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

7th of February, 2025

"He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA $TSLA ($361.62, -3.39%):

- "Your Starship has arrived..." The Tesla Hong Kong Model Y launch event.

- The free Supercharging for life on new Model S and X order now applies in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe, and the Middle East.

- Pre-delivery tasks for the new Model Y are now prompting. Deliveries dates show as soon as the 19th of February.

- Tesla Canada is offering 0.99% APR for new Model 3 orders placed by the 7th of March and delivered by the 31st of March.

- UNPLUGGED PERFORMANCE (@UnpluggedTesla) brought the UP.FIT Model Y and Cybertruck to the Nation's Capitol. They are inviting agencies and departments to come see them and a get hands-on experience. They will be at this weekend and into next week.

- According the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), Tesla China sold 63,238 vehicles in January, down from 71,447 compared to last year (-11.5% YoY).

- Some more Tesla Semi action for you from a driver at Pepsi Co.

- Tesla signed an agreement with Western Australia to establish a Megapack servicing facility in Collie. It is to be located next to Neoen's massive Collie Battery project with a capacity of 560 MW and 2,240 MWh. It will be a service, repair, and renewal facility for Tesla's battery products, including Megapack batteries. They have plans to expand servicing for residential Powerwalls and charging equipment. The project was initiated through a Memorandum of Understanding signed in December between WA Premier Roger Cook and Tesla Motors Australia.

- The Lone Pine, California, Supercharger with Mount Whitney center-right and Lone pine peak to the left. Beautiful pic by Kyle Field (@mrkylefield).

- Tesla is sending out new 30-day FSD trials. So, check your emails.

- Per Margie Brumback, Vice President at ABC Tech, "Exciting to be with our Kyle Texas leadership team this week. A great group of people working diligently to launch the Tesla Model Y Opal parts. Keep an eye on ABC Technologies Kyle, Texas - great things happening!"

- The first four-hour duration battery energy storage system (BESS) in the Netherlands has been activated. It is powered by Megapacks with a capacity of 10 MW/40 MWh. This system located in Rilland and is commissioned by S4 Energy.

PRICE CHANGES:

United States:

• Model X: LR is now $84,990, up from 79,990. Plaid is now $99,990, up from $$94,990. The vehicle no longer qualifies for the $7,500 Fed EV credit.

Canada:

• Model X: LR is now $121,990, up from $114,990. Plaid is now $142,990, up from $135,990.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 7th of February, '25. More Cybercab testing! Subscribe to Joe and support his work.

■ SPACEX:

- A fully stacked Starship 35 (Flight 9) was fully visible inside Mega Bay 2 this morning!

- Starship 32 was moved into the High Bay today. Probably getting scrapped.

- The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced it would not oppose SpaceX's arguments challenging the constitutionality of the board's structure in a letter filed in court. SpaceX contested that the NLRB's design, which restricts the president's ability to remove board members and merges executive, legislative, and judicial powers, violates constitutional standards. This move by the NLRB could reflect an anticipation of judicial outcomes or a strategic choice to focus resources elsewhere. Of note, President Donald Trump has fired some Democratic NLRB members.

- A road closure for Hwy 4 will be in effect on Saturday, the 8th, from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. CT for transportation operations from factory to launch pad. Last night, the Booster Transport Stand arrived at the production site and is now in front of Mega Bay 1. On the 9th more road closures will start with backups on 10th and 11th. Get ready for a Booster 15 static fire campaign.

- Yesterday at the McGregor, Texas, Test Facility, SpaceX tested a Merlin 1D engine. H/T Reagan Beck (@bluemoondance74) and @NASASpaceflight.

- Today at McGregor, new Falcon 9 Booster B1091 static fired!

- Amazing views of the Flame Trench progress at Pab B by RGV Aerial Photography (@RGVaerialphotos). Check out their latest flyover in the sources section.

- Democratic Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Valerie Foushee have sent a letter to the acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro expressing concerns over potential conflicts of interest related to SpaceX's contracts with NASA and Elon's involvement with DOGE. It states, "Mr. Musk, apparently serving as a 'special government employee,' is personally directing DOGE’s activities... Any breach of protocol surrounding the preservation or safeguarding of secure systems could have grave consequences for the agency and the country."

- The latest view of Starship 37 inside the Starfactory. Pic by Carlos, the Starbase Surfer (@cnunezimages). Subscribe to Carlos!

Countdown to 180 (16 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 1 - Starship):

• Launch 18! Saturday, 8th of February, at 1:230 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-9 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 19! Sunday, 9th of February, at 4:03 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 11-10 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.

