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5th of August, 2024

"The antibody reaction would be very strong..." - Elon speaking to Lex Friedman, 2nd of August, 2024

■ TESLA $TSLA ($198.88, -4.23%):

- Awesome shot by Craig Coker (@FromWhereICHG). Per Craig,"I’ve hauled with 4 different Cybertrucks and all of them resulted in flawless operation. This haul is roughly 12,000 lbs with @UnpluggedTesla trailer and Invincible CT. I’ve never had a problem with the Cybertruck's tow hitch."

- Elon gave Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) and Patrick Finney a Cybertruck for two weeks to review. Tucker has posted a 1hr video here on X about the Cybertruck on a farm rural in Maine. Link in the sources section

- User 大趙 (@zhongwen2005) posted an update on the Shanghai Megafactory, stating that Senior Director of Infrastructure at Tesla China, Wang Xiaowei, revealed that after more than two months of construction, the main structure of the entire main factory building is mostly complete. the entire project sits at 30% completion.

- On Saturday Elon walked through the supercomputer cluster at Giga Texas which is now called the Cortex. "This will be ~100k H100/H200 with massive storage for video training of FSD & Optimus."

- Tesla Malaysia posted that the Cybertruck Malaysia Tour has come to an end.

- According to Tesla's Wes Morille (@wmorrill3), Tesla is running 320+kW Supercharger trials at a few different V3+ stations (V3 cabinet + V4 charge post). "This is not a bug, but it's also not rolled out to all hardware capable stations."

- Starting on the 1st of October, the New Jersey sales tax for EVs will increase from to 3.31% from 0%. To qualify for 0% sales tax, you must place your order and take delivery by the 30th of September.

- 4 Ultra Red White Interior Model X Plaids spotted at the Tesla Center in League City, Texas.

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 5th of August, '24. According to Joe, a small ceremony was held this morning to honor the heart attack victim late last week. Work continues n the evac tunnels. Assembly of equipment at the Bag House filtration plant continues. Subscribe to Joe and support his work!

■ SPACEX:

- Elon introduced us to the V3 Raptor on Saturday and it is gorgeous. It was recently tested at the McGregor, Texas, facility (pic above), so let's break down this beast's improvements.

• V3's thrust equals 280tf (ton force). V2 hit 230tf and V1 hit 185tf.

• V3's specific impulse (Isp) hit 350s (seconds). V2 hit 347s and V1 hit 335s. Specific impulse is a measure of how efficiently a rocket engine generates thrust.

• V3's engine mass is 1525kg. V2 is 1630kg and V1 is 2080kg.

Elon also gave us some info stating, "The amount of work required to simplify the Raptor engine, internalize secondary flow paths and add regenerative cooling for exposed components was staggering. As a result Raptor 3 doesn’t require any heat shield, eliminating heat shield mass & complexity, as well as the fire suppression system. It is also lighter, has more thrust and has higher efficiency than Raptor 2. Truly, a work of art.

Important to note that the induced mass (mass required by a given engine design that is not the engine itself) of Raptor 3, while far better than Raptor 2, still has a lot of room for improvement. Thrust will exceed 300 tons with Raptor 3.x (thrust/mass > 200), enabling 10,000 tons of thrust at liftoff and there might be up to 5 sec of Isp gain over time. Getting close to the limit of known physics. In a few years, we will finally have a Raptor 3/4 vacuum version (giant nozzle) that has an Isp of 380. The fundamental architecture is now right, but we will still make thousands of improvements."

Elon also threw out this little nugget, "It is not widely understood that SpaceX has the most advanced 3D metal printing technology in the world. Many of them (previously external components) are 3D metal printed into the wall of the part."

- Saturday morning, Module 6 of the 2nd Tower was stacked. The crane Sarens CC 8800-1 is now being reconfigured so it can finish installing the remaining top modules on Tower 2. Screenshot from @LabPadre's live feed.

- Later Saturday, Starship 30 left the Rocket Garden and made her way onto the left side work stand in Mega Bay 2. Soon after, Raptor Vacuum engine #398 was removed, and replaced with #384. And today, the mobile static fire stand sits outside waiting. S30 should undergo another static fire soon. Screenshot from @LabPadre's live feed.

- Starship 33's forward section was attached to the common dome and lifted back towards its work station in Mega Bay 2. Screenshot from @LabPadre's live feed.

- Early Sunday, launch 78 of Falcon 9 Starlink 11-1 took place from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. This was the sixth flight for the booster. It previously launched USSF-62 and four Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. 23 Starlinks were deployed.

- Later Sunday, launch 79 of Falcon 9 Cygnus CRS-2 NG-21 launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the 21st flight of the Orbital ATK’s uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its 20th flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The booster landed at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Above and below pics by Ben Cooper (@LaunchPhoto).

Countdown to 144 (76 - Falcon 9, 1 - Falcon Heavy, and 2 - Starship):

• Launch 80! Wednesday, 7th of August, at 8:59 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 8-3 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 81! Saturday, 10th of August, at 7:15 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-7 will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 82! Sunday, 11th of August, at 7 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. ASBM 1 & 2 are two twin satellites built by Northrop Grumman for Space Norway, in cooperation with Inmarsat and the Norwegian Ministry of Defence. They are designed to bring mobile broadband coverage in the Arctic for both civilians and military. The US Air Force provides the Extremely High Frequency eXtended Data Rate payloads on ASBM satellites as part of the Enhanced Polar System. The booster landing area is unknown.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- The Boring crews are working on the Cyber-Tunnel's End of Line exit today. The first few road section have been removed. If the tunnel is to be like those in Las Vegas, I would expect some sort of ventilation system built and installed at this exit. Per Joe, "Overall the west side looks very sparse of materials or equipment, so uncertain what the next step will be to get the tunnel ready for operation."

