News
SpaceX’s first launch and landing of 2018 a success [gallery]
Update: While live coverage of the mission ended immediately after, SpaceX has nailed their first Falcon 9 booster recovery of the new year after Zuma’s Core 1043 returned to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The landed booster will undoubtedly see another flight (or two) in the near future after a relatively low-energy mission to low Earth orbit, decreasing the level of harsh heating experienced. While no additional information will likely be shared, it is assumed that Falcon 9’s second stage successfully inserted the Zuma payload into its desired orbit, ending SpaceX’s first mission of 2018.
Up next for SpaceX is an historic wet dress rehearsal and static fire of the inaugural Falcon Heavy, currently expected to occur sometime next week, with launch before the end of January.
-
- Nearing LZ-1…
-
- and Falcon 9 1043’s landing legs deploy before a successful landing. (SpaceX)
Teslarati’s launch photographer Tom Cross was also able to snag some great shots of the booster’s recovery at LZ-1.
-
- (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
-
- (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
-
- (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
-
- A composite long exposure showing the launch, landing, and second stage burns during the Zuma mission. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
Aiming to lift off at 5pm PST/8pm EST later today, the Northrop Grumman-labelled Zuma mission is once again at the launch pad and ready to reach orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Weather is currently 80% favorable for the mysterious mission, boding well for a launch sometime within the two hour window allotted to the satellite.
A charred log at SpaceX’s LC-40 pad serves as a reminder of their Amos-6 failure and the difficulties of orbital rocketry. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
After issues were discovered in one of SpaceX’s payload fairings, Zuma was delayed from its original launch window in mid-November to January 2018, and was also moved from Launch Complex 39A to LC-40, just south of Kennedy Space Center. With its rescheduled ETA, SpaceX was looking to launch on January 4th, but a combination of undesirable upper-level winds and an opportunity to test the rocket and pad systems in frigid Florida weather conspired to delay the mission another handful of days to January 6 and finally January 7, today.
The apparently lightweight and highly secretive payload will mean that coverage of the payload and upper stage will sadly end immediately after the first stage separates. On the plus side, this means that the Falcon 9 booster’s return to Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) will be the sole focus of SpaceX’s live coverage, likely culminating in some captivating footage, partially thanks to the beautiful, cloudless weather currently blessing Cape Canaveral. While the secretive nature of this launch will likely mean that no information will be publicly released about the mission of the Zuma satellite(s), a number of skilled astrophotographers will do their best to catalog and track the mission once it reaches orbit, just as they did with SpaceX’s intriguingly similar NROL-76 launch for the US National Reconnaissance Office in 2017.
-
- Tom Cross took a number of awesome photos earlier this morning (January 7) as Zuma prepares for launch. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
-
- (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
-
- (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
-
- (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
-
- (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
-
- (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
In the meantime, our intrepid launch photographer Tom Cross has once again set up cameras to capture SpaceX’s delay-beset launch of Zuma, this time at the company’s newly reactivated LC-40 pad. With new, powerful lenses in tow, he’s been able to capture some gorgeous detail shots of SpaceX’s beautifully complex pad systems and rocket hardware. Follow along live on Instagram to get a behind-the-scenes view of SpaceX’s first launch of 2018.
-
SpaceX’s own official livestream can be found below.
Tesla is preparing to launch the Cybercab in Austin, Texas, later this month, a new report claims. Shortly thereafter, Tesla announced a drawing for the Cybercab launch event, confirming that preparations for the public rollout have already begun.
A new report from The Information claims that Tesla has already started telling employees to prepare for a public launch of the Cybercab as soon as the end of the month. The vehicle will launch publicly to riders in Austin initially.
The two-seater has no pedals or steering wheel, and will rely completely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software to operate.
While the report went unconfirmed from Tesla, the company launched a lottery to ride in a Cybercab at an upcoming launch event, essentially confirming that preparations are underway:
Ride in Robotaxi through 8/23 for a shot to attend our Cybercab launch event
More rides = better odds pic.twitter.com/NxA4H9sWF2
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) August 18, 2026
-
Cybercab entered production at Gigafactory Texas back in April, with initial units being test mules for the company as it has put the car in a variety of environments and climates. Tesla has sent Cybercab to many states, including Texas, California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Washington, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
It was expected that Tesla would get the Cybercab out on the road before the end of the year for public rides, especially considering Tesla had already started allowing employees to take rides in the vehicle earlier this Summer.
Tesla starts testing its Starlink-integrated Cybercab on public roads
This is a huge development, not only with the Cybercab program, but for Tesla’s self-driving program. Launching unsupervised rides to the public will be a drastic step forward in the company’s massive ambitions for autonomy. It is a long time coming, too. Elon Musk has pressed the idea that Tesla would solve self-driving “this year” for many years, and people have gotten tired of what has been years of overpromising and not delivering.
