Connect with us

News

SpaceX launches three Falcon 9 rockets in 36 hours

Three Falcon 9 launches; three booster landings; 36 hours. (Richard Angle/SpaceX)

Published

on

SpaceX has successfully completed three Falcon 9 launches in just over 36 hours, highlighting the company’s continuous push towards ever-higher launch cadences in 2022.

In February, shortly after a NASA oversight panelist revealed that SpaceX was targeting 52 launches in 2022, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company’s goal was for “Falcon [to] launch about once a week” throughout the year. In October 2020, continuing a tradition of extremely ambitious SpaceX launch cadence targets, Musk had also tweeted that “a lot of improvements” would need to be made to achieve his goal of 48 launches – an average of four launches per month – in 2021. Ultimately, SpaceX fell well short of that target, but did set a new annual record of 31 launches in one year, breaking its 2020 record of 26 launches by about 20%. However, perhaps even more important than the new record was the fact that SpaceX was able to complete six launches in four weeks at the end of 2021.

That impressive and unexpected achievement would turn out to be an explicit sign of things to come in 2022.

SpaceX’s successful completion of three launches in 36.5 hours is merely an extension of that feat. In the same four-week period at the end of 2021, SpaceX completed three of those six launches in 69 hours. Two months later, SpaceX did it again, launching three Falcon 9 rockets from all three of its Falcon launch pads in 67 hours.

More importantly, SpaceX has also managed to sustain an average cadence of more than one Falcon launch per week throughout the first half of 2022, completing its 26th launch of the year on June 19th with another two launches planned before the end of the month. SpaceX has actually sustained that cadence for even longer. Beginning on November 24th, 2021, SpaceX has now completed 32 Falcon 9 launches in less than seven months.

Advertisement

The company’s latest hat-trick or triple-header began on Friday, June 17th, when Falcon 9 booster B1060 lifted off at 12:09 pm EDT from SpaceX’s NASA Kennedy Space Center LC-39A pad, helped carry another 53 Starlink V1.5 satellites into space, and became the first Falcon booster to launch and land 13 times. Starlink 4-19 was also SpaceX’s 49th dedicated Starlink launch, SpaceX’s 50th consecutively successful Falcon booster landing, and 100th successful Falcon booster reuse.

Falcon 9 B1060 lifts off for the 13th time. (Richard Angle)

22 hours later, a second Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Vandenberg Space Force Base SLC-4E pad at 7:19 am PDT, Saturday, June 18th carrying the first of three SARah radar satellites for Germany and an unspecified number of rideshare payloads. For the third time this year, booster B1071 successfully boosted back to shore and touched down at SLC-4E’s LZ-4 landing pad shortly after liftoff.

Fog made Falcon 9’s SARah-1 launch virtually invisible, but the landing was not. (SpaceX)

Finally, at 12:27 am EDT on Sunday, June 19th, a third Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station LC-40 pad carrying a single spare Globalstar-2 communications satellite and, apparently, several secret rideshare payloads. Falcon 9’s Globalstar launch occurred just over 14 hours after SARah-1, breaking SpaceX’s record time between two orbital launches.

Falcon 9’s 3rd launch in 36 hours. (Richard Angle)

Globalstar FM15 was also SpaceX’s 26th launch of 2022, averaging one launch every 6.5 days in the first half of the year. June isn’t over, however, and SpaceX still has plans to launch Starlink 4-21 on June 25th and the SES-22 geostationary communications satellite on June 28th. If both launches avoid delays, SpaceX will end the first half of 2022 with 28 successful orbital launches. Perhaps even more significantly, after another two launches in the last days of June, SpaceX will have launched 17 times in a single quarter – equivalent to 68 launches per year if sustained for four quarters. In the history of spaceflight, a single rocket family has never successfully launched more than 61 times in one year.

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.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla’s little-known secret about its Diner might be the best feature of all

Tesla is not letting its servers go untipped, it’s taking care of that for its employees on its own.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles has a little-known secret, and in all honesty, it might be the best part of the entire thing.

Tesla opened its Supercharger Diner earlier in June, and in its first week of operation, it has done nothing but garner attention from fans, food critics, and general onlookers who are surprised to see the company gaining traction in the culinary space.

However, there is a little-known secret about the Diner that many people have not shared, and it has to do with the staff and customers.

Traditionally, restaurants in the United States do not pay their servers a normal wage. They are paid a lower hourly rate because they make most of their money through tips or gratuity. While it is sort of strange and has recently become a more controversial topic, tipping culture in the U.S. has garnered plenty of attention lately.

Many people outside the U.S. have trouble grasping the idea of tipping servers, as many believe the restaurant should pay them a livable wage and stop relying on customers to keep the employees to a point where they can live reasonably well.

In the U.S., people seem to be on board with one side or the other: tip them because the restaurant doesn’t pay them a wage, or “I’m not tipping them for doing their jobs.”

Whichever side of the argument you’re on, I think it seems reasonable to want servers to make enough money to live comfortably and expect the restaurant to take care of that.

