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SpaceX launches tenth Starlink mission, nails booster’s fifth landing

For the second time ever, SpaceX has successfully completed five launches and landings with the same Falcon 9 booster. (SpaceX)

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Bringing more than six weeks of delays to a welcome end, SpaceX has – for the second time ever – successfully launched and landed the same Falcon 9 booster five times, sending a stack of Starlink satellites and two rideshare payloads on their way to orbit.

At 1:12 am EDT (05:12 UTC) on Friday, August 7th, Falcon 9 booster B1051, a fresh upper stage and payload fairing, 57 Starlink v1.0 satellites, and two BlackSky Earth imaging spacecraft successfully lifted off. Around nine minutes after departing Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Complex 39A, better known as Pad 39A, booster B1051 completed a gentle landing aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY).

Located some 630 km (~390 mi) downrange, this was the fourth time the SpaceX drone ship had departed Florida’s Port Canaveral in support of Starlink V1 L9 (Starlink-9) launch attempts. Thankfully, especially for the recovery teams tasked with repeatedly sailing out and back empty-handed, B1051’s fifth successful landing brings that wild goose chase to an end.

A view of Falcon 9 shortly after SpaceX’s second Starlink-9 launch scrub, July 10th. (Richard Angle)
At long last, Falcon 9 B1051 streaks towards orbit on SpaceX’s Starlink-9 mission. (Richard Angle)

Around 45 minutes after launch, a SpaceX engineer and webcast host revealed that the company was, unfortunately, unable to complete two back-to-back Falcon 9 fairing catches, although recovery ships Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief should still be able to fish the Starlink-9 halves out of the water. About an hour after liftoff, Falcon 9’s upper stage successfully deployed both BlackSky rideshare payloads and followed that up with the successful deployment of 57 new Starlink satellites shortly thereafter.

While Starlink-9 was originally scheduled to launch as early as June 23rd, Principal Integration Engineer John Insprucker – a familiar fixture and voice on SpaceX webcasts – was quick to note that through the more than six subsequent weeks of delays, “Falcon 9 has been trouble-free.” He also partially answered the main question on everyone’s mind, noting that all of those delays could be traced back to bad weather and issues with the mission’s payloads.

Built by Seattle startup LeoStella, two BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites are pictured atop SpaceX’s Starlink-9 stack. (SpaceX)
Filled with 57 Starlink v1.0 satellites and two commercial BlackSky payloads, Falcon 9’s payload fairing is pictured shortly before liftoff on August 7th. (SpaceX)

He didn’t specify which payloads, suggesting that it may have primarily been related to BlackSky’s two satellites given that throwing a customer under the bus would be in extremely bad taste for a launch provider. Regardless, SpaceX has finally completed the mission and can now move on to greener Starlink pastures and a number of interesting upcoming missions.

Notably, the next two non-Starlink launches currently on SpaceX’s manifest are SAOCOM 1B – the first polar orbit launch from the East Coast in half a century – and Crew-1 – Crew Dragon’s first operational astronaut launch. Scheduled no earlier than late-August and late-September, respectively, both major customer missions are likely to be punctuated by several Starlink launches over the next two months. With Starlink-9 complete, SpaceX could be just 4-5 missions away from rolling out Starlink internet service according to a comment from COO/President Gwynne Shotwell that service could begin after the 14th Starlink launch.

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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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Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck is getting a big security upgrade

“Cybertruck was not 100% carryover in execution like S3XY, so it required work.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla confirmed today that a massive Cybertruck security feature is on the way soon, and it is one that owners have been asking about for a long time.

Like all Teslas, Cybertruck has the excellent security feature known as “Sentry Mode.” The feature essentially turns your Tesla into a moving security camera, recording any event that happens nearby.

It has been used to solve crimes such as vandalism and burglary, and even used by police departments to solve other, high-profile crimes.

Tesla quietly added this extra Sentry Mode feature to deter vandals

However, Cybertruck has been missing one key feature of Sentry Mode: the use of the B-Pillar camera has not been enabled, leaving one of the most vandalized and targeted vehicles in the United States with a weakness.

One person who has been vocal about it is Tesla Cybertruck enthusiast Greggertruck, who has been pushing for answers for months. He finally got his answer from Cybertruck Vehicle Program Manager Siddhant Awasthi:

“It will come soon! Cybertruck was not 100% carryover in execution like SX3Y so it required work. Team has finished work on this and just need to make sure it’s validated and runs reliably (which it should for its feature).”

It sounds as if Tesla’s issue was something they similarly experienced when deploying Full Self-Driving to Cybertruck. The other four Tesla vehicles were able to use FSD because they’re all relatively similar in ride height and overall functionality. They share tons of similarities.

