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SpaceX set for second weekend launch, new titanium grid fins to be tested
After a highly successful Friday launch and recovery of a reused Falcon 9, a second vehicle is preparing to launch on the opposite coast of the United States. Scheduled to lift off at precisely 1:25 p.m. PST, this mission will see a brand new Falcon 9 lift Iridium’s second set of ten NEXT satellites, after which the first stage will attempt to land in the Pacific Ocean aboard Just Read The Instructions, SpaceX’s West Coast drone ship.
If the schedule holds, the 46 hours separation between launches will make SpaceX one of very few entities to have launched the same vehicle in such close succession. While Russia/USSR and the Republic of China have tended to routinely launch missions with as few as a handful of hours in between, it is extremely rare in the United States, and such an accomplishment will likely make SpaceX the second private company to ever conduct two launches in under 48 hours.
This turnaround, which COO Gwynne Shotwell clarified could safely be as few as 24 hours, bodes extremely well for SpaceX’s and Musk’s goal of being able to launch every 24 hours. With the COO of the company already under the impression that 24 hours would be safely and reliably achievable, all that lies in the way of 24 hour cadence is pad availability. With current cadence suggesting that at least two weeks of down time is needed after a launch to verify pad health, the late-fall reactivation of Launch Complex 40 and eventual activation of SpaceX’s planned Boca Chica, Texas launch facility will give SpaceX three general-purpose pads and one limited use-case pad (Vandenberg Air Force Base) to launch from by late 2018 or early 2019. Three general purpose pads would allow SpaceX to launch every four or five days, assuming no improvements in pad resilience and autonomy, and this weekend’s back to back launches will demonstrate that SpaceX is easily capable of fully taking advantage of those three (or four) pads once they are all active.
Falcon 9’s fancy new titanium grid fins. (SpaceX/Instagram)
As for the launch today, it will debut some intriguing new hardware intended to improve the ease of reusability for the first stage. Musk offered a tweet storm last night and SpaceX one or two photos to explain the utility of the vehicles distinctive and unusual black grid fins. Ready to launch in just over an hour from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Falcon 9 and its new grid fins will place the next ten iridium NEXT satellites in Low Earth Orbit. The first stage will then proceed to the autonomous spaceport drone ship Just Read The Instructions, while testing its rather fancy titanium grid fins. Considerably larger than their aluminum predecessors, this new iteration of grid fins will is intended to both provide more control authority and glide capability in anticipation of the Falcon Heavy, while also offering improve resilience to the extreme heat and forces grid fins must necessarily cope with during reentry. You may have noted grid fins appearing to glow red and orange with the heat of reentry in past live coverage, and recovered stages demonstrate just how harsh high temperatures can be to aluminum. Titanium is famously resistant to heat and will thus optimally be able to be reused with no refurbishment or replacement whatsoever.
With the launch just over an hour out and no current known issues, you can watch SpaceX’s regularly amazing live coverage of the launch at spacex.com/webcast.
Tesla made a dramatic change to the Online Design Studio to show its plans for Full Self-Driving, a major part of the company’s plans moving forward, as CEO Elon Musk has been extremely clear on the direction moving forward.
With Tesla taking a stand and removing the ability to purchase Full Self-Driving outright next month, it is already taking steps to initiate that with owners and potential buyers.
On Thursday night, the company updated its Online Design Studio to reflect that in a new move that now lists the three purchase options that are currently available: Monthly Subscription, One-Time Purchase, or Add Later:
🚨 Check out the change Tesla made to its Online Design Studio:
It now lists the Monthly Subscription as an option for Full Self-Driving
It also shows the outright purchase option as expiring on February 14 pic.twitter.com/pM6Svmyy8d
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 23, 2026
This change replaces the former option for purchasing Full Self-Driving at the time of purchase, which was a simple and single box to purchase the suite outright. Subscriptions were activated through the vehicle exclusively.
However, with Musk announcing that Tesla would soon remove the outright purchase option, it is clearer than ever that the Subscription plan is where the company is headed.
The removal of the outright purchase option has been a polarizing topic among the Tesla community, especially considering that there are many people who are concerned about potential price increases or have been saving to purchase it for $8,000.
