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SpaceX’s first launch and landing of 2018 a success [gallery]

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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.

Teslarati’s launch photographer Tom Cross was also able to snag some great shots of the booster’s recovery at LZ-1.

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.

 

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.

 

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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Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025

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Photo: Unplugged Performance

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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.

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Credit: Tesla

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.

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NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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.

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.”

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.

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