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Tesla Motors makes beautiful, quality electric automobiles. Don't just take it from us; Consumer Reports rated the Tesla Model S the "best overall" car in its 2014 Top Picks report (which includes all non-electric cars as well). Yet, despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk's ongoing effort to expand his EV empire, state after state in the United States is pushing back. Not because those states are against electronic vehicles, Musk or even Tesla; it's about the way Tesla wants to sell its cars. Specifically, it's about money. WHAT TESLA WANTS You know how Apple has stores where it sells its computers,...

an unlikely newcomer is getting top honors: the Tesla Model S.It’s the first electric car to win Motor Trend’s Car of the Year; an unprecedented 99 out of 100 rating from Consumer Reports; and now, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it’s also the safest car ever.But if the Model S really is the car of the future, then why has Texas banned its sales in the state and why are lawmakers in several other states trying to do the same? To answer that, first you need to meet Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He plans on opening 50...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The plural of anecdote is statistics. There are lies, damned lies and statistics. So take what I am about to say for whatever it is worth. Maybe nothing. I own some Tesla (TSLA) stock, after all, just so I can go to the annual shareholder meeting, get a free coffee and be my usual pest. You could argue that what I am about to present is the equivalent of saying, "I've never seen a non-Apple (AAPL) tablet out in the wild, so therefore..." -- and you would be right. But people are still justifying this kind...

After opening several stores without much pushback, Elon Musk's ambition to replicate the Apple experience in Tesla factory stores is now facing potential roadblocks. Dealer associations in a handful of states, and state regulators in at least one case, say Tesla's stores violate state franchise laws that prohibit factory ownership of dealerships. Electric-vehicle maker Tesla now operates 17 stores in 10 states and the District of Columbia, most in shopping malls. Another six are scheduled to open this fall. The protesting dealer associations say Tesla's factory-owned stores present unfair competition for rival dealerships, are inconvenient for consumers needing repairs and,...

SpaceX's recent attempt to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on an ocean platform in Florida was unsuccessful, but there were no visuals to tell the full story — until now. The company CEO Elon Musk shared four images from the failed landing on Twitter, in a response to Oculus VR CTO and game developer legend John Carmack. SEE ALSO: SpaceX comes close, but fails to land rocket on ocean platform While the image quality is far from perfect, Musk's descriptions help explain what happened to the rocket during landing. Before impact, the rocket's fins ran out...

Inspired by a book and poster from 1995, titled “Rockets of the World,” graphic artist Tyler Skrabek has provided a new and updated “clean” look for his latest work. ... He wanted an uncluttered look for his poster, and therefore used a set of rules to eliminate some rockets: The Rocket had to have more than 3 successful flights and each rocket had to be unique – no later versions from the same rocket family, such as the Soyuz. Also, rocket wannabes didn’t make the cut … not yet anyway. “Just to keep things tidy I choose not to include...

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. While it's certainly impressive that Elon Musk has bachelor's degrees in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania, it's an absurd understatement to say that prepared him to run SpaceX, his spacecraft company. Jim Cantrell, who was an aerospace consultant at the time, became SpaceX's first VP of business development and Musk's industry mentor when the company launched in 2002. He says that Musk literally taught himself rocket science by reading textbooks and talking to industry heavyweights.

SpaceX released video today of another successful soft landing of its Falcon 9 rocket, this time in the Atlantic Ocean. The test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able to consistently reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity. After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but SpaceX received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. The company says it is...

Hey, remember Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the guy who threw needless layers of bureaucracy at SpaceX because the private space company was doing its job of launching rockets into space a little too well? Well, it looks like he’s being joined by gentlemen from the other side of the Capitol: Three congressmen are trying to do the same thing.

Donations to key lawmakers wine-and-dined by its lobbyists earn commercial spaceflight company millions in subsidies Shortly before a private spaceflight company’s test rocket exploded over southern Texas last weekend, state lawmakers announced millions in subsidies to get the company to continue launching rockets in the Lone Star State. Space Exploration Technologies, commonly known as SpaceX, will receive more than $15 million in public financing to build a launch pad in Cameron County, near the Mexican border. The subsidies came after SpaceX’s founder, billionaire tech mogul and pop technologist Elon Musk, made campaign contributions to key state lawmakers and hired lobbyists...

