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

3rd of January, 2025

"The Moon is a distraction..." - Elon Musk

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■ TESLA $TSLA ($410.44, +8.22%):

- According to Gigafactory Berlin News (@Gf4Tesla), Giga Berlin is in preparations and will soon begin the training of workers for the Model Y Juniper.

- When someone posted that Elon was joking about making the Trump Las Vegas Cybertruck run again, Elon replied, "No, I mean it."

- Alexandra Merz (@TeslaBoomerMama) has started a survey for TSLA Shareholders that will be used to encourage the Tesla Board of Directors to consider legal action against news outlets that report inaccurate sensationalized headlines about Tesla. The link to the survey is in the sources section. I encourage everyone who is able to fill it out. The data will only be shared with Tesla.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 3rd of January, '25. Production is ramping. Good bit of Cybertrucks and Model Ys are staged in the outbound lot. The mystery ramp on the westside near the Model Y production is a new entryway into the factor. Lots to see in this flyover. Subscribe to Joe and support his work!

• Fremont Factory: MetGod, 2nd of January, '25. Very few cars at the end-of-line. Production will start to ramp back up now that the holidays are over. No movement on the ground work in the middle of the test track.

• Giga Texas: Brad Sloan, 2nd of January, '25.

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■ SPACEX:

- SpaceX has giving us an update on Starship Seventh Flight 7. Here are the test highlights and changes:

Vehicle Upgrades:

• New generation Starship upper stage with significant reliability and performance enhancements.

• Reduced size and repositioned forward flaps to minimize reentry heating.

• Propulsion system upgrades with a 25% increase in propellant volume, new vacuum jacketed feedlines, and an improved propulsion avionics module.

• Latest generation heat shield tiles with an additional protective layer.

Avionics Redesign:

• More powerful flight computer, integrated communication antennas, upgraded navigation sensors, smart batteries, and power units.

• Over 30 vehicle cameras for enhanced real-time telemetry at 120 Mbps.

Mission Objectives:

• First payload deployment test with 10 Starlink simulators.

• Multiple reentry experiments focusing on ship catch and reuse, including stress-testing of the heat shield and testing new materials.

• Single Raptor engine relight test in space.

Reentry and Catch Experiments:

• Intentional stress-test of structural limits during reentry.

• Testing of metallic tiles with active cooling and non-structural ship catch fittings.

• Radar sensor testing on the tower chopsticks for improved catch accuracy.

Super Heavy Booster:

• First use of flight-proven hardware with a reused Raptor engine.

• Upgrades to the launch and catch tower for better reliability.

• Conditional booster return and catch with manual override and automated health checks; otherwise, a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

- Last night, the Flight Termination System (FTS) for Super Heavy Booster 14 was installed. Another stepped checked off for Flight 7. Pic by Starship Gazer (@StarshipGazer). Subscribe to Gazer and support his work.

- Elon confirmed that the Raptor engine SpaceX will reuse is No. 314 (𝞹) off of Super Heavy Booster 12 from Flight 5. Pic by Starship Gazer.

- The first NOTAM for Flight 7 was released for the Mexican side of the Gulf of Mexico for January 10th.

- Per Elon, "No, we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction. Mass to orbit is the key metric, thereafter mass to Mars surface. The former needs to be in the megaton to orbit per year range to build a self-sustaining colony on Mars."

Countdown to 180 (0 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 0 - Starship):

• Launch 1! Friday, 3rd of January, at 8:27 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 drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas 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. Pics are of Thuraya 4-NGS being encapsulated in the Falcon 9 fairings.

• Launch 2! Monday, 6th of January, at 11:19 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-11 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 3! Monday, 6th of January, at 11:44 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 6-71 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 4! Thursday, 9th of January, at 10:55 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-12 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 5! Thursday, 9th of January, at 7:19 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 NROL-153 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. This is the 7th batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities.

• Launch 6! Friday, 10th of January, at 4:00 p.m. CT, Starship 33 Super Heavy Booster 14 (Flight 7) will launch from Orbital Launch Mount A (OLM-A) at Starbase, Texas. The SH Booster 15 will return to launch site for the 2nd Tower catch attempt. Starship 33 will do a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

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■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- In these pics of the Cyber-Tunnel by Joe Tegtmeyer you can clearly see the front light bar of the tunnel. Very cool!

- More pics of the Cyber-Tunnel as of yesterday evening from Brad Sloan's flyover. Link in the sources section.

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■ NEURALINK: N/A...

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■ STARLINK:

- Ariel Ruiz Díaz, Information Systems Engineer at the Lago Escondido Group, in Argentina. "Thanks to Starlink, our visitors can stay connected while exploring the beauty of nature."

- Adam Ghetti (@AdamGhetti) using Starlink Mini in Antarctica. "173mbs and 92ms latency in Antarctica thanks to Starlink all from the laptop compartment of a backpack... We live in the future!"

- Yoki Asrianto of Arya Citra Logistics of Indonesia transporting Starlink Gateway Terminals from Jakarta to Makassar. Another load was in Padang City area of West Sumatra.

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■ X:

- X's Global Content Partnerships and Sales, Joêlle (@YazbeckJoelle), will host a "X for Content Creators" workshop at the 1 Billion Followers Summit (@1billionsummit) in Dubai. Per Joêlle, "Thrilled to share insights at the upcoming 1 Billion Summit. Looking forward to engaging discussions and new connections!" You can book a ticket via the link in the sources section.

- A new Live Broadcast UI on X includes a larger video window for a better picture and clearer picture.

- X is adding a new video overview section to Analytics.

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■ xAI:

- xAI has changed the Grok icon on X to their own logo. I personally liked the Grok Black Hole logo they were considering myself.

- xAI has already updated the Grok iOS Standalone App to version 1.0.3.

- Grok Search will soon be active. It will give you a summary of what you are searching for and other pertinent information on the subject.

- X account handles are now clickable on Grok.

- You can generate Grok images while making a Post.

- Per xAI's Greg Yang (@TheGregYang), "Android users your savior has arrived." He is referencing Attila (@ablenessy) who is moving from X to xAI starting this year. Is he really the only Android dev? Bruhhh...

■ ELON NEWS:

- On the 9th of January at 7 p.m. CT, Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel), Germany's AfD co-leader, will host a Space with Elon on X.

- Elon replied "Yes" to a post asking, "Who also thinks the KING should Dissolve Parliament and order a General Election be called for the sake and security of the country?"

- At the end of the 2024, Elon donated approximately $112 million in Tesla stock to unnamed charities. Per the filing, this was part of his tax strategy. He also donated $237 million in gifts from the Musk Foundation that targeted STEM education, AI safety research, and schools like Ad Astra.

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■ SUBSCRIBE:

Thanks for all the support guys! Please repost and spread the news.

For January, I will be giving away a limited edition 'Find Me In Deep Space' Tesla Hat to a lucky subscriber! This commemorates the launch of Elon's Roadster and Starman aboard the Falcon Heavy on the 6th of February, 2018. Instead of credits like now, Tesla gave this out in limited capacity if you referred a Tesla purchase. Subscribe here to support and be eligible.

If you are interested in getting a new Tesla, use my Referral to get $1,000 off the purchase. ts.la/stephen746292

Everybody have a great weekend!

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■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Fremont Factory: MetGod https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEskS7_Fo84

• Giga Texas: Brad Sloan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgFFa5IKyVw

Tesla:

• TSLA Shareholder Survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Action_Against_Press