News
SpaceX targets Jan. 8 for Falcon 9 return to flight from Vandenberg

After months of whirling questions and nervous anticipation, SpaceX has finally submitted its official investigation report to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) detailing the causes of the September 1, 2016 anomaly and explosion, costing the company its rocket and entire customer payload. SpaceX’s launch activities have been on hold ever since; a potential December 16, 2016 return to flight was delayed from the pending submission of the anomaly report at the time.
Updated: SpaceX postpones launch date by one day to Monday, Jan. 9
Targeting return to flight from Vandenberg with the @IridiumComm NEXT launch on January 8. Update: https://t.co/15yMaiobpX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 2, 2017
Immediately following the explosion, an investigation team was assembled to support SpaceX’s review efforts including officials from the FAA, NASA, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as industry experts to pour through all available data before conclusions were submitted. The determination? Buckles in the helium tank plus friction. Probably. Almost certainly.
To summarize, there are three helium tanks (called composite overwrapped pressure vessels, or COPVs) inside the Falcon 9’s second-stage liquid oxygen tank. One of the helium tanks failed (leaked/cracked/burst) during fueling, causing the massive explosion seen on the launch pad.
While a single, conclusive cause of failure was not identified, enough evidence was found to narrow the culprit to liquid or solid oxygen that was caught between the outer (carbon overwrap) shell of the tank and the inner aluminum liner which had buckled underneath. Once pressurized, friction was created where the buckled liner gaps occurred, causing the COPV/helium tank to fail.
SpaceX will be adjusting its fuel loading procedures to prevent any potential reoccurrence of the issue in the meantime, and will work towards design changes for future flights.
If the required launch license is granted and weather and technical systems are “go”, Falcon 9 will lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on January 8 carrying the first ten Iridium NEXT constellation satellites. Iridium responded from its official Twitter account that it was “pleased” with the launch date announcement.
“Iridium is pleased with SpaceX’s announcement and targeted launch date of January 8 for the first #IridiumNEXT launch. #NEXTevolution https://t.co/zWdkK8FrLG
— Iridium (@IridiumComm) January 2, 2017
Over the last month, Iridium has come across as one excited customer. Prior to SpaceX’s latest launch date announcement, the official Iridium Twitter account announced that its Iridium NEXT satellite payload had been packed up into the Falcon 9 fairing as part of pre-launch preparation.
Milestone Alert: The first ten #IridiumNEXT satellites are stacked and encapsulated in the Falcon 9 fairing. #NEXTevolution @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/W3Sz067pbt
— Iridium (@IridiumComm) December 29, 2016
Satellites have been fueled, pressurized & dispenser tiers are being stacked as we move closer to first launch #IridiumNEXT #NEXTevolution pic.twitter.com/eVYS7OI6kz
— Iridium (@IridiumComm) December 27, 2016
Iridium has also shown great support for SpaceX as a partner despite the accident investigation that had been previously pending.
Iridium's @Falcon9_rocket in processing at @VandenbergAFB, getting ready for our launch in early Jan. Progress! #Thistimeitsforreal! pic.twitter.com/vIgw60RQuZ
— Matt Desch (@IridiumBoss) December 16, 2016
We support @SpaceX announcement today to extend the 1st #IridiumNEXT launch date into early January. https://t.co/xpj7RnWoGO
— Iridium (@IridiumComm) December 7, 2016
After the Iridium launch, SpaceX will move on to its very busy, catch up manifest which will include the first use of renovated historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
News
These Tesla, X, and xAI engineers were just poached by OpenAI
The news is the latest in an ongoing feud between Elon Musk and the Sam Altman-run firm OpenAI.

OpenAI, the xAI competitor for which Elon Musk previously served as a boardmember and helped to co-found, has reportedly poached high-level engineers from Tesla, along with others from xAI, X, and still others.
On Tuesday, Wired reported that OpenAI hired four high-level engineers from Tesla, xAI, and X, as seen in an internal Slack message sent by co-founder Greg Brockman. The engineers include Tesla Vice President of Software Engineering David Lau, X and xAI’s head of infrastructure engineering Uday Ruddarraju, and fellow xAI infrastructure engineer Mike Dalton. The hiring spree also included Angela Fan, an AI researcher from Meta.
“We’re excited to welcome these new members to our scaling team,” said Hannah Wong, an OpenAI spokesperson. “Our approach is to continue building and bringing together world-class infrastructure, research, and product teams to accelerate our mission and deliver the benefits of AI to hundreds of millions of people.”
Lau has been in his position as Tesla’s VP of Software Engineering since 2017, after previously working for the company’s firmware, platforms, and system integration divisions.
“It has become incredibly clear to me that accelerating progress towards safe, well-aligned artificial general intelligence is the most rewarding mission I could imagine for the next chapter of my career,” Lau said in a statement to Wired.
🚨Optimistic projections point to xAI possibly attaining profitability by 2027, according to Bloomberg's sources.
If accurate, this would be quite a feat for xAI. OpenAI, its biggest rival, is still looking at 2029 as the year it could become cash flow positive.💰 https://t.co/pE5Z9daez8
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 18, 2025
READ MORE ON OPENAI: Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit clears hurdle as trial looms
At xAI, Ruddarraju and Dalton both played a large role in developing the Colossus supercomputer, which is comprised of over 200,000 GPUs. One of the major ongoing projects at OpenAI is the company’s Stargate program,
“Infrastructure is where research meets reality, and OpenAI has already demonstrated this successfully,” Ruddarraju told Wired in another statement. “Stargate, in particular, is an infrastructure moonshot that perfectly matches the ambitious, systems-level challenges I love taking on.”
Elon Musk is currently in the process of suing OpenAI for shifting toward a for-profit model, as well as for accepting an investment of billions of dollars from Microsoft. OpenAI retaliated with a counterlawsuit, in which it alleges that Musk is interfering with the company’s business and engaging in unfair competition practices.
Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event
News
SpaceX share sale expected to back $400 billion valuation
The new SpaceX valuation would represent yet another record-high as far as privately-held companies in the U.S. go.

