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SpaceX wins US military satellite constellation launch contract to close out 2020

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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 workhorse rocket has secured a new US military launch contract worth $150 million, closing out a spectacularly successful year.

Announced by the Department of Defence’s (DoD) Space Development Agency (SDA) on December 31st, the contract stipulates that SpaceX will launch as many as 28 Transport and Tracking Layer (TTL) satellites on two Falcon 9 rockets in the seven months between September 2022 and March 2023. If things go according to plan, those two launches will orbit an entire “Tranche 0” satellite constellation hoped by the SDA to demonstrate the exceedingly rare ability for a US military agency to move quickly and field solutions that are both affordable and effective.

If successful, Tranche 0 will provide the US military with a globally-networked satellite constellation of communications satellites and missile detection satellites capable of delivering “warning, tracking, and targeting” data anywhere on Earth.

SpaceX has closed out a halcyon year by winning another $150 million worth of launch contracts. (SpaceX)

Curiously, SDA’s decision comes at the same time as repeated protests from Raytheon have frozen work on 8 of the ~28 satellites SpaceX is now scheduled to launch – four of which SpaceX itself won $149 million to design and build. Known as the Tracking Layer of Tranche 0, SDA contracted with SpaceX and L3Harris ($193 million) on October 7th, 2020 to build four missile warning satellites apiece. The award was SpaceX’s first satellite production contract ever, rather quietly catapulting the company into the multibillion-dollar market for US civil and military spacecraft.

SDA ultimately bowed to Raytheon’s protests and announced plans to “reevaluate” its decision to award Tracking Layer contracts to SpaceX and L3Harris, but the agency says it will not allow new bids to be submitted. In other words, unless SDA discovers some kind of error in its original decision-making process, odds are extremely low that the protest will change the outcome. In the meantime, though, the protest means that SpaceX and L3Harris are legally required to pause all work on their respective satellite development contracts until the SDA completes its reevaluation.

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Next to nothing is known about the four satellites SpaceX has contracted to build for the US military but it’s safe to say that they’ll build off of Starlink. (SpaceX)

The month prior, SDA had awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin ($187.5M) and York Space Systems ($94M) to deliver ten “Transport Layer” satellites apiece. The Tranche 0 Transport Layer is designed to use laser interlinks to securely route Tracking Layer missile warning alerts almost anywhere on Earth while also providing some limited general-purpose communications capabilities.

Ultimately, whether Raytheon’s protests actually net the company one of the Tracking Layer satellite production contracts, SpaceX is now guaranteed to launch them.

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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Tesla finally clarifies fatal Texas crash, confirms driver manually overrode acceleration

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Credit: CNBC

Tesla has finally clarified the situation regarding the viral crash in Texas where a Model 3 slammed into a home.

CEO Elon Musk replied to reports on Monday that stated the crash was due to the company’s Full Self-Driving or Autopilot suite, which seemed unlikely to those who are familiar with it. Video showed the car slamming into a house at an excessive rate of speed, making it highly unlikely the crash was due to the suite’s operation, as it does not travel at those speeds in residential areas.

Musk said:

“This makes no sense. FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets, and this was a high-speed crash!”

Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, added context, revealing that the company’s data shows the driver “manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.”

He revealed the speed reached by the car was 73 MPH, and the accelerator was still pressed “even after the crash.”

Authorities are reportedly investigating “whether Tesla’s Autopilot system played a role after a Model 3 left the roadway…slammed through a brick house at high speed and fatally struck Matha Avila as she sat inside,” the New York Post reported.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is now investigating the crash. Tesla will work with the agency to provide them with whatever information they need in order to clarify the cause of the crash.

Similarly, Tesla had claims of a fatal accident in Harris County, Texas, a few years ago. Early reports indicated that Full Self-Driving was the cause of the crash. After the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) worked with Tesla, the agency proved there was “no use of the Autopilot system at any time during this ownership period of the vehicle, including the time frame up to the last transmitted timestamp on April 17, 2021.”

Tesla alleged “driverless” crash in Texas: What is known so far

“Application of the accelerator pedal was found to be as high as 98.8 percent,” the NTSB said in their findings. The highest recorded speed in the five seconds leading up to the impact was 67 miles per hour. The area where the crash occurred is residential, and Texas State laws have default speed limits of 30 MPH in residential streets.

This appears to be a similar situation. However, an investigation will prove what happened for sure.

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Investor's Corner

SpaceX makes $20 billion move to optimize its balance sheet

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX announced today that it commenced its first-ever public bond offering, marking a significant step in the newly public company’s capital markets strategy.

