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SpaceX Mars landing expert talks Starship recovery challenges in new interview
Formerly responsible for developing Falcon 9 (and Heavy) into the routinely-landing reusable rocket it is today, senior SpaceX engineer Lars Blackmore says he now has one primary focus: figuring out how to land Starship on Earth, the Moon, and Mars.
A graduate of University of Cambridge and MIT, the latter of which interviewed him on October 23rd for an “Alumni Stories” blog, Lars Blackmore has become famous for his groundbreaking work in guidance, navigation, and control (GNC). After graduating with honors from Cambridge and earning a PhD from MIT, Dr. Blackmore joined NASA in 2007 and immersed himself in “precision Mars landing”, part of a more general focus on figuring out how to autonomously control vehicles in uncertain conditions.
In his last year at NASA, Blackmore co-invented an algorithm known as G-FOLD (Guidance for Fuel Optimal Large Divert) that should theoretically enable precision landings on Mars, improving the state of the art by two full orders of magnitude (+/- 10 km to +/- 100 m). In 2011, he departed NASA and joined SpaceX, where he lead the development of the GNC technology needed to successfully and reliably recovery Falcon 9 boosters. Although the same could be said for any number of critical, groundbreaking systems that had to be developed, the onboard software that autonomously guides Falcon 9 landings on the fly is one of many things that booster recovery and reuse would be wholly impossible without.
After numerous failed attempts, all part SpaceX’s preferred learning process, Falcon 9 successfully landed for the first time on December 21st, 2015. As they say, the rest is history: in the roughly four years since that milestone landing, SpaceX has successfully completed 57 orbital launches, recovered boosters 43 more times, and reused flight-proven boosters on 23 launches. Since that first success, more than half of all SpaceX launches have been followed by a successful booster landing (or two).
Back to Mars
In 2018, Dr. Blackmore officially took on a new full-time role as SpaceX’s Principal Mars Landing Engineer. As the namesake suggests, this meant handing (now semi-routine) Falcon 9 and Heavy GNC development to a strong team and beginning to tackle an array of new problems that will need to be solved for SpaceX to reach the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Following radical design modifications made to Starship in 2018 and again in 2019, SpaceX is pursuing a radically different method of recovery with Starship (the upper stage), while Super Heavy will more directly follow in the footsteps of Falcon 9/Heavy. Starship, however, is being designed to perform a guided descent more akin to a skydiver falling straight down, using flaps at its nose and tail (explicitly “not wings”) to accurately guide its fall.
As little as a few hundred meters above the ground, Starship will then perform a radical maneuver, igniting its Raptor engines to flip around, burn in the opposite direction to counteract that sideways boost, and finally coming in for a precise landing on Earth/Mars/the Moon.
Beyond the new GNC software and knowledge needed to make that maneuver real, Blackmore is also responsible for Starship atmospheric entry, no less critical to enabling precise, repeatable landings from orbital velocity to touchdown. In his recent interview with University of Cambridge staff, Lars revealed that his role as Principal Mars Landing Engineer involved a far wider scope than his previous GNC-centered work, with the goal instead being to design a launch vehicle (Starship) from the ground up to be easily recovered and reused. Falcon 9 Block 5 may be radically different than the ‘V1.0’ rocket that debuted in 2010, but it’s still ultimately a product of retroactive engineering.
With Starship and Super Heavy, SpaceX instead wants to take the vast wealth of knowledge and experience gained from F9/FH and build the vehicle from the ground up to be optimized for full reuse. Ultimately, Dr. Blackmore stated that “landing Starship will be much harder than landing Falcon 9, but if [SpaceX] can do it, it will be revolutionary.”
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Tesla announces closure date on widely controversial Full Self-Driving program
Tesla has said that it will officially bring closure to its free Full Self-Driving transfer program on March 31, 2026, giving owners until the end of the quarter to move their driving suite to another vehicle with no additional cost.
Tesla has officially announced a closure date for a widely controversial Full Self-Driving program, which has been among the most discussed pieces of the driving suite for years.
The move comes just after the company confirmed it would no longer offer the option to purchase the suite outright, instead opting for a subscription-based platform that will be available in mid-February.
Tesla has said that it will officially bring closure to its free Full Self-Driving transfer program on March 31, 2026, giving owners until the end of the quarter to move their driving suite to another vehicle with no additional cost.
NEWS: Tesla has started to inform customers in the U.S. that free FSD transfer will end on March 31, 2026.
Tesla has previously said free FSD transfers would end “that quarter,” but this is the first time in many quarters they’ve communicated a specific end date. Time will tell… pic.twitter.com/iCKDvGuBds
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 18, 2026
After that date, Tesla owners who purchased the FSD suite outright will have to adopt the exclusive subscription-only program, which will be the only option available after February 14.
CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month that Tesla would be ending the option to purchase Full Self-Driving outright, but the reasoning for this decision is unknown.