A new report this week suggests that Elon Musk-led rocket company SpaceX is considering an insider share sale that would value the company at $400 billion.
SpaceX is set to launch a primary fundraising round and sell a small number of new shares to investors, according to the report from Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous due to the information not yet being public. Additionally, the company would sell shares from employees and early investors in a follow-up round, while the primary round would determine the price for the secondary round.
The valuation would represent the largest in history from a privately-owned company in the U.S., surpassing SpaceX’s previous record of $350 billion after a share buyback in December. Rivaling company valuations include ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, as well as OpenAI.
Bloomberg went on to say that a SpaceX representative didn’t respond to a request for comment at the time of publishing. The publication also notes that the details of such a deal could still change, especially depending on interest from the insider sellers and share buyers.
Axiom’s Ax-4 astronauts arriving to the ISS! https://t.co/WQtTODaYfj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 26, 2025
READ MORE ON SPACEX: SpaceX to decommission Dragon spacecraft in response to Pres. Trump war of words with Elon Musk
SpaceX’s valuation comes from a few different key factors, especially including the continued expansion of the company’s Starlink satellite internet company. According to the report, Starlink accounts for over half of the company’s yearly revenue. Meanwhile, the company produced its 10 millionth Starlink kit last month.
The company also continues to develop its Starship reusable rocket program, despite the company experiencing an explosion of the rocket on the test stand in Texas last month.
The company has also launched payloads for a number of companies and government contracts. In recent weeks, SpaceX launched Axiom’s Ax-4 mission, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 14-day stay to work on around 60 scientific experiments. The mission was launched using the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a new Crew Dragon capsule, while the research is expected to span a range of fields including biology, material and physical sciences, and demonstrations of specialized technology.
News
Tesla Giga Texas continues to pile up with Cybercab castings
Tesla sure is gathering a lot of Cybercab components around the Giga Texas complex.

Tesla may be extremely tight-lipped about the new affordable models that it was expected to start producing in the first half of the year, but the company sure is gathering a lot of Cybercab castings around the Giga Texas complex. This is, at least, as per recent images taken of the facility.
Cybercab castings galore
As per longtime drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer, who has been chronicling the developments around the Giga Texas complex for several years now, the electric vehicle maker seems to be gathering hundreds of Cybercab castings around the factory.
Based on observations from industry watchers, the drone operator appears to have captured images of about 180 front and 180 rear Cybercab castings in his recent photos.
Considering the number of castings that were spotted around Giga Texas, it would appear that Tesla may indeed be preparing for the vehicle’s start of trial production sometime later this year. Interestingly enough, large numbers of Cybercab castings have been spotted around the Giga Texas complex in the past few months.
Cybercab production
The Cybercab is expected to be Tesla’s first vehicle that will adopt the company’s “unboxed” process. As per Tesla’s previous update letters, volume production of the Cybercab should start in 2026. So far, prototypes of the Cybercab have been spotted testing around Giga Texas, and expectations are high that the vehicle’s initial trial production should start this year.
With the start of Tesla’s dedicated Robotaxi service around Austin, it might only be a matter of time before the Cybercab starts being tested on public roads as well. When this happens, it would be very difficult to deny the fact that Tesla really does have a safe, working autonomous driving system, and it has the perfect vehicle for it, too.
-
Elon Musk1 week ago
Tesla investors will be shocked by Jim Cramer’s latest assessment
-
News2 weeks ago
Tesla Robotaxi’s biggest challenge seems to be this one thing
-
Elon Musk1 day ago
Elon Musk confirms Grok 4 launch on July 9 with livestream event
-
News2 weeks ago
Watch the first true Tesla Robotaxi intervention by safety monitor
-
News5 days ago
Tesla Model 3 ranks as the safest new car in Europe for 2025, per Euro NCAP tests
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
A Tesla just delivered itself to a customer autonomously, Elon Musk confirms
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
xAI welcomes Memphis pollution results, environmental groups push back
-
Elon Musk2 weeks ago
Elon Musk confirms Tesla Optimus V3 already uses Grok voice AI