■ NEURALINK:

- During the Elon's conversation with Lex Fridman (@lexfridman) you quickly find out the Neuralink has officially implanted its 2nd brain chip into another human with 400 electrodes providing signal. Like the 1st patient, Noland Arbaugh (@ModdedQuad), the new patient has Telepathy an can control a mouse using only their thoughts. Per Elon, "It seems to have gone extremely well with the second patient."

■ STARLINK:

- The southeastern Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) announced they will spend $69 million equipping more than 5000 Rural Fire Services vehicles with Starlink. The vehicles are dubbed vehicle-as-a-node (VaaN). Per an NSW official, "The upgrade will provide an important backup to communication systems and location-finding technology already in use. It will also give crews the capability to live stream video of fires from anywhere in the state, providing command centres with the latest intelligence about an incident."

- Lucy Taffs using Starlink in the sunflower fields of her farm in Warwickshire, England. "Starlink has been a game changer for me & my family on our farm this sunflower season. With thousands of visitors to the farm over the season most are wanting and expecting to pay with a card. We purchased a Starlink this season and connectivity has been perfect, no more waving our arms about trying to find signal in the field or preferring cash because the card machine is too slow or times-out."

- Daniele Tassara, Technical Service Delivery Manager at Carnival Corporation, "Welcome Starlink Mini! I've finally received my Mini for the Italian market. Within minutes of unwrapping, I had it online on my terrace. After 2 hours, the ping success rate reached an impressive 99.11%, all while consuming just under 40w. The potential this antenna holds is truly incredible."

- Starlink is now available across the island nation of Tonga. Putting Starlink in now 102 countries.

- Reddit u/liudasbar thought it was questionable, whether another Starlink Gateway exists in the eastern European region. The only one he knew of was in Wola Krobowska, Poland. So he set out to find it. Low and behold here it is. An array of 9 antennas (3 x 3) in Lithuania.

- The Starlink now has a family plan that enables customers to add additional subscribers with discounts for both the Kits and service plans. Those who become customers through the offer can manage the shared account if they are added as additional users. Billing will be joint. There is a limit of two subscriptions on each Starlink family plan account. If a full-price plan is cancelled, the discount is removed from the plan. The discounted subscription cannot be changed for six months.

- Isabella Rinarisera, CEO Starting Mauritius, "Starlink V4 is coming to Madagascar in collaboration with PCupgrade and The Connect!"

■ X:

- Pakistan's Telecommunication Authority chairman Hafeez Ur Rehman announced they plan to review and whitelist VPNs to enforce its ban on X. He stated X usage has dropped 70% since the February ban, but many users employ VPNs to access it. Bloomberg reports that the Pakistani government continues to utilize X for official communications. Over the past three months, X has only complied with only 7% of content complaints from the government.

- According to the Verge, X's Mark Kalman, engineering lead of media, and Melissa Merencillo have resigned. Kalman was the main source for X media infrastructure, and source stated he’s good at "handling" Elon. Melissa posted the following after their departure leaked to the press. "No one "handles" anyone at X because we respect each other, and we work together. I'm extremely disappointed in whoever the source is that spoke to the reporter. They are in the wrong for leaking messages from a private slack."

■ xAI:

- Today, an open letter from Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and signed by Al Schmidt of Pennsylvania, Steve Hobbs of Washington, Jocelyn Benson of Michigan, and Maggie Toulouse Oliver of New Mexico is to be sent to Elon. It accuses xAI's Grok chatbot of spreading false election information on X, and they demand Grok be fixed. The letter points to a false Grok claim that Kamala Harris is not eligible to appear on the ballot.

■ ELON NEWS:

- The official X account for Elon's America PAC is @theamericapac

- On Sunday, Steve Simmons, the Michigan Secretary of State, said the America PAC founded by Elon is under investigation in Michigan for possibly breaking state election laws for how it is collecting data, including how they acquire detailed voter information from those living in Michigan and other states after people have submitted their personal data through a "Register to vote" section on its website.

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Thanks for all the support you provide!

The Monthly Subscriber Drawing for August is the Cyber-Vessel ($50 value)! The winner get their choice of the black or stainless variant.

Have a great day!

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SOURCES

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyybtarGV6Y

Starlink:

• https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-gov-to-upgrade-5000-rfs-vehicles-with-starlink-610373

• Family Plan https://support.starlink.com/?topic=0cfacb70-1304-f3f7-a593-fc4ecdc0de3d

X:

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-02/pakistan-plans-to-prevent-vpn-workaround-to-its-ban-on-musk-s-x

• https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/2/24212295/x-loses-top-engineer-and-techops-lead

xAI:

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/04/secretaries-state-urge-musk-fix-ai-chatbot-spreading-false-election-info/

Elon News:

• https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-backed-pac-under-investigation-potential-violations-michigan-laws-2024-08-04/