S.E. Robinson, Jr.

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Published:

2024-08-12 20:37:58

Imported:

2026-06

Content

12th of August, 2024

" About 3 weeks..." - Elon (@elonmusk), 10th of August, 2024.

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■ TESLA $TSLA ($197.49, -1.25%):

- "Sunrise with the Cybertruck" by Aaron Cash (@aaronjcash). Sick pic!

- A representative from Tesla is scheduled to meet with Malaysia's Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz on the 22nd of August to discuss the company's investment plans in the country.

- Tesla Used Sales Manager Connor Magrath was at the Tesla Longbridge Center in Birmingham, UK, showing off the Certified Pre-Owned Teslas. "If you’re considering becoming a Tesla owner NOW is the best time to jump in with both feet. Come down today and get a great price + a FREE wall charger."

- Tesla Finland just installed their 250th Supercharger, Tesla sits at roughly 4.5 stalls per 100,000 inhabitants. Per Mikko Koskelin (@mikoske), "Found it! First V4 charge for me." Pics by Mikko.

- For July in China, the Model Y ranked No.1 in BEV Wholesale even with a -5.8% decrease YoY. The Model 3 ranked No.3 with a +61% increase YoY. H/T Tsla Chan (@Tslachan).

- Good Faith Energy just installed 4 Powerwall 3s on a property in Keller, Texas.

- Tesla's Military Purchase Program has expanded to include the Cybertruck Foundation Series. Current or former members of the U.S. military and their spouses, can receive $1,000 off towards the purchase of a Cybertruck.

- The $16,000 Cybertruck range extender has been pushed back to early 2025, from late 2024.

- Tesla's Bec Chappell and Team held an event at Notcutts Edwalton, Nottingham, UK, this past weekend. "We were at the Electric Vehicle Event this weekend with an Upgraded Model 3 and Y on display. We were also offering Model Y test drives."

FLYOVERS:

Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 12th of August, '24. The southend tunnels are ll taking shape. The northern conduit concrete vault has walls and wires pulled through conduit. Cybertrucks are still filling up the End of Line areas. Support Joe by subscribing to his account!

Tesla Diner: 247Tesla, 11th of August, '24. Steel cladding now surrounds the diner. Groundwork for the 2nd theater screen has started. Plus sidewalks and curbs are taking shape.

Giga Berlin: Robert & Andreas (@wolfpackberlin), 11th of August, '24. Beautiful flyover of the factory. Great views of the new Charging Solar Canopy, the new Giga Train, and the expansion areas.

RCR Taylor Railyard/Giga Texas: Airwave Dynamics, 10th of August, '24. There are three large tents being built at the Railyard where Tesla stages their outbound vehicles. Guesses range from Robotaxi hiding places to hail storm prevention.

Giga Mexico: Adrean (@AdreanCG), 9th of August, '24. Things appear to be at a standstill since the "On Hold" announcement of Giga Mexico. Still beautiful flyover by Adrean.

■ SPACEX:

- Elon on IFT-5, "About 3 weeks."

- Saturday morning, Falcon 9 Starlink 8-3 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the 21st flight for the booster. It previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, mPOWER-a, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Merah Putih 2, and 11 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. 21 Starlinks were deployed.

- Sunday evening, 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. This was the 22nd flight of the booster. It previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4, Transporter-5, Globalstar FM15, ISI EROS C-3, Korea 425, Maxar 1, and 10 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. Both ASBMs were deployed.

- This morning, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-7 launched from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This was the 17th flight for the booster. It previously launched SES-22, ispace's HAKUTO-R MISSION 1, Amazonas-6, CRS-27, Bandwagon-1, and 11 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. 23 Starlinks were deployed.

- At Starbase, crews have working on the landing rails. You can see the pistons that lift and lower the rail. Dampers work to level it. The dampers play a crucial role in preventing the booster or test tank from exerting too much downward force on the rails during a catch, which could potentially cause them to break. This incredible pic is by Carlos, the Starbase Surfer (@cnunezimages). Subscribe to Carlos!

- Thomas Grote, HR at SpaceX, was feeling patriotic and decided to post a rocket. "Cheering for team USA all the way from Starbase!" Pretty sure this was Starship 30 rolling by.