However, there has been a lot of speculation that Tesla could offer a new tiered program, which would potentially lower the price of the suite and increase the take rate.
Tesla is shifting FSD to a subscription-only model, confirms Elon Musk
Others have mentioned something like a pay-per-mile platform that would charge drivers based on usage, which seems to be advantageous for those who still love to drive their cars but enjoy using FSD for longer trips, as it can take the stress out of driving.
Moving forward, Tesla seems to be taking any strategy it can to increase the number of owners who utilize FSD, especially as it is explicitly mentioned in Musk’s new compensation package, which was approved last year.
Musk is responsible for getting at least 10 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions in one tranche, while another would require the company to deliver 20 million vehicles cumulatively.
The current FSD take rate is somewhere around 12 percent, as the company revealed during the Q3 2025 Earnings Call. Tesla needs to bump this up considerably, and the move to rid itself of the outright purchase option seems to be a move to get things going in the right direction.
News
Tesla Model Y leads South Korea’s EV growth in 2025
Data from the Korea Automobile and Mobility Industry Association showed that the Tesla Model Y emerged as one of the segment’s single biggest growth drivers.
South Korea’s electric vehicle market saw a notable rise in 2025, with registrations rising more than 50% and EV penetration surpassing 10% for the first time.
Data from the Korea Automobile and Mobility Industry Association showed that the Tesla Model Y, which is imported from Gigafactory Shanghai, emerged as one of the segment’s single biggest growth drivers, as noted in a report from IT Home News.
As per the Korea Automobile and Mobility Industry Association’s (KAMA) 2025 Korea Domestic Electric Vehicle Market Settlement report, South Korea registered 220,177 new electric vehicles in 2025, a 50.1% year-over-year increase. EV penetration also reached 13.1% in the country, entering double digits for the first time.
The Tesla Model Y played a central role in the market’s growth. The Model Y alone sold 50,397 units during the year, capturing 26.6% of South Korea’s pure electric passenger vehicle market. Sales of the Giga Shanghai-built Model Y increased 169.2% compared with 2024, driven largely by strong demand for the all-electric crossover’s revamped version.
Manufacturer performance reflected a tightly contested market. Kia led with 60,609 EV sales, followed closely by Tesla at 59,893 units and Hyundai at 55,461 units. Together, the three brands accounted for nearly 80% of the country’s total EV sales, forming what KAMA described as a three-way competitive market.
Imported EVs gained ground in South Korea in 2025, reaching a market share of 42.8%, while the share of domestically produced EVs declined from 75% in 2022 to 57.2% last year. Sales of China-made EVs more than doubled year over year to 74,728 units, supported in no small part by Tesla and its Model Y.
Elon Musk, for his part, has praised South Korean customers and their embrace of the electric vehicler maker. In a reply on X to a user who noted that South Koreans are fond of FSD, Musk stated that, “Koreans are often a step ahead in appreciating new technology.”
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Samsung’s Tesla AI5/AI6 chip factory to start key equipment tests in March: report
Samsung Electronics seems to be ramping its efforts to start operations at its Taylor, Texas semiconductor plant.
Samsung Electronics seems to be ramping its efforts to start operations at its Taylor, Texas semiconductor plant, which will produce Tesla’s next-generation AI5 chip.
Preparing for Tesla’s AI5/AI6 chips
As per a report by Sina Finance, Samsung Electronics is looking to begin trial operations of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment at its Taylor facility in March. These efforts are reportedly intended to support the full production of Tesla’s AI5 chips starting in the latter half of 2026.
The Taylor factory, Samsung’s first wafer fabrication plant in the United States, covers roughly 4.85 million square meters and is nearing completion. Media reports, citing contractors, have estimated that about 7,000 workers now work on the factory, about 1,000 of whom are reportedly working from the facility’s office building.
Samsung is reportedly preparing to apply for a temporary occupancy permit, which would allow production to begin before the plant is fully completed.
Tesla’s aggressive AI chip roadmap
Elon Musk recently stated that Tesla’s next-generation AI5 chip is nearly complete, while early development on its successor, AI6, is already underway. Musk shared the update in a post on X, which also happened to be a recruiting message for engineers.
As per Musk, Tesla is looking to iterate its in-house AI chips on an accelerated timeline, with future generations, including AI7, AI8, and AI9, targeting a roughly nine-month design cycle. He also stated that the rapid cadence could allow Tesla’s chips to become the highest-volume AI processors in the world.
Previous reports have indicated that Samsung Electronics would be manufacturing Tesla’s AI5 chip, alongside its rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The two suppliers are expected to produce different versions of Tesla’s AI5 chip, with TSMC using a 3nm process and Samsung targeting 2nm production.
Tesla announces closure date on widely controversial Full Self-Driving program
Tesla Model Y leads South Korea’s EV growth in 2025
