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SpaceX delivers 59 spacecraft to orbit on fifth flawless rideshare launch

Transporter-5 will be SpaceX's fifth dedicated rideshare launch. (SpaceX)

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Update: After a slight eight-minute delay, SpaceX has successfully launched its fifth dedicated ‘Transporter’ rideshare mission, carrying 59 different spacecraft into a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).

Following the Falcon 9 upper stage’s initial deployment of 39 different spacecraft, two of the deployed spacecraft will deploy another 20 or so small satellites over the next several weeks. Around an hour and a half after liftoff, SpaceX finally announced that the final Transporter-5 payload deployment was complete, confirming that the mission was a total success.

Falcon 9 booster B1061 performed as expected, acing its second Transporter launch in a row and eighth launch and landing overall since November 2020. Transporter-5 was SpaceX’s fifth launch this month and 22nd launch this year, representing an average of one launch every 6.5 days since the start of 2022. If SpaceX is able to complete four launches in June, it will be exactly half of the way to achieving 52 launches – an average of one launch per week – in a single calendar year.

Falcon 9 B1061’s Transporter-5 launch and landing. (Richard Angle)

SpaceX appears to be on track to launch its fifth dedicated Falcon 9 rideshare mission as early as 2:27 pm EDT (18:27 UTC) on Wednesday, May 25th, carrying a wide variety of interesting payloads into Earth orbit.

SpaceX has reportedly assigned Falcon 9 B1061 to the mission and Transporter-5 will be its eight launch and landing attempt since November 2020 and third launch this year. While of no particular consequence, B1061 will also become the first Falcon 9 booster to launch two Transporter missions back to back after supporting Transporter-4 less than two months ago. Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off from SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) LC-40 facilities and boost the Transporter-5 payload and upper stage most of the way out of the atmosphere, while the booster will return back to the Florida coast to land on a concrete pad just a few miles to the south.

Like Transporter-4, which launched with just 40 deployable payloads on April 1st, Transporter-5 appears to be another very small rideshare mission relative to SpaceX’s first three Transporter launches, demonstrating the company’s continued commitment to operating the service a bit like public transit. A public bus will still happily carry just a single passenger – efficiency, while important, comes second to dependability. For many of SpaceX’s individual Smallsat Program customers, that may help to alleviate some of the downsides of massive multi-dozen-satellite rideshares, which can often make individual customers feel forgotten and unimportant when they’re forced to swallow delays caused by payloads other than their own.

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Falcon 9 B1061 and Transporter-5 shortly before liftoff. (Richard Angle)

Based on official information provided by SpaceX on May 24th, Falcon 9 is scheduled to deploy only 39 payloads during Transporter-5. However, the real number of satellites deployed during the mission will likely be a bit higher due to the presence of three or four different vehicles that are designed to host or carry some of those payloads to different orbits. Spaceflight’s ‘Sherpa-AC1’ won’t have significant propulsion but it will carry several hosted payloads (‘hosted’ in the sense that the payload is not a free-flying satellite of its own) after deploying from Falcon 9.

The other two or three are true orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs), meaning that they have some kind of propulsion and are designed to deploy smaller satellites in customized orbits. The ultimate goal of the many startups trying to develop high-performance OTVs is to extract the best of both worlds from large rideshare missions and small rockets, combining ultra-cheap prices and orbits that are heavily optimized for each payload. Transporter-5 may carry Exolaunch’s “Reliant” OTV (unconfirmed) but is definitively scheduled to launch with D-Orbit’s “ION SCV-006” OTV and startup Momentus Space’s first ‘Vigoride’ OTV. Vigoride carries the unique distinction of being propelled by a first-of-its-kind “microwave electrothermal thruster” that turns water into a superheated plasma propellant.

Vigoride’s first true launch will be treated mainly as a test flight but it will also carry up to eight different small satellites. D-Orbit’s ION OTV only has one confirmed satellite on its manifest but will likely launch with at least a few more. All told, the number of satellites deployed as a result of Transporter-5 will likely be closer to 50 – a decent improvement over Transporter-4.