- The FAA has canceled their public and virtual meetings on August 13th, 15th, and 20th. These were for the environmental assessment for Starship launches at Starbase. New dates will be posted once decided.

- Today SpaceX announced Fram2; the first human spaceflight mission to fly over and explore the Earth’s polar regions from orbit. "Throughout the 3-to-5-day mission, the crew plans to observe Earth’s polar regions through Dragon’s cupola at an altitude of 425 – 450 km, leveraging insight from space physicists and citizen scientists to study unusual light emissions resembling auroras." The team consist of commander Chun Wang, an entrepreneur and adventurer from Malta, Norway’s Jannicke Mikkelsen, vehicle commander; Australia’s Eric Philips, vehicle pilot; and Germany’s Rabea Rogge, mission specialist. This will be the first spaceflight for each of the crewmembers.

Countdown to 144 (79 - Falcon 9, 1 - Falcon Heavy, and 2 - Starship):

Launch 83! Wednesday, 14th of August, at 9:00 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 WorldView Legion 3 & 4 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. WorldView Legion is a constellation of Earth observation satellites built and operated by Maxar. Constellation is planned to consist of 6 satellites in both polar and mid-inclination orbits, providing 30 cm-class resolution. The booster will land at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
Launch 84! Friday, 16th of August, at 11:19 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Transporter 11 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. This is a dedicated rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers. The booster landing zone is currently unknown.

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■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- Yesterday, the Boring Company introduced Prufrock-4 to the world! Testing for the boring machine has started in Bastrop, Texas. Stats provided are:

308 feet long (~1 football field).
Weighs 797,000 pounds (~150 SUVs).
Produces up to 4.7 million pounds of thrust (~90% of Falcon Heavy liftoff thrust).

I believe a 2nd tunnel is slated at Giga Texas, so I would expect Prufrock-4 to be tested here and Prufrock-3 go to Las Vegas. Just a guess, though.

- Speaking of Giga Texas, the Cyber-Tunnel crews are working at both ends of the tunnel, and Joe Tegtmeyer spotted something interesting. It appears that some tunnel road sections were removed because they broke. The broken liners seem to be made of fiber and not rebar.

■ NEURALINK:

- NP1 Noland Arbaugh (@ModdedQuad) asked what he should do next with his Neuralink. Per Noland, "For the most part, I think our ideas align pretty well. We're waiting for FDA approval allowing me to control other physical machines such as a car, a drone, maybe a robot or two or 10,000. Something about making sure it's safe..."

■ STARLINK:

- SpaceX has teamed up with the US National Science Foundation and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) to figure out away to get Starlink into the radio astronomy areas in New Mexico and West Virginia. They are leveraging Starlinks advanced phased array antenna technology to dynamically steer beams away from the radio telescopes.

- Reddit user AudioHTIT went to the Galápagos Islands in July and were told there would be no WiFi or cell service and to embrace being ‘unplugged’. But once on board they were announced as the first guest to try out the new WiFi Internet via Starlink!

- Per Rizki Ramdhani, Technical Support Engineer at Leica Geosystems of Indonesia, "Leica TM60i, the first Leica Geosystems Monitoring Solution using the Starlink network in Indonesia, has been installed!" Starlink connected to the Leica Nova TM60 allows continuous monitoring of projects 24/7 from anywhere whenever you need to collect data securely.

■ X:

- The Eu's Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) is at it again. This time he is trying to influence American politics. He has sent and posted a letter he sent to Elon threatening recourse if he does not like the Elon and Donald Trump conversation that is to take place later today on X. Elon, naturally, posted a Tropic Thunder meme telling Thierry to literally f#@k his own face.... Here is the letter:

Per Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX), "This is an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US. It also patronizes European citizens, suggesting they are incapable of listening to a conversation and drawing their own conclusions."

- Users can now sort replies on any post by most relevant, recent, or liked, enhancing user control and improving content visibility by prioritizing the most pertinent responses in conversations.

■ xAI:

- Elon posted his new shirt...

- Elon has posted that Grok 2 beta will release soon.

■ ELON NEWS:

- Tonight we will see how robust X Spaces have become. At 8 p.m. ET Elon and Donald Trump will have their live conversation. Per Elon, "This is unscripted with no limits on subject matter, so should be highly entertaining!" Elon encouraged users with questions to ask them in the Spaces chat.

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