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SpaceX Falcon 9 booster and first thrice-flown fairing return to port [photos]
In a period of just 12 hours last Friday, SpaceX successfully returned Falcon 9 booster B1058 and two payload fairing halves to Port Canaveral and a photographer-laden helicopter was airborne to capture it.
With its safe return to dry land, fairing recovery ship GO Ms. Tree’s bullseye catch of an already twice-flown fairing all but guarantees that the record-breaking payload fairing will have a chance to launch a fourth time in the near future. Meanwhile, Falcon 9 booster B1058 – the first US-built rocket to launch US astronauts since June 2011 – will soon be well on its way to its own fourth flight, likely for one of several dozen Starlink missions SpaceX aims to launch in the next ~15 months.
Aside from placing what CEO Elon Musk says is the last batch of satellites needed to kick off the Starlink internet network’s first public beta tests, the Starlink-12 mission was SpaceX’s 17th this year, leaving the company on track to beat its annual launch record by at least a small margin.
If SpaceX continues to follow its 2020 average of one Falcon 9 launch ever ~16.4 days, the company will likely end the year with 22 missions under its belt, narrowly beating the 21 launches it completed in 2018. If it follows its launch average – ~12.8 days per launch – from just the last four or so months, however, SpaceX could crush its record with some 24 or 25 launches this year. Given recent disruptions from reliably bad weather and a rare last-second launch abort, which trajectory SpaceX will follow over the next ~12 weeks is entirely up in the air.
Regardless of the outcome, though, reusability will have played a foundational role to a degree thus far unprecedented. Barring a major surprise, SpaceX will end 2020 having launched just five new Falcon 9 boosters – three of which will likely launch within the last two months of the year.
For fairing recovery and reuse, 2020 has been an even more groundbreaking, seeing SpaceX (seemingly) begin to find steadier footing with increasingly consistent fairing catches. Impressively, in the measly 11 months since SpaceX first reused a Falcon fairing, nearly a third of all launches and almost half of all Starlink missions have flown with one or two flight-proven halves. Recently, Musk even revealed that SpaceX intends for fairings and boosters to be capable of at least 10 launches each, confirming that Starlink-12’s now thrice-flown fairing half is no fluke.
Drone ship Of Course I Still Love You’s (OCISLY) successful Starlink-12 booster recovery ended an agonizing three weeks of back and forth as SpaceX was tugged in a circle by ULA’s launch priority, technical difficulties, and stormy summer weather. Originally meant to recover Falcon 9 booster B1058 as early as mid-September, the launch slowly slipped its way to October 6th. Beginning in late-September, drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) joined the fray for its role in SpaceX’s GPS III SV04 launch for the US military, a launch that would also find itself delayed several times.
Two seconds before liftoff, new Falcon 9 booster B1062 automatically aborted its October 2nd launch attempt due to bad pressure readings in at least one of its nine Merlin 1D engines. SpaceX has since taken the rocket horizontal and is likely swapping multiple engines, possibly necessitating a second static fire test before the next attempt sometime later this month. That abort has also delayed SpaceX’s second NASA astronaut launch (Crew-1) from Halloween to mid-November to ensure no commonality.
SpaceX has an absolutely jam-packed fourth quarter ahead of it, ranging from GPS III SV04 and Crew-1 to a Sirius XM radio satellite, a Turkish communications satellite, and the joint NASA/ESA/CNES Sentinel 6A oceanography spacecraft. Stay tuned for updates and spectacular new photos from the Teslarati team.
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Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025
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Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
Tesla plans to supply over 100 Megapack units to support a large stationary storage project in Japan, making it one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities.
Tesla’s Megapack grid-scale batteries have been selected to back an energy storage project in Japan, coming as the latest of the company’s continued deployment of the hardware.
As detailed in a report from Nikkei this week, Tesla plans to supply 142 Megapack units to support a 548 MWh storage project in Japan, set to become one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities. The project is being overseen by financial firm Orix, and it will be located at a facility Maibara in central Japan’s Shiga prefecture, and it aims to come online in early 2027.
The deal is just the latest of several Megapack deployments over the past few years, as the company continues to ramp production of the units. Tesla currently produces the Megapack at a facility in Lathrop, California, though the company also recently completed construction on its second so-called “Megafactory” in Shanghai China and is expected to begin production in the coming weeks.
READ MORE ON TESLA MEGAPACKS: Tesla Megapacks help power battery supplier Panasonic’s Kyoto test site
Tesla’s production of the Megapack has been ramping up at the Lathrop facility since initially opening in 2022, and both this site and the Shanghai Megafactory are aiming to eventually reach a volume production of 10,000 Megapack units per year. The company surpassed its 10,000th Megapack unit produced at Lathrop in November.
During Tesla’s Q4 earnings call last week, CEO Elon Musk also said that the company is looking to construct a third Megafactory, though he did not disclose where.
Last year, Tesla Energy also had record deployments of its Megapack and Powerwall home batteries with a total of 31.4 GWh of energy products deployed for a 114-percent increase from 2023.
Other recently deployed or announced Megapack projects include a massive 600 MW/1,600 MWh facility in Melbourne, a 75 MW/300 MWh energy storage site in Belgium, and a 228 MW/912 MWh storage project in Chile, along with many others still.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla highlights the Megapack site replacing Hawaii’s last coal plant
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Elon Musk responds to Ontario canceling $100M Starlink deal amid tariff drama
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, opens new tab on February 3 that he was “ripping up” his province’s CA$100 million agreement with Starlink in response to the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.
Elon Musk company SpaceX is set to lose a $100 million deal with the Canadian province of Ontario following a response to the Trump administration’s decision to apply 25 percent tariffs to the country.
Starlink, a satellite-based internet service launched by the Musk entity SpaceX, will lose a $100 million deal it had with Ontario, Premier Doug Ford announced today.
Starting today and until U.S. tariffs are removed, Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts.
Every year, the Ontario government and its agencies spend $30 billion on procurement, alongside our $200 billion plan to build Ontario. U.S.-based businesses will…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 3, 2025
Ford said on X today that Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts:
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy. Canada didn’t start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we’re ready to win it.”
It is a blow to the citizens of the province more than anything, as the Starlink internet constellation has provided people in rural areas across the globe stable and reliable access for several years.
Musk responded in simple terms, stating, “Oh well.”
Oh well https://t.co/1jpMu55T6s
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
It seems Musk is less than enthused about the fact that Starlink is being eliminated from the province, but it does not seem like all that big of a blow either.
As previously mentioned, this impacts citizens more than Starlink itself, which has established itself as a main player in reliable internet access. Starlink has signed several contracts with various airlines and maritime companies.
It is also expanding to new territories across the globe on an almost daily basis.
With Mexico already working to avoid the tariff situation with the United States, it will be interesting to see if Canada does the same.
The two have shared a pleasant relationship, but President Trump is putting his foot down in terms of what comes across the border, which could impact Americans in the short term.
Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025
Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