Several of those 50 or so payloads are particularly intriguing. Momentus Space’s first Vigoride OTV, if successful, could pave the way for the most capable commercial space tug currently available, with up to 2000 meters per second of delta V (dV) – a way to measure the stamina of rocket propulsion. NASA has also manifested its small Terabyte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) technology demonstrater satellite on Transporter-5 and will attempt to prove that it’s possible to use small, high-power lasers as extremely high-bandwidth downlinks. NASA hopes the tiny satellite will be able to transmit at up to 200 gigabits per second (Gbps), allowing it to downlink terabytes of data during a single pass over an Earth-based ground station.

AISTECH Space will launch an Earth observation satellite prototype outfitted with a first-of-its-kind high-resolution thermal imager. Last but certainly not least, Nanoracks and Maxar are scheduled to launch the first of multiple planned demonstrations and technology maturation missions for in-space manufacturing and construction technologies. The hosted payload is relatively simple by many measures and will only operate for about an hour, but it aims to demonstrate the first structural metal cutting in space.

https://twitter.com/Nanoracks/status/1529253558964703233

Parent company Voyager Space ultimately wants to use the expertise it gains from the ‘Outpost Program’ to convert expended rocket upper stages into orbital ‘Outposts’ that will host customer payloads and support the continued development of in-space harvesting, recycling, construction, and more.

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As of 5 am EDT (09:00 UTC), SpaceX still hasn’t officially confirmed via Tweet or website update that Transporter-5 is ‘go’ for launch. If it is, an official webcast available here will likely begin around 2:10 pm EDT (18:10 UTC).

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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Investor's Corner

Tesla needs to confront these concerns as its ‘wartime CEO’ returns: Wedbush

Tesla will report earnings for Q2 tomorrow. Here’s what Wedbush expects.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is set to report its earnings for the second quarter of 2025 tomorrow, and although Wall Street firm Wedbush is bullish as the company appears to have its “wartime CEO” back, it is looking for answers to a few concerns investors could have moving forward.

The firm’s lead analyst on Tesla, Dan Ives, has kept a bullish sentiment regarding the stock, even as Musk’s focus seemed to be more on politics and less on the company.

However, Musk has recently returned to his past attitude, which is being completely devoted and dedicated to his companies. He even said he would be sleeping in his office and working seven days a week:


Nevertheless, Ives has continued to push suggestions forward about what Tesla should do, what its potential valuation could be in the coming years with autonomy, and how it will deal with the loss of the EV tax credit.

Tesla preps to expand Robotaxi geofence once again, answering Waymo

These questions are at the forefront of what Ives suggests Tesla should confront on tomorrow’s call, he wrote in a note to investors that was released on Tuesday morning:

“Clearly, losing the EV tax credits with the recent Beltway Bill will be a headwind to Tesla and competitors in the EV landscape looking ahead, and this cash cow will become less of the story (and FCF) in 2026. We would expect some directional guidance on this topic during the conference call. Importantly, we anticipate deliveries globally to rebound in 2H led by some improvement on the key China front with the Model Y refresh a catalyst.”

Ives and Wedbush believe the autonomy could be worth $1 trillion for Tesla, especially as it continues to expand throughout Austin and eventually to other territories.

In the near term, Ives expects Tesla to continue its path of returning to growth:

“While the company has seen significant weakness in China in previous quarters given the rising competitive landscape across EVs, Tesla saw a rebound in June with sales increasing for the first time in eight months reflecting higher demand for its updated Model Y as deliveries in the region are starting to slowly turn a corner with China representing the heart and lungs of the TSLA growth story. Despite seeing more low-cost models enter the market from Chinese OEMs like BYD, Nio, Xpeng, and others, the company’s recent updates to the Model Y spurred increased demand while the accelerated production ramp-up in Shanghai for this refresh cycle reflected TSLA’s ability to meet rising demand in the marquee region. If Musk continues to lead and remain in the driver’s seat at this pace, we believe Tesla is on a path to an accelerated growth path over the coming years with deliveries expected to ramp in the back-half of 2025 following the Model Y refresh cycle.”

Tesla will report earnings tomorrow at market close. Wedbush maintained its ‘Outperform’ rating and held its $500 price target.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2025 earnings call: What investors want to know

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Credit: Tesla Asia/X

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is set to report its second-quarter 2025 financial results on Wednesday, July 23, after markets close. With this in mind, Tesla investors have aggregated their top questions for the company at its upcoming Q&A session.