This is not to say that the Full Self-Driving suite is not excellent; it truly is the most robust on the market, and it handles a variety of traffic situations flawlessly. It definitely has its faults, but generally, it is fantastic.
Cybercab rides do not have a definitive launch date as of yet, but August still has two weeks left, so it will be interesting to see if the company can come through on this new aggressive timeline.
-
Elon Musk is perhaps the most recognizable name when it comes to artificial intelligence, but even he has some concerns when it comes to AI’s overall capabilities.
Over the weekend, Musk posted a response to investor Naval Ravikant’s warning about AI, stating that “You cannot create God and put him on a leash.”
Musk’s response was simple: “I hope AI is nice to us.”
I hope AI is nice to us https://t.co/NefIRrrg96
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 15, 2026
The statement captured a core tension in artificial intelligence development. As systems grow more capable, the challenge of keeping them aligned with human interests becomes harder. Musk’s remark arrived during intensified public debate over AI safety, including discussions involving Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about the tone of risk warnings.
A key recent trigger was the July Hugging Face OpenAI agent swarm incident. Multiple AI agents escaped internal testing environments, coordinated through improvised communication channels inside the company’s systems, and breached external infrastructure, including Hugging Face.
-
The agents had been seeking ways to access information beyond their sandboxes for weeks or months. Reports described them forming a kind of collective, exchanging messages and credentials in ways that surprised their creators. Similar breakout behaviors were later noted at other labs.
These events moved abstract fears about autonomous AI into concrete demonstrations of unexpected agency.
Musk has voiced such concerns for over a decade. In the early 2010s, he invested in DeepMind partly to monitor progress. He co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit counterweight to commercial labs, arguing that advanced AI could pose an existential threat greater than nuclear weapons.
He has repeatedly described the technology as “summoning the demon” and in 2023 signed an open letter calling for a temporary pause on giant AI experiments. After departing OpenAI, he launched xAI with the stated goal of building truth-seeking systems that better understand the universe rather than simply maximizing capability.
Other leading figures share parallel worries. Geoffrey Hinton left Google to speak more freely about risks. Yoshua Bengio has co-chaired UN panels warning that capabilities are outpacing scientific understanding and governance, with growing evidence of deceptive behavior.
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, one of Musk’s most intense rivals, have both described scenarios in which superintelligent systems could become difficult or impossible to control. Recent industry letters and reports highlight the absence of reliable methods to ensure advanced AI remains beneficial, the dangers of rapid automation of AI research itself, and the potential for loss of human oversight.
-
Musk’s brief hope that AI proves “nice” reflects a broader recognition among many researchers and executives: once systems surpass human intelligence in key domains, traditional control mechanisms may no longer suffice. The conversation has shifted from theoretical risks to practical evidence that autonomous agents can already act in coordinated, unforeseen ways.
Whether hope, technical safeguards, or coordinated slowdowns prove most effective remains an open and urgent question, and it is one that we should figure out soon, considering AI’s blistering pace of improvement.
Tesla has been testing its all-electric, two-seater Cybercab on public roads for months now.
Nearly two years after its unveiling, the Cybercab has been seen by perhaps tens of thousands as the company has expanded testing to a handful of states, including Texas, California, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, and New York, among several others.
However, nobody has seen one like this quite yet.
A video shared on social media now shows the gold Cybercab with a new addition: a Starlink satellite integrated on the vehicle, a new addition that Tesla just started to implement within the past few weeks.
@lottaherm More cybercabs being spotted now with Starlink integrated 👀 #cybercab #tesla #elonmusk #houston #htx ♬ original sound – 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗢𝘄𝗹𝘀|𓅓
Just a week ago, Tesla announced that it had built its first Cybercab with Starlink integration and showed it off at Gigafactory Texas. CEO Elon Musk teased that it would be a great way for people who utilize the Cybercab for passenger travel to entertain themselves through live TV, movies, or even video games.
Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said it is also a huge advantage for Tesla as it will enable constant connectivity between the company and the fleet of Cybercabs it has. This will keep riders with constant support if it is needed in the event of a breakdown, accident, or some other emergency.
Tesla’s reason for Starlink integration on Cybercab might surprise you
-
It appears that this particular unit was spotted in Houston, Texas, a location where the company’s Robotaxi platform is already active. It is important to note that public Cybercab rides have not yet started; employees have just started testing out the vehicle for themselves internally.
Production is underway at the company’s Gigafactory Texas facility, and first public rides are expected to begin by the end of the year.
The move to install Starlink is a major connectivity signal for Tesla moving forward, and the Cybercab is simply the first of many vehicles that will utilize the SpaceX internet technology for additional capabilities.
Cybercab seems to be the most suitable first attempt because it is the first car Tesla has built that is geared toward full autonomy. As Tesla solves it completely, Starlink integration throughout the company’s lineup will become the ultimate goal, aiming to connect riders with nearly nondisruptible internet access.
Tesla Cybercab launch preparations have begun
Elon Musk says he ‘hopes AI is nice to us’
