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[Update] SpaceX rocket launch kicks off a potentially record-smashing year for Falcon 9
Update: After spinning itself around its vertical axis a bit like a propeller, SpaceX’s expendable Falcon 9 upper stage has successfully released a massive stack of 60 Starlink v1.0 satellites for the second time in two months. Designing to tolerate the occasional bump during their bizarre deployment, those 60 satellites will quickly spread out in space and deploy their solar arrays an hour or so after separating from Falcon 9’s upper stage.
Perhaps as early as later this evening or sometime on January 7th, all 60 satellites will fire up their krypton ion thrusters, beginning the process of temporarily raising their orbits to 350 km (220 mi). Once there, SpaceX will more extensively verify the health of each spacecraft and – if all looks well – send all 60 on their way to a final circular 550 km (340 km) orbit where they will join their brethren and begin operating as communications satellites.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 has kicked off what could be a record-smashing year, potentially making SpaceX the world’s most prolific launch company thanks in large part to the game-changing reusability of its Falcon rockets.
At 9:19 pm ET on January 6th (02:19 UTC, Jan 7), Falcon 9 booster B1049’s nine Merlin 1D engines came to lift, lifting the two-stage rocket and its payload of 60 Starlink satellites off the pad and sending them on their way to orbit. Minutes later, the Falcon 9 booster shut off – completing its fourth successful launch in 17 months – and flipped around with small cold-gas thrusters, beginning its trip back down to Earth.
Less than nine minutes after lifting off from SpaceX’s LC-40 pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Falcon 9 B1049 began its landing burn and gently touched down on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), stationed more than 600 km (375 mi) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. Seconds later, the mission’s expendable Falcon 9 upper stage shut off its Merlin Vacuum (MVac) engine, completing the first of two burns and placing the rocket and its Starlink payload in a parking orbit.
Known as Starlink V1 L2, referring to the second launch of Starlink v1.0 satellites, this mission crossed off several SpaceX milestones – both internal and external. For Falcon 9, it marked the company’s 48th successful landing of an orbital-class rocket booster, as well as the second time SpaceX has successfully launched and landed the same booster (this time B1049) four times in a row.
Even more significantly, it’s almost certain that – so long as all 60 Starlink V1 L2 satellites successfully deploy and begin orbit-raising – SpaceX will have become the owner and operator of the world’s largest commercial satellite constellation. After tonight’s launch, SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation will likely measure some 175 operational satellites strong less than eight months after the company began dedicated internal launches.
Assuming drone ship OCISLY safely returns Falcon 9 B1049 to port and including SpaceX’s successful November 2019 Starlink V1 L1 launch, the company now possesses two Falcon 9 boosters – B1048 and B1049 – that have successfully performed four separate orbital-class launches apiece. With two rockets in hand, SpaceX should be able to far more accurately determine just how well they’re standing up to the rigors of the latest reusability milestone, hopefully giving the company the data it needs to rapidly turn around one or both boosters for a fifth launch in the near future.
SpaceX has 20-24 Starlink launches planned for 2020, so the company will have a wealth of opportunities to push its fleet of reusable rockets to their limits, ranging from attempting nth booster reuses to testing and expanding the envelope of SpaceX’s nascent payload fairing reuse program.
In fact, fairing recovery ship GO Ms. Tree is perhaps just a few minutes away from her third successful fairing half catch – set to occur roughly 45 minutes after Falcon 9’s 9:19 pm EST liftoff. At the same time, Falcon 9’s upper stage is coasting in low Earth orbit (LEO) and preparing to ignite one more time to circularize its orbit and send SpaceX’s third batch of 60 Starlink satellites on their way. Stay tuned for updates later tonight!
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SpaceX will report second quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, August 4, marking the first time the company has opened its books to the public since its record IPO in June. Management will host a live audio only webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET, streamed on X, with no dial in option.
The debut carries more weight than a typical first quarter as a public company. Two trading days after the release, on August 6, the first tranche of SpaceX’s lockup expires, freeing roughly 911.5 million insider and employee shares, worth well over $100 billion at current prices and the largest such release in Wall Street history. A second, larger tranche tied to the stock trading 30 percent above its $135 IPO price never triggered, since shares have spent most of July trading below that price.
Wall Street’s models point to revenue near $6.9 billion for the quarter, up sharply from the $4.69 billion SpaceX reported in the first quarter, with a narrower per share loss than the $1.27 posted three months earlier, according to estimates compiled by Motley Fool. Those numbers will be the first look at how SpaceX’s three segments, Starlink, launch and AI, are performing independently.
SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites
Investors heading into the call have a specific list of questions. How many net new Starlink subscribers did SpaceX add after ending March with 10.3 million, and is average revenue per user holding up as the service expands into lower income markets. How much of the AI segment’s revenue reflects contract signings with Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI this year, deals that combined could annualize to nearly $28 billion if fully ramped. Whether capital expenditures, which nearly doubled in the AI segment alone between 2024 and 2025, are still accelerating or starting to plateau. And whether management offers any forward guidance at all, something SpaceX has never done publicly.