The upcoming earnings report follows a mixed delivery quarter. Tesla produced over 410,000 vehicles and delivered more than 384,000 units globally. In the energy segment, Tesla deployed 9.6 GWh of storage products, continuing momentum for its Megapack business. Tesla’s vehicle sales are currently down year-over-year, though a good part of this was due to the Model Y changeover in the first quarter.

Following are Tesla investors’ top questions for management, as aggregated in Say.

  1. Can you give us some insight (into) how robotaxis have been performing so far and what rate you expect to expand in terms of vehicles, geofence, cities, and supervisors?
  2. What are the key technical and regulatory hurdles still remaining for unsupervised FSD to be available for personal use? Timeline?
  3. What specific factory tasks is Optimus currently performing, and what is the expected timeline for scaling production to enable external sales? How does Tesla envision Optimus contributing to revenue in the next 2–3 years?
  4. Can you provide an update on the development and production timeline for Tesla’s more affordable models? How will these models balance cost reduction with profitability, and what impact do you expect on demand in the current economic climate?
  5. When do you anticipate customer vehicles to receive unsupervised FSD?
  6. Are there any news for HW3 users getting retrofits or upgrades? Will they get HW4 or some future version of HW5?
  7. Have any meaningful Optimus milestones changed for this year or next, and will thousands of Optimus be performing tasks in Tesla factories by year-end?
  8. Will there be a new AI day to explain the advancements the Autopilot, Optimus, and Dojo/chip teams have made over the past several years? We still do not know much about HW4.
  9. Cybertruck ramp is now a year in, but sales have lagged other models. How are you thinking through boosting sales of such an incredible product?
  10. When will there be a new CEO compensation package presented and considered for the next stage of the company’s growth?

Tesla will release its Q2 update letter on its Investor Relations website after markets close on Wednesday. A live Q&A webcast with management will then follow at 4:30 p.m. CT (5:30 p.m. ET) to discuss the company’s performance and outlook.

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Tesla Model Y becomes dual champ in China’s vehicle sales rankings

The Model Y’s recent accomplishments suggest that Tesla really has created something special with the all-electric crossover.

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Credit: Tesla Asia/X

The Tesla Model Y was recently deemed a double champion in China, with the all-electric crossover topping two notable sales charts in the country’s automotive sector. 

The Model Y’s recent accomplishments suggest that Tesla really has created something special with the all-electric crossover, as it has continued to outsell even vehicles that are newer and more affordable. 

Tesla China’s announcement

In a post on Weibo, Tesla China VP Grace Tao highlighted that the Model Y topped China’s sales of SUVs, as well as vehicles that are priced in the 200,000-400,000 yuan range. This is quite remarkable, as the Model Y is one of the more costly entries in both lists. She also invited everyone to try out the vehicle for themselves. “You will know the champion strength after a try,” the Tesla VP wrote.

For the first half of the year, the Tesla Model Y sold 171,491 units domestically in China. This number was enough to make it the country’s best-selling SUV and vehicle priced in the 200,000-400,000 yuan range, but it could still easily be higher in the second half of 2025.

This was because Tesla initiated a changeover in Gigafactory Shanghai to shift the facility’s Model Y line to the vehicle’s new iteration. Had Tesla sold the Model Y in full force during the first half of 2025 in China, the vehicle’s domestic sales figures would have been even more impressive.

Model Y L coming

Tesla China’s Model Y sales could see a notable boost in the second half of the year due to the addition of the Model Y L, an extended wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover. Tesla is yet to announce the details for the Model Y L, though the vehicle was listed in the MIIT regulatory catalog as a six-seater. This is game-changing, as the Model Y’s previous seven-seat configurations have caught criticism for being far too cramped and unusable for adults.

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With the six-seat Model Y in the company’s lineup, Tesla would be able to compete with popular vehicles from rivals like BYD, which have made it a point to release spacious three-row vehicles that are designed to carry the whole family. Provided that the Model Y L is priced correctly, it could very well raise Tesla’s vehicle sales this year.

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