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SpaceX’s slick new spacesuit balances form, function, and futuristic elegance

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After Elon Musk hinted that SpaceX spacesuit details and photos would be revealed sometime this week, he followed through on his promise and has posted the first official photo of the suit that NASA crew and private astronauts will wear while aboard the manned Dragon 2 spacecraft.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYIPmEFAIIn/

While not technically a true “spacesuit”, SpaceX’s creation is intended to protect crew aboard its Dragon 2 spacecraft in the unlikely event of depressurization while in orbit or following an abort after launch. These flight suits would be of no use on spacewalks, as they make movement extremely difficult while fully pressurized. However, SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to colonize Mars and possibly land humans on the Moon on the way there. To accomplish those aspirations, SpaceX will need a true EVA (spacewalk)-capable spacesuit before they begin to launch astronauts out of Earth orbit. Their flightsuit development will undoubtedly provide their engineers a great deal of experience along the way.

Within the circle of SpaceX fans, flightsuit development has attached itself to a considerable amount of hype over the years, with many hints and teasers that indicated it would be extremely slick and aesthetically pleasing.

During my IAC 2016 attendance, the same conference where Musk revealed SpaceX’s Mars architecture, Garett Reisman gave a talk on commercial crew, during which he indicated that the designers of the suit would have the honor of being the first individuals to test the suit in a true vacuum. The audience laughed nervously. In comments posted beneath the original Instagram post, Musk revealed that the flight suit had been tested to double the internal pressure it would normally be at while in vacuum, and said that the individual seen behind the visor was one of the suit’s SpaceX engineers. It is unclear yet if the suit has been tested with humans in a vacuum environment, but this reveal will undoubtedly precede future details, photos, and videos of the suit and its development.

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In a Reddit AMA just over a year ago, Musk commented that “[the suit] needs to both look like a 21st century spacesuit and work well”. In order to achieve that difficult goal, SpaceX ultimately hired a famed costume designer from the film industry, Jose Fernandez of Ironhead Studios. Ironhead Studios has been involved in an array of extremely successful Marvel movies as a costume designer and concept artist.

With the finalized, vacuum-ready design now revealed, it is clear that SpaceX has managed to strike a balance between functionality and aesthetics, and the company has produced a suit that looks truly futuristic. While time will tell if astronauts are as happy as with the functionality as they are with the looks, it is likely that SpaceX is thoroughly testing the suits to ensure that they serve their NASA astronauts and private customers as effectively as possible.

Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.

The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.

This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.

Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results

  • Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
  • Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
  • Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
  • Profit -$ 4.751B

Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.

Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.

In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.

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Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.

You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.

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Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever

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Tesla FSD 14.3 [Credit: TESLARATI)
Tesla FSD 14.3 [Credit: TESLARATI)

Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.

Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:

Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.

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Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.

Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.

The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:

Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more

Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.

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Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.

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Tesla starts preparing for Optimus in its smartphone app

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Tesla is starting to prepare for the launch of the Optimus robot in its smartphone app, new coding strings show. Elon Musk has referred to Optimus as what will be the greatest-selling product of any kind of all time, and now, Tesla is getting ready for its launch.

Tesla’s smartphone app had several first-time mentions of the Optimus program, according to Tesla App Updates, who intially reported on the appearance. Here’s what they found:

A Dedicated “Robot” Phone Key Authentication

Tesla is working on a Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, authentication that is specifically for robots. This does not only apply to Optimus, though, as Robotaxi, which is Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing platform, might also identify vehicles within the fleet as robots as well.

Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont

Essentially, pairing your phone as a key to anything Tesla identifies as a robot to a “whitelist” of authorized devices. Optimus, Robotaxi, or other products that fall into this category will only respond if the device trying to communicate with it is authorized.

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This is a great security feature that will eliminate at least face-value and low-level threats.

Home Data Collection and System Alerts

This appears to be somewhat of a neural network for Optimus within your house. There will be a dedicated screen that asks for consent to collect both video and spatial data while Optimus performs in-home tasks. Everything from vacuuming, washing dishes, dusting, and other activities will be tracked.

There will also be a comprehensive alert system that will track everything from low battery to mechanical issues.

Other Changes

Most of the changes tracked in this particular app update are related to Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, and include things such as image assets for new features, a preview of the new custom wraps feature, and other unique features.

You can check out our coverage on what is included with the 2026 Summer Update here:

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Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more

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