Tesla has done just that for the staff at the Supercharger Diner, as it has been revealed that the company covers tipping. There is no option to tip the servers or wait staff; Tesla will do it for you.

This is a great gesture by Tesla because more and more people every day seem to be against tipping in an effort to force restaurants to pay employees more money. While it seems like a good strategy at first, it only impacts the servers, while this decision does not impact the restaurant and its owners.

Tesla is taking that risk out of the equation by providing gratuity to employees through its own means.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

xAI, Musk Foundation helps schools near Memphis supercomputer site

Reports of xAI and the Musk Foundation’s work were recently posted by local news media.

Published

on

xAI-supercomputer-memphis-environment-pushback
(Credit: xAI)

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI and the Musk Foundation have been supporting Memphis-Shelby County Schools with HVAC repairs and facility upgrades, while also funding youth programs for students in the area. 

Reports of xAI and the Musk Foundation’s work were recently posted by local news media.

xAI’s school visits lead to facility repairs

Representatives from xAI visited John P. Freeman Optional School, Fairley High School, and Westwood High School, all of which are located near its Colossus supercomputer site, to assess HVAC systems, plumbing, gym facilities, and athletic fields. The visits resulted in a list of priority repairs, some of which were completed in April and May.

In addition to the repairs, xAI also shared a number of initiatives that are planned for students in the area, as stated in a Commercial Appeal report.

“xAI is working on providing STEM workshops for local students, donating equipment to technical training programs, and supporting job fairs to boost employment opportunities. These initiatives reflect xAl’s commitment to fostering education and economic growth in Memphis,” xAI noted in a statement.

Advertisement

Musk Foundation donation

Apart from xAI, the Musk Foundation also donated $350,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis, enabling the reopening of two club sites located at Booker T. Washington High School and Westwood High School. Both locations had closed earlier this year due to lapses in funding. As per xAI, the Musk Foundation’s donation allows clubs to reopen for almost 1,000 students. 

The donation will fund staffing, supplies, and transportation, among others. “Kids are the future of humanity,” Elon Musk said in a statement, adding that students need “every chance to shoot for the stars.”

“We’re honored to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis in reopening these sites, giving kids in underserved communities the tools to build brighter futures,” Musk said.

The gift was praised by local officials, including Boys & Girls Clubs board chair Michael Garriga, who stated that the “commitment will ensure the youth of our community have the opportunities they need to develop their skills and talents to become successful students and future citizens.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

What to expect from Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s new Master Plan

While Musk only shared a few tidbits about his next plan, he did hint at its theme.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla Asia/X

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is working on another Master Plan. The executive mentioned this during the company’s second quarter earnings call earlier this week. While Musk only shared a few tidbits about his next plan, he did hint at its theme.

Master Plan Part Four

Elon Musk’s Master Plans have been a huge guiding hand for Tesla over the past couple of decades. His first Master Plan, which was published in 2006, featured a pathway towards the production of the Model 3 and energy storage systems. Master Plan, Part Deux, which was published ten years later in 2016, featured a pathway towards a Robotaxi network. 

Master Plan Part 3 was more ambitious, as it presented a case towards a world where there is sustainable energy for the entire planet. Considering the scale and ambitious nature of Master Plan Part 3, it was widely speculated that Elon Musk’s next Master Plan would not be around for some time. During the second quarter earnings call, however, Musk confirmed that he is indeed creating his next big plan.

Master Plan Part 4

Elon Musk mentioned his next Master Plan when a question was asked about the work that goes on inside the Tesla Design Studio during the Q2 2025 earnings call. In response to the inquiry, Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen emphasized that while earnings calls are not the venue for disclosing new product-related information, Tesla is working to ensure that the future remains exciting. Musk agreed, stating that there are lots of exciting things happening in the Tesla Design Studio.

“What’s going to happen over the next several years is a fundamental transformation of the company from a pre-autonomy world to a post-autonomy. And I’m working on a new Master Plan to articulate that to the Tesla team. And there will be some teething pains as you transition from a pre- autonomy to post-autonomy world, but I think the future vision for Tesla is incredibly exciting and will profoundly change the world in a good way,” Musk said.

Advertisement

A Post-Autonomy World

Considering Musk’s comments, it would appear that Master Plan Part 4 will be focused on a path towards what the CEO has been describing as “sustainable abundance.” If Master Plan Part 3 was focused on fostering sustainable energy for the entire planet, Master Plan Part 4 will likely present a path towards abundance in a world populated by self-driving vehicles like the Cybercab and humanoid robots like Optimus.

Master Plan Part 4 will likely have been farfetched just a couple years ago. Yet with Tesla now operating its Robotaxi service in Austin and Optimus V3 expected to enter production next year, the idea of a world filled with “sustainable abundance” does seem quite feasible. It will be ambitious like Elon Musk’s other Master Plans, of course, but it will be attainable. 

Continue Reading

Trending