This would bring an end to the ability to pay for it once and never have to pay for it again. With the Subscription strategy, things are definitely going to change, and if people are paying for their cars monthly, it will essentially add $100 per month to their payment, pricing some people out. The price will increase as well, as Musk said on Thursday, as it improves in functionality.
I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve.
The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD). https://t.co/YDKhXN3aaG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2026
Those skeptics have grown concerned that this will actually lower the take rate of Full Self-Driving. While it is understandable that FSD would increase in price as the capabilities improve, there are arguments for a tiered system that would allow owners to pay for features that they appreciate and can afford, which would help with data accumulation for the company.
Musk’s new compensation package also would require Tesla to have 10 million active FSD subscriptions, but people are not sure if this will move the needle in the correct direction. If Tesla can potentially offer a cheaper alternative that is not quite unsupervised, things could improve in terms of the number of owners who pay for it.
News
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end with no interventions.
A Tesla Model S has completed the first-ever full Cannonball Run using Full Self-Driving (FSD), traveling from Los Angeles to New York with zero interventions. The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end, fulfilling a long-discussed benchmark for autonomy.
A full FSD Cannonball Run
As per a report from The Drive, a 2024 Tesla Model S with AI4 and FSD v14.2.2.3 completed the 3,081-mile trip from Redondo Beach in Los Angeles to midtown Manhattan in New York City. The drive was completed by Alex Roy, a former automotive journalist and investor, along with a small team of autonomy experts.
Roy said FSD handled all driving tasks for the entirety of the route, including highway cruising, lane changes, navigation, and adverse weather conditions. The trip took a total of 58 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 64 mph, and about 10 hours were spent charging the vehicle. In later comments, Roy noted that he and his team cleaned out the Model S’ cameras during their stops to keep FSD’s performance optimal.
History made
The historic trip was quite impressive, considering that the journey was in the middle of winter. This meant that FSD didn’t just deal with other cars on the road. The vehicle also had to handle extreme cold, snow, ice, slush, and rain.
As per Roy in a post on X, FSD performed so well during the trip that the journey would have been completed faster if the Model S did not have people onboard. “Elon Musk was right. Once an autonomous vehicle is mature, most human input is error. A comedy of human errors added hours and hundreds of miles, but FSD stunned us with its consistent and comfortable behavior,” Roy wrote in a post on X.
Roy’s comments are quite notable as he has previously attempted Cannonball Runs using FSD on December 2024 and February 2025. Neither were zero intervention drives.
Elon Musk
Tesla removes Autopilot as standard, receives criticism online
The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders.
Tesla removed its basic Autopilot package as a standard feature in the United States. The move leaves only Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard equipment on new Tesla orders, and shifts the company’s strategy towards paid Full Self-Driving subscriptions.
Tesla removes Autopilot
As per observations from the electric vehicle community on social media, Tesla no longer lists Autopilot as standard in its vehicles in the U.S. This suggests that features such as lane-centering and Autosteer have been removed as standard equipment. Previously, most Tesla vehicles came with Autopilot by default, which offers Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer.
The change resulted in backlash from some Tesla owners and EV observers, particularly as competing automakers, including mainstream players like Toyota, offer features like lane-centering as standard on many models, including budget vehicles.
That being said, the removal of Autopilot suggests that Tesla is concentrating its autonomy roadmap around FSD subscriptions rather than bundled driver-assistance features. It would be interesting to see how Tesla manages its vehicles’ standard safety features, as it seems out of character for Tesla to make its cars less safe over time.
Musk announces FSD price increases
Following the Autopilot changes, Elon Musk stated on X that Tesla is planning to raise subscription prices for FSD as its capabilities improve. In a post on X, Musk stated that the current $99-per-month price for supervised FSD would increase over time, especially as the system itself becomes more robust.
“I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve. The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (Unsupervised FSD),” Musk wrote.
At the time of his recent post, Tesla still offers FSD as a one-time purchase for $8,000, but Elon Musk has confirmed that this option will be discontinued on February 14, leaving subscriptions as the only way to access the system.
Tesla makes big Full Self-Driving change to reflect future plans
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