Cybertruck did not get FSD right away because Tesla still had to work on the differences between it and the other cars in the lineup. As Awasthi said, “Cybertruck was not 100% carryover in execution like S3XY, so it required work.”

Tesla Cybertruck FSD release expected for Sept, Park Assist to come first

It sounds as if Tesla is close to resolving some of the more intricate details of adding the functionality, and it was just a matter of time before it figured out the issue.

The release of the B-Pillar camera being active during Sentry Mode events on Cybertruck will likely come in a software update in the coming weeks.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla investors may be in for a big surprise

All signs point toward a strong quarter for Tesla in terms of deliveries. Investors could be in for a surprise.

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla investors have plenty of things to be ecstatic about, considering the company’s confidence in autonomy, AI, robotics, cars, and energy. However, many of them may be in for a big surprise as the end of the $7,500 EV tax credit nears. On September 30, it will be gone for good.

This has put some skepticism in the minds of some investors: the lack of a $7,500 discount for buying a clean energy vehicle may deter many people from affording Tesla’s industry-leading EVs.

Tesla warns consumers of huge, time-sensitive change coming soon

The focus on quarterly deliveries, while potentially waning in terms of importance to the future, is still a big indicator of demand, at least as of now. Of course, there are other factors, most of them economic.

The big push to make the most of the final quarter of the EV tax credit is evident, as Tesla is reminding consumers on social media platforms and through email communications that the $7,500 discount will not be here forever. It will be gone sooner rather than later.

It appears the push to maximize sales this quarter before having to assess how much they will be impacted by the tax credit’s removal is working.

Delivery Wait Time Increases

Wait times for Tesla vehicles are increasing due to what appears to be increased demand for the company’s vehicles. Recently, Model Y delivery wait times were increased from 1-3 weeks to 4-6 weeks.

This puts extra pressure on consumers to pull the trigger on an order, as delivery must be completed by the cutoff date of September 30.

Delivery wait times may have gone up due to an increase in demand as consumers push to make a purchase before losing that $7,500 discount.

More People are Ordering

A post on X by notable Tesla influencer Sawyer Merritt anecdotally shows he has been receiving more DMs than normal from people stating that they’re ordering vehicles before the end of the tax credit:

It’s not necessarily a confirmation of more orders, but it could be an indication that things are certainly looking that way.

Why Investors Could Be Surprised

Tesla investors could see some positive movement in stock price following the release of the Q3 delivery report, especially if all signs point to increased demand this quarter.

We reported previously that this could end up being a very strong rebounding quarter for Tesla, with so many people taking advantage of the tax credit.

Whether the delivery figures will be higher than normal remains to be seen. But all indications seem to point to Q3 being a very strong quarter for Tesla.

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Elon Musk

Tesla bear Guggenheim sees nearly 50% drop off in stock price in new note

Tesla bear Guggenheim does not see any upside in Robotaxi.

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tesla showroom
Credit: Tesla

Tesla bear Guggenheim is still among the biggest non-believers in the company’s overall mission and its devotion to solving self-driving.

In a new note to investors on Thursday, analyst Ronald Jewsikow reiterated his price target of $175, a nearly 50 percent drop off, with a ‘Sell’ rating, all based on skepticism regarding Tesla’s execution of the Robotaxi platform.

A few days ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company’s Robotaxi platform would open to the public in September, offering driverless rides to anyone in the Austin area within its geofence, which is roughly 90 square miles large.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirms Robotaxi is opening to the public: here’s when

However, Jewsikow’s skepticism regarding this timeline has to do with what’s going on inside of the vehicles. The analyst was willing to give props to Robotaxi, saying that Musk’s estimation of a September public launch would be a “key step” in offering the service to a broader population.

Where Jewsikow’s real issue lies is with Tesla’s lack of transparency on the Safety Monitors, and how bulls are willing to overlook their importance.

Much of this bullish mentality comes from the fact that the Monitors are not sitting in the driver’s seat, and they don’t have anything to do with the overall operation of the vehicle.

Musk also said last month that reducing Safety Monitors could come “in a month or two.”

Instead, they’re just there to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Jewsikow said:

“While safety drivers will remain, and no timeline has been provided for their removal, bulls have been willing to overlook the optics of safety drivers in TSLA vehicles, and we see no reason why that would change now.”

He also commented on Musk’s recent indication that Tesla was working on a 10x parameter count that could help make Full Self-Driving even more accurate. It could be one of the pieces to Tesla solving autonomy.

Jewsikow added:

“Perhaps most importantly for investors bullish on TSLA for the fleet of potential FSD-enabled vehicles today, the 10x higher parameter count will be able to run on the current generation of FSD hardware and inference compute.”

Elon Musk teases crazy new Tesla FSD model: here’s when it’s coming

Tesla shares are down just about 2 percent today, trading at $332.47.

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