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SpaceX aces Starlink launch, landing, and catch as Elon Musk teases public beta ETA
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has successfully launched the 12th batch of ~60 operational Starlink satellites, bringing more than 19 days of delays and five separate launch attempts to a welcome close.
SpaceX’s Starlink-12 success comes in the midst of an unusual scourge of launch scrubs and aborts that began with United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) latest Delta IV Heavy launch and continued with both SpaceX’s Starlink-12 and GPS III SV04 missions. Largely coincidental, the only direct ties between the myriad ULA and SpaceX delays were the occasional bout of bad weather and the US Air Force-organized launch range’s prioritization of ULA’s multibillion-dollar spy satellite launch – forcing SpaceX to stand down during ULA launch attempts.
As of now, ULA’s NROL-44 Delta IV Heavy launch is entering the sixth week of delays since the mission’s first late-August launch attempt and has no firm date set for the next attempt At the same time, during SpaceX’s first GPS III SV04 launch attempt, Falcon 9 suffered a rare last-second launch abort due to a propulsion problem that will likely take a week or more to resolve.
Thankfully, SpaceX’s patience with Starlink-12 ultimately paid off, and the mission was a spectacular success, launching shortly after dawn and culminating with a flawless Falcon 9 booster landing, record-breaking fairing catch, and another batch of 60 satellites in orbit. The first US-built rocket to launch NASA astronauts in almost a decade and also the current world-record holder for fastest reuse of an orbital-class rocket, Falcon 9 booster B1058 completed its third launch and landing in support of Starlink-12.
The mission was also the first time SpaceX has reused a Falcon 9 payload fairing twice – flying the same fairing half for the third time, in other words. Incredibly, SpaceX recovery ship GO Ms. Tree (formerly Mr. Steven) actually managed to catch the thrice-flown fairing in its football field-sized net, potentially guaranteeing a fourth flight. The catch was SpaceX’s seventh overall (since June 2019) and its fourth fairing catch since July 2020, a strong sign that the company is honing in on consistent, repeatable catches.
Aside from rocket reusability, CEO Elon Musk also unexpectedly revealed that Starlink-12 pushed SpaceX past a major Starlink milestone, stating that “once these satellites reach their target position, [SpaceX] will be able to roll out a fairly wide public beta in [the] northern US & hopefully southern Canada.”
Prior to Musk’s October 6th tweet, President and COO Gwynne Shotwell had revealed in May 2020 that SpaceX would be ready to kick off the first public Starlink internet beta tests after Launch 14. Given that SpaceX has deorbited almost two-thirds of the first batch of 60 Starlink “v0.9” beta satellites, that 14-flight milestone is likely another two launches out.
Based on past launches and assuming that all 60 Starlink-12 spacecraft are healthy, the satellites should be able to power up ion thrusters and climb to operational orbits (i.e. “reach their target position[s]” within 4-5 weeks. With an unprecedented constellation of 700+ Starlink satellites in orbit, SpaceX’s first “fairly wide” public beta test could begin as early as November 2020.
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Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla has finally released its Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite for older cars that equip the Hardware 3 or AI 3 chip, which have not been able to handle the newest versions of the company’s driver assistance software.
Tesla officially started releasing the v14 Lite suite to owners in the Early Access Program last night. The company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said that the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. The build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of an AI3 car.
🚨 Tesla is releasing v14 Lite for AI3 owners who are in early-access
This will give AI3 cars the ability to experience new FSD features like parking preferences. https://t.co/pp6Q5FOKoz pic.twitter.com/tqexMB8SVy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 29, 2026
It also includes a variety of new features that were available to AI4 cars running v14, including:
- Start Self-Driving from Park
- Arrival and Parking Options
- Speed Profiles
The release is highly anticipated because those owners with AI3 vehicles were early adopters into the FSD platform and were promised that their cars would be capable of achieving Full Self-Driving.
However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted during the company’s recent Q1 Earnings Call that these vehicles would not be capable of achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving, which is what Tesla had originally said.
Owners were not pleased with this answer, or the idea that their commitment to buying the suite outright for thousands of dollars would not yield the ability to drive without operating the car. Tesla gave some solutions for this, including a discount on a new car, or an upgrade to an AI4 or AI5 self-driving computer and new, upgraded cameras.
Tesla owners do not seem pleased with these options, as they require giving the company more money.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that Tesla came through for owners here by releasing v14 Lite before the end of Q2, something it had promised owners during the previous Earnings Call. Tesla has had trouble keeping up with timelines, but this is a big achievement for the team.
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features
