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SpaceX Starlink launch ready to set crucial rocket reusability record on Monday
One of SpaceX’s newest Falcon 9 rockets is just a day away from setting one of the most important rocket reusability records after successfully firing up its booster engines – the last major step before the third Starlink launch of 2020.
Delayed two days from its original February 15th target, Falcon 9 is now scheduled to lift off no earlier than (NET) 10:05 am EST (15:05 UTC) on February 17th, carrying SpaceX’s fourth batch of upgraded Starlink v1.0 satellites (Starlink V1 L4). The company’s fifth dedicated Starlink launch overall, Falcon 9 booster B1056 will launch for the fourth time in support of the Starlink V1 L4 mission, becoming the fourth SpaceX rocket to do so in barely three months. While still impressive and important, B1056’s fourth mission could be record-setting for an entirely different reason.
Designed to enable at least 10 flights per booster with minimal refurbishment in between, SpaceX’s latest Falcon 9 ‘Block 5’ upgrade debuted in May 2018 and has enabled a marked improvement in both reliability and reusability. One record set just a month after that debut – and, unintuitively by a pre-Block 5 booster – has nevertheless stubbornly held over the 20 months since then. Known as booster turnaround time, the measure effectively represents the practical limits of a given rocket’s reusability by measuring how long it takes any specific vehicle to launch, be recovered, and launch again. With a little luck, Falcon 9 B1056 could break SpaceX’s existing turnaround record by a healthy margin just a few hours from now.
In first place, Falcon 9 Block 4 booster B1045 holds SpaceX’s standing booster turnaround record after launching back-to-back NASA missions just 71 days apart in April and June 2018. In second place, two Falcon Heavy Block 5 boosters (B1052, B1053) and one Falcon 9 Block 5 booster (B1048) are tied, each having managed 74-day turnarounds.
Now, Falcon 9 booster B1056 could potentially break SpaceX’s 71-day record by almost 9 days (15%) in spite of the fact that it has already performed three orbital-class launches in the last 10 months. Additionally, its third and most recent launch was a high-energy satellite mission that put B1056 through a relatively fast and hot atmospheric reentry, whereas Falcon 9 B1052, B1053, and B1045 all set their turnaround records after comparatively gentle inaugural launches, reentries, and landings.
This is all to say that B1056 breaking SpaceX’s booster turnaround record makes it feel a bit like the company isn’t really trying to break any internal records and certainly isn’t close to pushing the Falcon Block 5 design to its reusability limits. Some 18 months ago, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell revealed that Falcon 9 Block 5 boosters were already down to just four weeks of refurbishment a handful of months after the upgrade’s launch debut.
In the history of orbital-class reusable spacecraft and rockets, NASA’s Space Shuttle Atlantis – backed by an annual operations budget on the order of $1 billion and hundreds of dedicated refurbishment engineers and technicians – holds a global turnaround record of 54 days. By the time SpaceX breaks that record, Falcon booster reusability will almost certainly be one or even two magnitudes cheaper and simpler than the Space Shuttle.
In fact, if it manages to successfully launch and land later today, Falcon 9 B1056 could be poised to break its own turnaround record later this year, given that Starlink v1.0 launches enable slightly gentler recovery conditions relative to the booster’s previous Kacific-1 mission.
Falcon 9 B1056 is currently scheduled to lift off on its fourth orbital-class launch – carrying 60 Starlink v1.0 satellites – no earlier than (NET) 10:05 am EST (15:05 UTC), February 17th, and will attempt a routine landing aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You a bit less than nine minutes later. Some 30-45 minutes after launch, Falcon 9’s payload fairing halves – having reentered Earth’s atmosphere and deployed parafoils – will attempt their third simultaneous landing in the nets of twin recovery ships GO Ms. Tree (formerly Mr. Steven) and Ms. Chief. Tune in to SpaceX.com/webcast around 9:50 am EST (14:50 UTC) to catch Falcon 9’s Starlink V1 L4 launch live.
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Tesla quietly doubled the size of its Cybercab fleet within the Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas, over the weekend to well over 100 units.
The move not only establishes more of the steering-wheel-less and pedal-less vehicles within the ride-sharing fleet Tesla has been operating for a year, but it also solidifies a more robust Robotaxi fleet as a whole.
Riders started receiving notifications from the Robotaxi app that stated: “Cybercab fleet has doubled: more rides available.”
I got this notification on the robotaxi app. They are saying the Cybercab fleet has doubled. Glad that they are advertising this pic.twitter.com/FFrnw4FRCF
— Abhimanyu Yadav (@WorldlyReviewer) September 26, 2026
Tesla first launched rides in the Cybercab in early September, although the Robotaxi fleet has been active for over a year, as rides began last Summer. Cybercab is truly Tesla’s most crucial vehicle release yet, as it is the first car any company has built that is geared toward full-fledged and end-to-end autonomy, never needing human intervention for anything.
Only available in Austin at the current time, Cybercab has two seats and has been spotted testing around various U.S. states and regions; Tesla plans to deploy the Cybercab in various U.S. cities in the coming months as a best-case scenario.
Tesla Cybercab gets initial tie-in to localized, in-house cathode plant
The availability of the Cybercab has doubled from just 58 units last Monday to 125 the following Friday. Marking a substantial increase in Cybercab availability, the additional ride-sharing units are more than welcome, as wait times for Cybercabs, especially, were quite high.
The dramatic increase is a sign that demand for Robotaxi is growing and Tesla is feeling more confident that its driverless ride-hailing suite, especially its Full Self-Driving software, is able to handle any traffic situation without explicit direction or supervision from a human being.
Tesla is advancing a fully automated pipeline for the 4680 battery cells used in its all-electric Semi, spanning production from Giga Texas through shipment and direct consumption on the line at the new dedicated Semi Factory in Sparks, Nevada.
The approach was outlined by Tesla at its September 24 Semi Handover event, which launched high-volume production at its new 1.8-million-square-foot plant in Nevada, which sits adjacent to Gigafactory Nevada and is designed for an annual production rate of 50,000 trucks per year.
After years of pilot builds and what was a four-year-long redesign of the truck, Tesla moved the Semi from 2170 batteries to its in-house 4680 cells, which are made in Austin. The change cuts battery mass and total energy while holding range, a key step in making volume production a realistic possibility.
Cells will leave Giga Texas in trailers, and at the Nevada Semi plant, Tesla intends for a dedicated line to unload those trailers automatically, station the cells, and feed them straight into pack and vehicle assembly.
🚨 Tesla plans to use a completely automated unloading process for cells coming from Giga Texas arriving at the Semi factory in Nevada
A line will “consume” cells from the trailer
The goal is to have zero human touch point throughout the entire process. Insane! pic.twitter.com/wdBFM8LC3F
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 25, 2026
Both Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, and Dan Priestley, the Head of Tesla’s Semi program, described the goal as a “zero human touch point” from the moment the trailer arrives in Texas until a finished Semi drives off the production line in Nevada.
The unloading system that Moravy and Priestley described is just one piece of a much broader automation push. The plant uses what Tesla calls the highest-capacity electric monorail conveyance in vehicle manufacturing, carrying frames-in-white simultaneously. Powder-coating replaces conventional paint, and many processes that would normally require operators have been designed out.
Tesla has repeatedly said that “the best part is no part,” and the cell-handling plan extends that philosophy from the cell factory floor in Texas all the way to final assembly in Nevada.
If executed as described, the closed-loop flow would reduce labor, handling damage, and inventory buffers while tightening quality control on a component that represents a large share of the truck’s cost and weight. It also shortens the physical and organizational distance between two factories separated by more than 1,200 miles. The Semi itself now shares a bar-wound stator and other components with the Cybertruck, further linking Tesla’s passenger and commercial production systems.
High-volume output is expected to ramp gradually after the first trucks left the new line in April 2026. Early customers include PepsiCo, DHL, and U.S. Foods. Whether the automated trailer-to-line process reaches the promised zero-touch standard will be visible in the coming months as production scales. For Tesla, the Semi factory is another test of how far it can push “the machine that builds the machine” across sites.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s AI Grok Bot can now handle banking while your Tesla FSD handles the road
Elon Musk says Grok Bot can manage your finances through linked bank and investment accounts.
Grok Bot now wants access to your wallet, with SpaceXAI rolling out a new Finance integration for its agent platform that lets users link bank, credit card and investment accounts thereby letting their Bots help manage spending, investments and more. Elon Musk amplified the announcement on X with a short endorsement, “Grok Bot can manage your finances.”
The feature builds on two earlier steps. In early September, Grok gained the ability to answer questions about spending, savings, investments and cash flow using accounts connected through Plaid, starting with users in the U.S. Before that, on August 28, SpaceXAI let Grok Bot buy things online through Link, with users approving every spend request and the Bot receiving a single use card for each payment.
Musk has already shown how far he wants users to push it. In late August, when Tesla investor account Teslaconomics said he was weighing whether to give Grok Bot access to his bank accounts, Musk replied, “Try it out. If Grok Bot messes up, we will make you whole.” That promise goes beyond SpaceXAI’s consumer terms, which make users responsible for what their agents do and generally cap the company’s liability at the greater of fees paid or $100. SpaceXAI’s own documentation recommends requiring approval for purchases and financial transfers.
For Tesla owners, the update lands five days after Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles, letting drivers hand off errands by voice while FSD (Supervised) handles the road. Bot access inside the car is currently limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, though Connectors are open to anyone signed into Grok. With Finance linked, a driver could ask for a spending summary or a check on upcoming bills during the commute.
Grok’s role in the car has grown quickly since Tesla’s Summer Update let it control cabin features by voice. We have been using Grok Bot in our own Tesla for several weeks, and here’s how our latest test went.
Tesla Cybercab fleet doubles to well over 100 units
Tesla has a ‘no human contact’ approach for Semi production
