News
SpaceX set to deploy another large batch of internet satellites as Starlink constellation expands
For the third time in less than four weeks, SpaceX has announced a new 60-satellite Starlink mission, making it the second Starlink launch scheduled in the first month of the new year.
This mission will be the company’s fifth dedicated Starlink launch, referring to the fact that SpaceX is using all of the performance of Falcon 9 for its own internal purposes. Comprised of 60 flat-packed satellites, SpaceX completed its first dedicated Starlink launch – known as Starlink v0.9 – in May 2019, followed by the first launch of 60 finalized “Starlink v1.0” satellites on November 11th, a mission known as Starlink-1.
Barring delays, the next Starlink v1.0 launch – Starlink-2 – will be SpaceX’s 14th and final launch of the year and is scheduled to lift off no earlier than 11:40 pm ET, December 30th (03:40 UTC, Dec 31), a mission the company announced on November 24th. Barely two weeks later, SpaceX announced media accreditation for Starlink-3, scheduled to launch in January 2020.
Now, just ten days after announcing Starlink-3, SpaceX has announced plans for Starlink-4. Scheduled to launch no earlier than “late-January”, Starlink-4 is now the third Starlink mission SpaceX has announced in less than four weeks, all three of which are scheduled to launch within the next six weeks.
As previously discussed on Teslarati, the fact that SpaceX announced two Starlink missions in two weeks meshed well with the company’s goal of performing up to 24 dedicated Starlink launches in 2020.
“Barely two weeks after SpaceX opened media accreditation for Starlink-2, the second launch of finalized ‘v1.0’ satellites and third dedicated launch overall, the company has announced that that late-December mission will be followed by another Starlink launch in January 2020. This tracks almost exactly with SpaceX’s reported plans for as many as 24 dedicated Starlink launches in 2020, a feat that would singlehandedly break SpaceX’s current record of 21 launches performed in a single year.”
Eric Ralph — December 10th, 2019
With SpaceX’s December 19th’s Starlink-4 announcement, it’s now abundantly clear that the company is putting its money where its mouth is with respect to what might otherwise be perceived as a Muskian pie-in-the-sky target. CEO Elon Musk is (in)famous for his tendency to sketch out timelines that probably are theoretically possible but inevitably fall prey to the numerous challenges often faced during ambitious aerospace projects.
As of now, SpaceX took a bit less than six months to go from its first 60-satellite Starlink v0.9 launch to its first Starlink v1.0 launch (Starlink-1). If schedules hold, SpaceX’s second Starlink v1.0 launch – Starlink-2 – will lift off about six weeks after Starlink-1, while Starlink-3 could follow just 1-2 weeks later in January 2020.
This is all to say that SpaceX is perfectly setting itself up for an average of two Starlink launches per month next year, so long as it continues to announce new missions every 2-3 weeks. Even if SpaceX falls short of that ambition due to any number of technical hurdles that could pop up next year, 15 or 20 Starlink launches would give the company a Starlink constellation more than a thousand satellites strong.
In recent months, SpaceX has indicated that Starlink will need at least 24 dedicated launches – 1440 satellites – to achieve uninterrupted global coverage, while as few as six launches (300 satellites) could enable service for customers in the northern US and southern Canada.
SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell believes the company can begin serving customers as early as mid-2020, ultimately maturing into an experienced internet service provider (ISP) in 2021. With almost 120 satellites already in orbit, if SpaceX can manage an average of 1.5 to 2 Starlink launches per month in 2020, the broadband internet constellation will have near-global coverage before the start of 2021.
For now, it looks like the first few months of the next decade will be jam-packed with SpaceX Starlink launches, not to mention the customer launches the company intends to complete on top of its own internal manifest.
Check out Teslarati’s Marketplace! We offer Tesla accessories, including for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Model 3.
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.
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.
Q2 2026 Earnings Call https://t.co/zZS6ii2TWK
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
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:
It’s coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
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.
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.
Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.
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.
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:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever
