

News
Virgin Galactic completes their first all civilian flight
Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its first all-civilian flight this morning, carrying three civilians and three crew members to space aboard their spaceplane VSS Unity.
Taking off at 8:30 a.m. Mountain Time (15:30 UTC), the mothership, VMS Eve, with VSS Unity attached, began its journey to its drop point over Spaceport America in New Mexico.
VSS Unity released from VMS Eve (Credit Virgin Galactic)
VMS Eve climbed in a looping racetrack pattern over the Spaceport to an altitude of 44,300 feet before releasing VSS Unity at 9:17 am MT. Unity then dropped for a few seconds before igniting its rocket engine and beginning its climb to the edge of space. The hybrid rocket, fueled by hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) and nitrous oxide, burned for around 1 minute as it climbed to its apogee of 55 miles (88.5 km) and a top speed of Mach 3.
Shortly after the engine cut off, the crew released their harnesses and began floating around the cabin, taking in the views of Earth and space. The crew was able to float around the cabin of Unity for a few minutes before returning to their seats and beginning the trip back down to Earth to Spaceport America.
The three civilians making their first flights today were:
- Jon Goodwin: The first Olympian to go to space, 2nd person with Parkinson’s, Goodwin, who hails from the United Kingdom, bought his ticket in 2005.
- Keisha Schahaff: Won trip through draw benefitting Space for Humanity and chose her daughter to fly with her, becoming the first Mother and Daughter to go to space together.
- Anastasia Mayers: 2nd youngest person to go to space, along with her Mother, became the first two astronauts from Antigua and Barbuda.
The Crew:
- CJ Sturckow: Commander, former NASA astronaut, flew on the first VSS Unity mission
- Beth Moses: Virgin Galactic Chief Astronaut Instructor, this was her fourth flight to space and
- Kelly Latimer: Pilot, first female commercial space pilot, first flight to space. This mission also marked the most women to fly on a single mission to space.

A view of the Earth from the tail cone of VSS Unity (Credit Virgin Galactic)
While the crew members were floating through the cabin, VSS Unity performed a back flip while the wings transitioned into its feathering position, which helps stabilize the spaceplane at high altitudes as it descends back to Earth. Once Unity is below 53,000 ft, the wings are transitioned to their glide mode, and the pilot brought the spaceplane back for a smooth landing.
For reference, international space starts at the Kármán line, which is 62 miles (100 km) above the mean Sea level, and the United States boundary for space is 50 miles (80 km). It should also be noted that the U.S. no longer gives astronauts wings unless the mission “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety”.
This rule took effect in 2022.
This was the 3rd mission for VSS Unity in just over three months, with its next flight scheduled for September.
Questions or comments? Shoot me an email at rangle@teslarati.com, or Tweet me @RDAnglePhoto.
Elon Musk
Tesla board reveals reasoning for CEO Elon Musk’s new $1 trillion pay package
“Yes, you read that correctly: in 2018, Elon had to grow Tesla by billions; in 2025, he has to grow Tesla by trillions — to be exact, he must create nearly $7.5 trillion in value for shareholders for him to receive the full award.”

Tesla’s Board of Directors has proposed a new pay package for company CEO Elon Musk that would result in $1 trillion in stock offerings if he is able to meet several lofty performance targets.
Musk, who has not been meaningfully compensated since 2017, completed his last pay package by delivering billions in shareholder value through a variety of performance-based “tranches,” which were met and resulted in the award of billions in stock.
Elon Musk’s new pay plan ties trillionaire status to Tesla’s $8.5 trillion valuation
However, Musk was unable to claim this award due to a ruling by the Delaware Chancery Court, which deemed the payout an “unfathomable sum.”
Now, the company is taking steps to ensure Musk gets paid, as the Board feels that it is crucial to retain its CEO, who has been responsible for much of the company’s success.
This is not a statement to undermine the work of all of Tesla’s terrific employees, but a ship needs to be captained by someone, and Musk has proven he is the right person for the job.
The Board also believes that, based on a statement made by the company in its proxy, various issues will be discussed during the upcoming Shareholder Meeting.
Robyn Denholm and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson recognized Musk’s contributions in a statement, which encouraged shareholders to vote to approve the payout:
“We’re asking you to approve the 2025 CEO Performance Award. In designing the new performance award, we explored numerous alternatives. Ultimately, the new award aims to build upon the success of the 2018 CEO Performance Award framework, which ensure that Elon was only paid for the performance delivered and incentivized to guide Tesla through a period of meteoric growth. The 2025 CEO Performance Award similarly challegnes Elon to again meet a series of even more aspirational goals, including operational milestones focused on reaching Adjusted EBITDA targets (thresholds that are up to 28 times higher than the 2108 CEO Performance Award’s top Adjusted EBITDA milestone) and rolling out new or expanded product offerings (including 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation and delivery of 1 million AI Bots), all while growing the company’s market capitalization by trillions of dollars.
Yes, you read that correctly: in 2018, Elon had to grow Tesla by billions; in 2025, he has to grow Tesla by trillions — to be exact, he must create nearly $7.5 trillion in value for shareholders for him to receive the full award.
In addition to these unprecedented performance milestones, the 2025 CEO Performance Award also includes innovative structural features, born out of the special committee’s considered analysis and extensive shareholder feedback. These features include supercharged retention (at least seven and a half years and up to 10 years to vest in the full award), structural protections to minimize stock price volatility due to administration of this award and, thereafter, incentives for Elon to participate in the Board’s continued development of a framework for long-term CEO Succession. If Elon achieves all the performance milestones under this principle-based 2025 CEO Performance Award, his leadership will propel Tesla to become the most valuable company in history.”
Musk will have a lot of things to accomplish to receive the 423,743,904 shares, which are divided into 12 tranches.
However, the Board feels he is the right person for the job, and they want him to remain the CEO. This package should ensure that he stays with Tesla, as long as shareholders feel the same way.
News
Tesla Robotaxi app download rate demolishes Uber, Waymo all-time highs
After two and a half months of testing with a group of hand-picked Tesla influencers and some media, the company has officially launched Robotaxi rides in both Austin, Texas, and the California Bay Area to the public.