The report will also land days after Elon Musk publicly denied a Wall Street Journal report describing internal planning to separate Tesla’s China business ahead of a potential Tesla-SpaceX merger. Whether Musk or SpaceX executives address that speculation on the call, even indirectly, maybe something investors will be listening for on Tuesday.
As Teslarati reported after Musk’s own warning to short sellers last week, the CEO has made clear he expects skeptics to be proven wrong over time. Tuesday will be the first chance for the numbers themselves to make that case.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo
SpaceX released new footage of Starship in space captured by the Starlink satellites it deployed.
SpaceX released a new video Friday evening showing Starship from an angle showcased by its own Starlink satellites, watching the rocket drift away in orbit.
The 65 second clip, posted on X, stitches together footage from four cameras mounted on a single Starlink V3 satellite. It opens with a close view of Starship’s 171 foot upper stage, still catching sunlight, then pulls back as the two spacecraft separate.
The footage comes from Starship’s 13th flight test, which launched July 24 from Starbase after a scrubbed attempt and an abort caused by an engine issue the week before. When Flight 13 finally flew, it carried the first batch of functional Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever deployed, twenty of them, with six equipped with cameras meant to scan the ship’s heat shield during reentry.
View of Starship in space from a Starlink V3 satellite on Flight 13.
This composite is made of imagery from four separate cameras on a single satellite. Six of the satellites were equipped with cameras to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to… pic.twitter.com/sNTHHz5vLr
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 31, 2026
Flight 13 checked most of its boxes. Starship deployed all 20 satellites, relit a Raptor engine in space, and splashed down softly in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Musk’s longer term plan calls for a Starlink V3 constellation of 100,000 satellites, according to a recent FCC filing, with Starship as the only vehicle capable of launching them at the volume that requires. Each Starship flight is designed to carry up to 60 V3 satellites once the vehicle reaches routine service, well beyond what Falcon 9 can carry in a single mission.
Starship is next expected to fly with an attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower’s mechanical arms, a maneuver SpaceX has so far reserved for the Super Heavy booster.
Tesla flexed the new features of the Model Y L with a dedicated media event at the company’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The Model Y L is the extended-wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover, which has been voted the best-selling car in the world on three occasions. The vehicle is already rolling off production lines at Gigafactory Texas, and first deliveries are slated to take place later this year.
Tesla brings Model Y L ‘Launch Series’ to the U.S. at $61,990
Teslarati was invited to the event, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we could not make it to Los Angeles. Instead, we will have our hands on a media unit sometime in August, so we’ll be able to spend some more extended time with the Model Y L.
However, plenty of those who made it to LA shared some cool features that set the Model Y L apart from the Model Y.
Multi-Row Climate Control
Tesla fitted the Model Y L with full climate control on all three rows on the front screen. It can be adjusted by selecting which row you’d like to modify on the right-hand side of the touch screen:
The Model Y L has a little row of icons on the right side of the climate screen so the front passenger can more quickly jump to whatever row they want to control. pic.twitter.com/uJS44mgCvk
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 30, 2026
Better Rear Window Visibility
One of the strangest things about the Model Y, especially the Juniper iteration, is the rear window has extremely limited visibility when looking into the rearview mirror.
Tesla has improved upon this with the Model Y L:
This is a drastic difference. https://t.co/wTdhitD5aA pic.twitter.com/z6hFs0Jkss
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2026
PowerShare will be included
Model Y L will come with PowerShare in North America, with an 11.5kW output to your home. Tesla said it would require Powerwall 3 for operation.
Wireless Charging Pad
There has been some speculation that Tesla would upgrade the wireless charging pads in the United States, but this is not the case.
Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit
Tesla confirmed that it does not come with the cooled pads as the Y L in China does. This is because North America has not adopted Qi charging yet.
Thermal Management Improvements
These improvements in the Model Y L were seen with thermal management:
- Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
- +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather, 7 miles of real-world range gained
- 8x more solar energy reflection off of glass roof
- 30% reduction in solar energy entering the cabin
Some of the thermal management improvements in the new Model Y L Premium:
• Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
• Up to 15 min faster cabin cooling in sunny conditions
• +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather +7 miles of real-world range gained
• +10 miles recovered after… pic.twitter.com/jZirFWFdtO— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 31, 2026
Demand
Tesla said the Model Y L is almost sold out in the U.S. It comes with
- 1 year of FSD Supervised
- 1 year of Supercharging
- 1 year of Premium Connectivity
- Free exterior paint color, interior, and wheel option at no additional cost
SpaceX’s biggest test yet arrives this week and it’s not a rocket launch
SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo
