(FREE) Want to Know: Your Daily Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

18th of December, 2024

"This is a child’s toy compared to Starlink...." - Elon Musk

■ TESLA $TSLA ($440.13, -8.28%):

"Golden hour hits different in the California desert..." by Srdjan (@sergey021).

- According to Joe Tegtmeyer, Giga Texas has a new mezzanine floor constructed above the west main entrance and has has doubled the floor space available in this area. Joe says it is big enough for a whole new production line! "Just also happens a ton of new production equipment is staged across the highway waiting for installation." Cybercab, or is it for something else?

- Today, Tesla launched their first store in the Baltics. It is located in Vilnius, Lithuania.

- Today, Saia Inc. announced that Saia LTL Freight has partnered with Tesla to introduce two of the company's first Tesla Semi trucks to its fleet. Per Saia Executive Vice President of Operations Patrick Sugar, "Our partnership with Tesla underscores our dedication to evolution while staying true to the values that have guided us for the past century. As we celebrate 100 years of Saia, we're focused on building a sustainable and innovative foundation for the next century."

- Cybercab at the Tesla Store inside the International Plaza shopping center in Tampa, Florida. Pics by Ty Mathen

- Giga Shanghai's Factory Lead, Song Gang, is leaving Tesla this week. Tesla has not publicly commented on this, but according to Gang's LinkedIn profile he is now 'Ex-Tesla'. According to China media Latepost, Senior Director Fei Wenjin is expected to assume Song’s role.

- The Petersen Automotive Museum posted a behind the scene Facebook Reel of them bringing the Cybercab into the building. It is currently located in The Vault section of the meursem. It will be there until the 1st of January.

- Tesla's Osama Abdulrahman took this pic of Giga Berlin last night.

- Along with Actual Smart Summon (ASS), Tesla China has released Auto Parking.

- Actually Smart Summon is also available in South Korea.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 18th of December, '24. Joe was up early today and we get a great flight with visuals inside the factory. Tons of road work going on. Westside from the End-of-Line to River Road has been paved and lined. And the road on the south end over the employee tunnels is being laid. Subscribe to Joe and support his work!

• Giga Berlin: Tobias Lindh (@tobilindh), 17th of December, '24. Another great flyover showing the progress of the new public rail station and the Phase 2 of the factory. Follow Tobias and subscribe to his YouTube channel.

■ SPACEX:

- Yesterday evening, launch 134 of Falcon 9 O3b mPower 7 & 8 took place from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This was the first flight for the first stage booster! It landed on drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. This is number 7 and 8 of a constellation of eleven high-throughput communications satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) built by Boeing and operated by SES. Deployment of O3b mPower 7 & 8 confirmed. Pics by SpaceX, John Kraus (@johnkrausphotos), and Gavin R. (@tweetsiphotos).

- Yesterday, the FAA issued the Launch License for SpaceX's 7th Integrated Flight Test for vehicle Starship 33 (Block 2) and Super Heavy Booster. Now we wait for the official date from SpaceX. The 11th of January is still the tentative date.

- NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 now is targeting no earlier than late March 2025 to launch four crew members to the ISS. The change gives NASA and SpaceX teams time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission. The new spacecraft is set to arrive to the company’s processing facility in Florida in early January. Per NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich, "Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires great attention to detail. We appreciate the hard work by the SpaceX team to expand the Dragon fleet in support of our missions and the flexibility of the station program and expedition crews as we work together to complete the new capsule’s readiness for flight." NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore's return to Earth will be delayed until launch.

- Last night at Starbase, SpaceX held their 2024 Christmas Parade starting at the employee village, heading down Hwy 4, and into the Production Site. Video by Elisar Priel (@ENNEPS) for @NASASpaceflight.

- The US Air Force and Space Force have started a federal process to examine the environmental effects of expanding Falcon 9 launches up to 100. Per the Air Force, "The overall launch cadence for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy at both SLCs (Space Launch complexes), combined, would be 100 launches per year. The purpose of the Proposed Action is to increase the space launch mission capability of the USS Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal and commercial customers and to enhance the resilience and capacity of the nation’s space launch infrastructure, while promoting a robust and competitive national space industry." The the US military will hold meetings in January and give the public a chance to comment. The goal is to publish a draft of the 'Environmental Impact Statement' next spring before they make a final a decision in the fall.

Per Elon, "The Coastal Karens can go suck eggs!"

Countdown to 144 (128 - Falcon 9, 2 - Falcon Heavy, and 4 - Starship):

• Launch 135! Thursday, 19th of December, at 10:39 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 4x Astranis MicroGEO 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. This is four Astranis MicroGEO communications satellites that will be inserted in a custom geostationary orbit, from where they will conduct on-orbit maneuvers to reach their individual slots.

• Launch 136! Friday, 20th of December, at 3:53 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Bandwagon 2 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will return to Vandenberg and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4). This is a dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers. Payloads include the South Korean government’s 425 Project Flight 3.

• Launch 137! Friday, 20th of December, at 3:59 p.m. ET, Falcon Starlink 12-2 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 138! Sunday, 22nd of December, at 8:26 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Thuraya 4-NGS 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. Thuraya 4-NGS is a communication satellite being built by Airbus Defense and Space for the UAE based Yahsat. Based on the all-electric Airbus Eurostar-Neo Platform, Thuraya 4-NGS will incorporate a large 12-meter L-band antenna and a payload with on-board processing providing advanced routing flexibility of up to 3200 channels with dynamic power allocation over a large number of spot beams.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- The west side road connecting the Cyber-Tunnel to the End-of-Line is complete. Boring Crews continue to add the stainless steel cladding to exit structure. Crews are really pushing to have it completed before Christmas.

■ NEURALINK:

- Neuralink's Shivon Zilis (@shivon) dropped a pic of "New swag" and we wants it.

■ STARLINK:

- Ewan MacLean of the The Maclean Brothers, are planning an incredible ocean rowing boat that will take them 9,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean, non-stop and unsupported, in April of 2025. Their goal is to break multiple world records and raise £1 million to provide at least 30,000 people in developing countries with clean water for life through The MacLean Foundation. The Clarus Networks Group is providing Starlink and ensuring they can stay connected and live stream their journey from the most remote parts of the Pacific.

- This was Elon playing Path of Exile 2, Arbiter of Ash over Starlink in his airplane. "Starlink is so good that you can play real-time video games while airborne!"

- One New Zealand (@onenzofficial) posted this video promoting the new Starlink Direct-to-Cell service. "Coverage like never before is here! One NZ is the first in the world to launch a nationwide Satellite TXT service powered by Starlink helping New Zealanders to be better connected, safer, and more productive. Thanks SpaceX!"

- This photos of a Starlink kit with guns and ammunition was shared by the Indian Army’s Spear Corps on X claiming it was seized from a raid conducted in Keirao Khunou, Imphal East district of Manipur, India. An X user tagged Elon and stating, "Starlink is being used by terrorists. Hope Elon Musk looks into it and helps control misuse of this technology." Elon squashed this by replying, "This is false. Starlink satellite beams are turned off over India."

■ X:

- Today, X Japan CEO Ayumu Matsuyama (@ayumu_matsuyama) spoke on the evolution of X at the 2024 DX General EXPO (@bizcrew_expo) in Osaka.

- X's is trying out different ways to display media in X posts. The carousel version is active on the web. I do like that it does not crop the images like the grid version. X's Brandon Jacoby (@JacobyBrandon) is looking for user feedback. Hit him up if you have any ideas.

- X Devs introduced Xurl, a new tool that simplifies API testing for X developers, which now supports OAuth 2.0. Xurl replaces twurl as a curl-like CLI for the X API, with built-in app-auth and user-auth support (OAuth 1.0a & 2.0).

■ xAI:

- xAI's Uday Ruddarraju (@rudaykumarraju) posted the above pic stating, "Christmas arrived early at xAI's Colossus!" Of note, these are NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 up from DELL, maybe the the first to ever be used. They started shipping one month ago.

Per X's Andree Jacobson (@nmswede), "The xAI datacenter air is filled with excitement as more GPUs come alive. It's like sitting at the fireplace, past midnight, waiting for Santa to show up!"

- The Oman Investment Authority (OIA), Oman’s sovereign wealth fund, announced they have invested in xAI. Per Abdulsalam Al Murshidi, President of OIA, "This investment enables the Sultanate to adopt world-class technologies." Per Elon, "These investments will bear fruit as we work together to build a superintelligent AI capable of solving numerous problems." In August Oman drafted the National Artificial Intelligence Policy that aims to provide the development and deployment of AI technologies. OIA’s investments also include SpaceX. H/T Hassan Sajwani (@HSajwanization).

■ ELON NEWS:

- Per Elon on the OMNIBUS Bill in the US House of Representatives, "Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead.

The voice of the people has triumphed!

VOX POPULI (The voice of the people)

VOX DEI (is the voice of the Gods)"

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■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JCd1t0LBzo

• Giga Berlin: Tobia Lindh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oVFhPzRxGA

Tesla:

• https://www.stocktitan.net/news/SAIA/saia-partners-with-tesla-to-launch-two-electric-cmqo8p4qz0xj.html

X:

• xurl https://github.com/xdevplatform/xurl

xAI:

• https://www.agbi.com/ai/2024/12/oman-buys-stake-in-elon-musks-ai-company/

Elon News:

• Elon Quote https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869442235336740870