• Launch 20! Tuesday, 11th of February, at 12:00 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-18 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 21! Friday, 14th of February, at 12:26 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-8 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 22! Wednesday, 26th of February, at 7:00 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Nova-C IM-2 & Lunar Trailblazer will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the second mission of Nova-C lunar lander developed and built by Intuitive Machines. This time it carries a NASA payload called PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1), which is to be the first demonstration of in-situ resource utilization on the Moon. PRIME-1 consists of two instruments: TRIDENT drill and Msolo mass spectrometer.

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■ THE BORING COMPANY: N/A...

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- SpaceX has officially withdrawn from participating in the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) public hearings on a new satellite services licensing framework. The company was set to present at 11:30 a.m. in Pretoria, but did not show up, and later that evening, ICASA confirmed SpaceX's withdrawal.

Though no comment has been made by SpaceX, it is most likely due growing tension over South Africa’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) policies. I have discussed this before, and it is a wild policy. It requires foreign companies to allocate 30% ownership to historically disadvantaged groups. SpaceX has maintained that this requirement exclude foreign operators with direct-to-consumer business models and that their global policies prohibit local shareholding.

- Per Albert Rodas, Sugar Cane Specialist at Casa Toro - John Deere, "Good news for farmers with little to no cell coverage in their fields! John Deere launches JDLink Boost™, a satellite connectivity solution to ensure customers continue to work seamlessly in fields with little or no cellular coverage."

- The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) noted that Starlink sent notifications to some users about potential service disconnection due to the Falkland Islands not being an authorized territory. The FIG clarified that they did not instruct Starlink to do so. It appears Starlink might be implementing its own policy regarding roaming packages fixed for over 60 days, as per their terms of service. FIG is seeking further details from Starlink, and according to a press statement from the 3rd of February, Starlink has not sought regulatory approval.

- In Q1 2024, Starlink's performance in Europe saw significant enhancements in latency. The UK, Belgium, and Luxembourg recorded the lowest median latencies at 41 ms, 46 ms, and 46 ms. Download speeds also rebounded in most countries, thanks to expansion of the constellation. Notable improvements were observed in Greece, Switzerland, and Austria with a 54% decrease from Q4 2023 to Q4 2024. Some regional disparities persist, with Cyprus and Malta in Southern Europe, and Finland and Norway in the Nordic region, show higher latencies.

■ X:

- X is preparing to roll out a new "Premium Member" dashboard on the side of the main timeline for web. H/T Aaron (@aaronp613).

- X Devs launched three new endpoints for Media Upload X API v2:

• Metadata Create: Add additional metadata to media uploads.

• Subtitles Create: Associate subtitles with your video uploads.

• Subtitles Delete: Remove / delete subtitles from a video.

They also added a new subscription user field were creators are now able to programmatically identify which users are subscribed to them. Developers can now build more solutions catered to their subs.

- X Japan CEO Ayumu Matsuyama (@ayumu_matsuyama) will be at the YOUTRUST event on the 15th of at 5pm. He will discuss X's move towards the Everything App and more.

■ xAI: N/A...

■ DOGE: N/A...

■ ELON NEWS:

- Elon, Tucker, and President Trump playing around at the White Houseyesterday evening.

- Per Elon, "Anyone want to create a hard-hitting show on X called 69 Minutes? I will actually fund it!" I think he is totally serious.

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■ SUBSCRIBE:

For February, one subscriber will get the new Tesla Year of the Snake T-shirt (L). This is a Tesla China Exclusive and is not sold in any other country outside of APAC region. Subscribe here to support and be eligible.

If you are interested in getting a new Tesla, use my Referral and you can get up to a $2,500 discount. ts.la/stephen746292

Have a great day!

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■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer... coming soon.

• Starbase: RGV Aerial Photography https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s3MPliCgcQ

Tesla:

• https://reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-inks-deal-with-wa-to-build-megapack-servicing-plant-next-to-huge-collie-battery/

• https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/02/07/first-four-hour-battery-storage-in-the-netherlands-goes-live/

SpaceX:

• https://news.faharas.net/247095/breaking-nlrb-drops-opposition-to/#google_vignette

Starlink:

• https://en.mercopress.com/2025/02/07/falkland-islands-government-response-to-starlink-email-notification#google_vignette

• https://www.ookla.com/articles/starlink-europe-q1-2024

X:

• https://docs.x.com/x-api/media/media-metadata-create

Elon Quote https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1887957783783391423