when surrounding traffic exceeds limits and what he believes are insufficient guarantees of driver attention during complex urban maneuvers such as lane changes, intersections, and roundabouts.
Delaying the approval of FSD in France will cost lives
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
While acknowledging technological progress and France’s support for autonomous innovation, Tabarot stressed that deployment must prioritize road safety. He noted ongoing technical discussions with Tesla, the Netherlands, and other European partners, with further ecosystem meetings planned for the fall.
Musk’s rebuke highlights the human cost of regulatory caution. Tesla’s latest safety reports provide compelling data supporting accelerated adoption. In the most recent 12-month period, vehicles using FSD (Supervised) recorded one major collision per approximately 5.1 million miles driven, dramatically better than the U.S. national average of one crash per 698,000 miles.
Even Tesla vehicles driven manually with active safety features outperform the average by a wide margin. These figures come from billions of real-world miles of telemetry, showing FSD vehicles involved in far fewer incidents than both manual Teslas and the broader U.S. fleet.
Critics argue Tesla’s comparisons require careful scrutiny regarding reporting thresholds and fleet demographics, yet the data consistently positions FSD as a potential lifesaver. With road fatalities remaining a leading cause of death worldwide, Musk contends that proven safer technology should not face prolonged bureaucratic hurdles.
France’s measured approach reflects the broader European regulatory caution, which many, especially Musk, have been critical of in the past. However, as autonomous systems from Tesla and competitors like Waymo demonstrate superior safety in independent studies, pressure is mounting for harmonized approvals.
Musk’s warning carries the belief that every month of delay may equate to avoidable tragedies on European roads.
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 faces wrath of the Texas skies
Tesla stock tumbles after earnings, one of its sharpest single-day declines