After a hiatus of six long years, US astronauts will finally launch to space in a revolutionary new pair of private crew capsules under development by Boeing and SpaceX, starting in 2017, that will end our sole source reliance on the Russians for launching our astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Two years from now, crews will start flying to space aboard the first US commercial spaceships, launching atop US rockets from US soil, said officials from Boeing, SpaceX and NASA at a joint news conference on Monday, Jan. 26. The human rated spaceships – also known as ‘space...

This is not how you design a rocket : ESA Ministerial Meeting Seeking a defense against the market disruption being wrought by SpaceX and its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters, European space ministers voted yesterday to formally endorse the Ariane 6 project. The move came after Germany dropped its long running call to proceed with the Ariane V ME before moving on to a new booster. Hours after the meeting, the new industry partnership Airbus Safran, which will build the new booster, was formally announced. The Ariane 6 will come in two configurations. Both will feature a cryogenic two...

SpaceX is counting down to liftoff Saturday of a Falcon 9 rocket with a commercial cargo craft heading for the International Space Station after engineers replaced a component in an upper stage steering system that grounded the launcher Tuesday. Launch of the 208-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for 4:47:07 a.m. EST (0947:07 GMT). The mission has just one second to blast off Saturday or else wait for another opportunity to fly Tuesday. The tight launch windows are required for SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship to reach the International Space Station with more than 2.5 tons of supplies and experiments. A...

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was lifted upright on Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad Monday after workers loaded time-sensitive supplies and research specimens into the Dragon cargo craft’s pressurized cabin. More than 3,700 pounds of gear will be delivered to the International Space Station on the mission. The 208-foot-tall rocket is set for liftoff Tuesday at 6:20 a.m. EST (1120 GMT).

Today, NASA selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft to fly American astronauts to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX is deeply honored by the trust NASA has placed in us, and we welcome today’s decision and the mission it advances with gratitude and seriousness of purpose. Under the $2.6 billion contract, SpaceX will launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

6 days ago At 9:21am ET, Dragon is fully attached to the ISS, its home for the next four weeks. Astronauts will now prepare to open Dragon's hatch to unload cargo, including materials to support more than 255 science experiments.

It was a surreal moment, listening to the founder and chief designer of SpaceX talk about flying to Mars from Boca Chica beach, but talk about it he did at the Sept. 22 official groundbreaking for the world’s first commercial orbital rocket launch site. From the stage, under a tent set up for the occasion near the actual site where the launch pad will be built, Elon Musk fielded questions from reporters, who couldn’t have been blamed for not quite believing what they were hearing at certain junctures. “I’d like to fly to Mars,” Musk said. “But I think the...

Explanation: Taken from an Atlantic beach, Cape Canaveral, planet Earth, four identically framed digital images are combined in this night skyscape. Slightly shifted short star trails dot the sky, but the exposure times were adjusted to follow the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket. The September 21 launch delivered a Dragon X capsule filled with supplies to the International Space Station. Above the bright flare seen just after launch, the rocket's first stage firing trails upward from the left. After separation, the second stage burn begins near center with the vehicle climbing toward low Earth orbit. At the horizon, the...

The International Space Station is ready to receive more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments packed inside a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Saturday. Ground crews loaded last-minute supplies, including a habitat with 20 mice, sensitive research specimens, and other gear, into the Dragon capsule's pressurized cargo cabin Friday before hoisting the Falcon 9 rocket vertical at Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad. The cargo's installation Friday set the stage for a final countdown leading to an instantaneous launch opportunity at 2:14 a.m. EDT (0614 GMT), roughly the moment Earth's rotation puts Cape...

SpaceX appears to have completed an evaluation into potential commonality between a failure on a test vehicle and its Falcon 9 fleet, following its now-approved request to the Eastern Range for a Saturday morning launch of the ASIASAT-6 mission. The launch, to be conducted by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, was delayed just ahead of fueling last week, in order to triple-check its fault detection systems. ASAISAT-6 Mission: Last week’s launch appeared to be going ahead as planned, as the SpaceX team entered the Delta Launch Readiness Review (LRR). The initial LRR had cleared the flow to proceed towards rollout...