SpaceX completed its seventh launch of Starship on Thursday, accomplishing a clean liftoff and catch of the first-stage booster. However, the upper stage was lost after its ascent.

The launch took place just a few minutes after 5 p.m. on the East Coast, as the first attempts at getting Starship in the air for the seventh time were delayed by weather both last week and this week.

Conditions were favorable on Thursday as SpaceX looked to follow up a successful campaign by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s company, earlier today.

SpaceX went into the seventh Starship launch with plans for a catch attempt of the first-stage booster, something it attempted and completed during the fifth test launch last year. It decided to skip a catch attempt with the sixth test flight as conditions were not aligned.

For now, SpaceX is extremely selective as to when it attempts catches.

However, it was successful during this attempt, its second completed catch:

? ? Here is @SpaceX’s full catch of the Lower Stage Booster from Starship Flight 7! pic.twitter.com/IXIRAGr1Md

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 16, 2025

This flight differed from previous launches as SpaceX rolled out several improvements to the rocket and the processes as it featured plans to do a Starlink deployment simulation and had various adjustments to flap placement and avionics.

These plans were disrupted by the fact that SpaceX lost all communications with Starship about ten minutes into the flight, which the aerospace company confirmed was a result of losing the spacecraft sometime during its ascent.

?? Telemetry on Starship has been lost. All comms with the ship have been lost, and SpaceX’s livestream says this is an “anomaly.”

“We are assuming the ship has been lost.” pic.twitter.com/fyyCNuXVRg

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 16, 2025

Although the catch was successful, the loss of the actual rocket seemed to be a huge damper on the entire event. SpaceX confirmed several minutes after the loss of communications that the rocket was destroyed and was lost.

It was its first failure since the second Starship launch in November 2023. SpaceX had no answers for why the rocket was destroyed and lost.

We will keep you updated in the coming days.

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Tesla is flexing the Robotaxi’s wireless charging pad in a new video it released on Friday, showing how the vehicle platform will be completely autonomous from top to bottom.

The Robotaxi is already a driverless, steering wheel-less, pedal-less vehicle that aims to revolutionize transportation. Used as a ride-sharing platform, the Robotaxi will eventually transfer riders from Point A to Point B without any human needed.

However, more than just the vehicle operation will be fully autonomous.

Tesla will also use a wireless charging pad to create a full-fledged, completely autonomous driving and ownership experience. Instead of manually plugging in the Robotaxi when it is time to recharge, the vehicle will slide over a wireless charging pad, much like the one it unveiled at Investor Day in 2023.

Tesla teases mysterious “wireless” home charger on Investor Day

Tesla shared the video of the Robotaxi pulling over the charging pad and gaining range without any human intervention needed, truly creating an autonomous experience from top to bottom and start to finish.

Check out the video below:

Robotaxi wireless charging

No hands required pic.twitter.com/XL746DkGhb

— Tesla (@Tesla) October 18, 2024

The video does note a charging power of just 25 kW.

It would be nice to have some sort of information regarding whether this tech will be available for retrofit, especially considering many owners are curious as to whether Tesla will push the wireless charging capability to the rest of its lineup in the coming years, something that has been speculated since the automaker purchased Wiferion a few years back.

In reality, the charging rate does not truly matter to anyone because the vehicle is designed to take care of the rides and the riders on its own. There is no real reason for the charging rate to be of any concern.

The Robotaxi experience, from an ownership perspective, is truly like a long-term investment. It aims to make people money by giving rides through a dedicated ride-hailing app, which Tesla also teased in recent memory.

Credit: Tesla

From a rider’s perspective, everything from the temperature to the music will be customizable. It truly caters to both the owner and the rider.

Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

The Tesla Semi program is arguably one of the most intriguing within the scope of the company in recent memory. But it’s only getting started.

During the IAA Transport Show in Germany today, the Semi’s Head of Engineering, Dan Priestley, unloaded tons of new details on the vehicle, including plans to leverage several different variants of the electric truck, how its efficiency stacks up, and various Easter eggs that the company has discovered through its fleet operation thus far.

Tesla Semi sleeper section and large side storage teased in new video

Tesla Semi Configurations

Priestly said Tesla will develop several configurations of the Semi so that they can be purchased according to the buyer’s needs.

Thanks to Tesla’s vertical integration, manufacturing will be simple.

Mass production at the new Semi factory near Giga Nevada will scale to 50,000 units annually.

Priestley said:

“We aim to be as competitive at an upfront price with diesel as possible, in order to accelerate the adoption of electric trucks as quickly as we can. Again, this is on lock for Tesla’s deep vertical integration, and we will plan to leverage this into multiple variants…We will be taking on a wide variety of applications and vehicle types.”

Tesla Semi Efficiency

Tesla, along with the companies that have been operating the vehicle in their pilot programs, have routinely flexed the efficiency of the Semi.

Pepsi details how its Tesla Semi fleet is helping it reach sustainability goals

But Priestley said today at the conference that common industry numbers are approaching 100 kWh per 100 kilometers traveled.

The Semi has already achieved this.

It will only get better when Tesla comes back with a high-volume version of the Semi. Higher efficiency means lower battery mass and cost, meaning a less expensive product and more advantages for the customer.

Fleet Data

Despite the Tesla Semi being a vehicle that is relatively new and only has operated on a very controlled basis, only being delivered to a handful of companies.

Here are some of the stats Tesla has logged so far for the fleet:

• Over 4.65 million miles have been driven since the Tesla Semi pilot test fleet started operation
• One Tesla Semi unit has over 248,000 miles driven — it took only 18 months to get to this point
• The fleet has a 95 percent uptime — this includes scheduled and unscheduled maintenance

The full presentation can be watched below:

Here is the full keynote speech of the Tesla Semi program lead @danWpriestley which just took place in the IAA in Hannover Germany.

Welcome to Europe, @Tesla!
The Semi is incredible. pic.twitter.com/UPYKkwDVeO

— Jaan of the EV Universe ⚡ (@TheEVuniverse) September 17, 2024

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