Tesla launched its Robotaxi app to the general public yesterday, and the number of downloads is a testament to the platform’s high demand for testing.
After two and a half months of testing with a group of hand-picked Tesla influencers and some media, the company has officially launched Robotaxi rides in both Austin, Texas, and the California Bay Area to the public.
Tesla Robotaxi makes major expansion with official public app launch
Downloading the app is available to iOS users, so if you have an iPhone, you can get it and join the waitlist. Tesla has not yet launched the Robotaxi app for the Android platform, but did hint that it would be coming soon.
The testing phase with the group Tesla selected has gone well. In Austin, the City has only listed one “Safety Concern” with Robotaxi during the testing phase. For the most part, things have gone extremely well, and riders have had good things to say.
Tesla is still operating with some safeguards in place, such as Safety Monitors and Safety Drivers, but these are precautionary and temporary; CEO Elon Musk has said they should be removed by the end of the year.
Elon Musk says Tesla will take Safety Drivers out of Robotaxi: here’s when
Even still, Tesla Robotaxi is something that many people want to experience, and the app downloads prove it.
The Tesla Robotaxi app was downloaded at a rate that exceeded all rolling 30-day periods of both Uber and Waymo, according to Brett Winton of ARK Invest. Tesla’s Robotaxi’s first day on the App Store exceeded Uber’s by 40 percent and Waymo’s best download day ever by six times:
Today’s Tesla Robotaxi App downloads outpaced Uber across all rolling 30 day periods by 40% and bested Waymo’s best download day ever by >6x pic.twitter.com/s9s1XTsUu2
— Brett Winton (@wintonARK) September 5, 2025
The surge in downloads is a good indication of how in demand the Robotaxi suite was, as many people within the community had vocalized their requests to try the platform, but Tesla was not ready to expand it beyond its handpicked group.
The expansion of the program will result in more rides, provided Tesla continues to expand its fleet of vehicles. It has already admitted many of those who were initially placed on the waitlist.
News
Elon Musk’s xAI expands to Seattle with salaries up to $440,000
The move was announced by the artificial intelligence startup and Elon Musk on social media platform X.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is opening a new office in Seattle as it accelerates its global expansion.
The move was announced by the artificial intelligence startup and Elon Musk on social media platform X. xAI is also hiring for its first positions in the new site.
New Seattle office
As could be seen on xAI’s Careers webpage, the Seattle office is currently hiring for three engineering roles. Each of the three technical roles tied to the new site carry salaries ranging from $180,000 to $440,000.
The new office adds to xAI’s growing presence, which now spans San Francisco, Austin, London, Dublin, New York, and Memphis. The Seattle-based roles focus on video and image generation systems, signaling Musk’s intent to challenge rivals like OpenAI and Meta in generative AI.
Pressures and challenges
Seattle also places xAI within reach of Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond. Microsoft has emerged as a central player in the AI race through its multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, making xAI’s move into the region notable. The competition for AI specialists has pushed salaries higher across the industry, with filings showing OpenAI staff earning up to $530,000 and Anthropic engineers as much as $690,000 annually, as noted by Insider.
The startup has also seen some high-profile departures in recent months, including cofounder Igor Babuschkin and general counsel Robert Keele. Still, xAI continues to grow aggressively, and its Grok large language model has been gaining momentum among mainstream users. Work also continues to be underway to further build out the company’s Colossus supercomputer cluster. Reports have also suggested that xAI has moved into San Francisco offices in the Mission District, a site Musk initially leased during OpenAI’s early years.
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