The company announced an offering of senior unsecured notes expected to raise at least $20 billion.

The move comes just a short time after SpaceX completed one of the largest initial public offerings in history. In mid-June, the company priced shares at $135 and raised more than $85 billion, propelling founder Elon Musk’s net worth past the trillion-dollar mark and giving the firm substantial liquidity.

According to the company’s SEC filing, the net proceeds from the notes will be used primarily to repay in full the outstanding borrowings under its existing bridge loan facility, cover related fees and expenses, and fund general corporate purposes. The offering is being conducted under Rule 144A, as well as Regulation S, targeting qualified institutional buyers and non-U.S. investors. Notes will be unsecured obligations ranking equally with other unsubordinated debt.

The $20 billion bridge loan was used to refinance approximately $17.5 billion in higher-cost “junk” debt tied to X and xAI. SpaceX had merged with xAI in February 2026 in an all-stock deal. The bridge facility, which matures in September 2027, had represented the bulk of SpaceX’s long-term debt.

SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise

In connection with the bond launch, SpaceX disclosed it held approximately $100.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 19. Investor calls began on the announcement date, with pricing and launch expected shortly thereafter. Rating agencies have assigned investment-grade ratings to the proposed bonds, reflecting confidence in SpaceX’s dominant position in commercial launches and the growth trajectory of its Starlink internet offering.

The debt raise also allows SpaceX to optimize its balance sheet by replacing short-term, higher-cost bridge financing with longer-date, lower-cost fixed-income securities. This provides greater financial flexibility to support capital-intensive initiatives, including the development of Starship, the expansion of the Starlink constellation, and the integration of AI capabilities following the xAI combination.

SpaceX shares (NASDAQ: SPCX) fell sharply on the news, dropping over 16 percent overall on the market on Monday. The stock had surged initially after debuting but pulled back amid profit-taking and broader market dynamics.

Overall, the bond offering underscores SpaceX’s transition to a mature public company with access to diverse funding sources. It positions the firm to pursue its long-term vision of multiplanetary expansion and AI infrastructure, while maintaining a disciplined approach to its capital structure in a high-growth but capital-heavy industry.

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SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center

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Credit: xAI Memphis

SpaceX confirmed today that it has officially signed its third massive compute deal, providing compute at its Colossus data center in Southaven, Tennessee.

Reflection AI will gain immediate access to NVIDIA GB300 chips at SpaceX’s Colossus 2 data center. In return, Reflection will pay SpaceX $150 million per month starting on July 1, with total payments reaching approximately $6.3 billion if the contract runs through its duration, which is until 2029. Either party can terminate the agreement with 90 days’ notice after the initial three-month period.

CNBC first reported the deal.

This latest partnership highlights SpaceX’s strategy of commercializing its massive Colossus supercomputing infrastructure, originally developed to power Elon Musk’s Grok AI models. The company has rapidly expanded its customer base in the AI sector following its February 2026 merger with xAI, a transaction that valued the combined entity at $1.25 trillion.

SpaceX has previously signed significant compute deals with other major players.

It granted Anthropic exclusive access to the full capacity of its Colossus 1 data center, which exceeds 300 megawatts and includes over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs. Details from SpaceX’s IPO filings indicate Anthropic will pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, potentially generating around $45 billion over the term of the deal.

Additionally, Google agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million per month for compute capacity from October 2026 through June 2029. This 32-month period will provide Google access to roughly 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs, along with supporting processors and memory. Capacity ramps up through September at a reduced fee, with termination options after the first year.

SpaceXA also established arrangements for computing power with Cursor, an AI coding startup. SpaceX acquired them in a $60 billion all-stock deal.

SpaceX makes first acquisition post-IPO

These arrangements position SpaceX’s collective position as an AI infrastructure powerhouse with high-margin revenue potential. The Google deal alone could generate nearly $29.5 billion over its term, while the Reflection contract adds another $6.3 billion.

Combined with the Anthropic arrangement, SpaceX stands to realize tens of billions in revenue from compute leasing in the coming years, which diversifies beyond SpaceX’s traditional rocket launches and Starlink operation.

The deals underscore growing demand for advanced AI training and inference capacity amid chip shortages and surging model development needs. Reflection, valued at $25 billion and focused on “American open intelligence” with government and national security ties, cited recent restrictions on closed models as validation for open-source approaches.

For SpaceX, the partnerships transform capital-intensive data centers into flexible revenue sources while supporting its broader AI ambitions after the company has gone public.

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