You recognize me as a rocket photographer, but I’m often asked about what I shoot when I’m not photographing a launch. In my blog, I’ll take you with me on some of my personal adventures with my camera, and dive into my life Behind the Lens.
Through writing, I’ll share pieces of life-changing, frightening, and always extraordinarily beautiful places and moments I’ve experienced. I think you’ll see that my passion for photographing rockets isn’t that far removed from my passion of photographing Earth. I’m an adventure photographer when I’m not a rocket photographer.
The greatest journeys I’ve been on, so far, have been in the South Western United States. The terrain is extraterrestrial. It’s not oversaturated with cities, I can drive a reasonable amount of time and get away from light pollution and busy interstates. The mountains have the most dynamic weather and environmental differences. You can be in the hottest part of the earth, Death Valley, and see snow-capped mountains on the horizon. There’ll be a drought in one location and waterfalls from snowmelt in another, all within driving distance. It’s nature at its richest and most intense.
I’m an adventure photographer when I’m not a rocket photographer
Located in Arizona, the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, carved by the sediment-rich water from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, hence, the name ‘Colorado River’ at the bottom. It’s been flowing for at least 5 million years, scraping the layers of earth to expose time before dinosaurs, even time before life. The very bottom of the Grand Canyon is made of exposed rock that is 2-billion years old, a layer of time where no fossils are located. You can really get a sense of the earth as an actual planet down there.
The size of the canyon is unfathomable. If we’re in a simulation, the display is too much data for our minds to process. There’s so much texture, yet no detail. There’s a lot of life, but no movement. You can see the blue haze of the atmosphere as you look across to the North Rim. You feel like it’s not far, but it’s a couple of miles across. So, naturally, I wanted to toss a rock over the edge. I expected it to go pretty far, instead it actually just appeared to drop straight down. My strongest throw is seemingly very weak and it was that moment the earth just put me in my place…for the first time.
I’m not afraid of the edge of cliffs. For better or worse, my heart rate doesn’t change a bit. So I laid down on my stomach with my head hanging over the edge of the South Rim. I blocked out the sounds of people around me, the safety handrails, imagined all of humanity gone for a while to get the sense that it was just me and this planet.
I thought of how the wind swirled through the canyon while watching majestic vultures, called Condors soar around inside. In my mind, I played a video of what the snow must look like melting in the Rockies and water trickling through the rocks while gravity pulls it down to a valley to form the river that’s been flowing for millennia. I wondered about the temperature differences between the geological layers, there’s a 20-degree difference between the top of the canyon and the bottom, the bottom is warmer. I tried picturing the ancient oceans and deserts that had formed here time and time again as earth went through its natural cycles. Then, I sat down on the edge with my feet hanging over, I could only capture the wow factor of this feeling by using a fisheye lens on my camera.
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- Photo: TomCross
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- Photo: TomCross
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- Photo: TomCross
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- Photo: Tom Cross
I believe humans are meant to explore. We’re supposed to migrate to other locations when seasons change. To me, it feels as natural as our circadian rhythm but we’ve interrupted that natural cycle by planting ourselves into jobs which often have no greater purpose than a comfortable paycheck. I spent a lot of time reading books by physicists like Steven Hawking, Brian Cox, Carl Sagan, among others who have explored our location in the cosmos and what we know about our position within it. Having a fulfilling career that serves a greater purpose to humanity and being able to explore our vehicle in the cosmos is not a dream.
Back to the adventures; I’ll take you on a soul searching hike through the Grand Canyon. I hiked 21 miles in 2 days, down to the Colorado River on one trail and out of the Canyon on another trail. It was a personal challenge I set for myself and the first time I’d been in a situation like it. I had all of the supplies I thought I’d need for such a hike. I was solo on this hike, all situations had to be handled on my own with only the items I had with me. How does photography fit into this? There are unexpected moments of beauty where the earth just floors me. It reminds me of how small and insignificant we are as an animal. How dangerous it can be and how precious. It gives us life and it takes it away. It’s to be appreciated. I try to capture those moments.
They weren’t conducting a rescue, it was a recovery
Humans, ugh… We are raised to believe we’re the top of the food chain. But we’re a virus to this cellular organism called Earth. These days, there are talented teams of people who are actively doing anything about reversing and preventing more damage to our home & species. Tesla and SpaceX are the pioneers of this movement. For the first time, we have the tools to help fix it in the form of products that we can purchase to leave less of an impact during our time here. Remember, you will die one day, but your impact remains…
In order to remove this inherited feeling of superiority our species is raised with, I had to feel exposed to danger, I had to make sure earth had its way with me. Whatever happens, I’d work my way through it. The danger is accessible in the Grand Canyon, signs on pathways remind people that they will die if they’re not mindful of what they’re doing.
Just before my hike down, I got a dose of reality. A rescue helicopter dropped off a rescue team to a nearby spot of the canyon then it flew away. I wasn’t able to get a clear view of the team in the canyon because National Park Rangers had the trails leading to the location closed. They weren’t conducting a rescue, it was a recovery. The rumor I heard in a restaurant, is that a family was standing near the edge for a photograph with the canyon in the background and someone had slipped off the edge. When the helicopter returned, it took only a few moments for the team to connect to the line and airlift the body from the canyon.
The next day, I’d be doing my solo hike…
Don’t miss Tom Cross | Behind the Lens
Next week, I’ll take you down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, through the South Kaibab trail and out of the Bright Angel Trail. If you enjoyed this adventure and want to go Behind the Lens with me each week on my adventures, please consider signing up to receive future issues via email.
‘Til then, have a good one,
– Tom Cross
Investor's Corner
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.
Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.
While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure
The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.
Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet
Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.
Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.
As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.
Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.
First Folding Unit Superchargers in Europe 🇪🇺 https://t.co/KNfYWJukkL pic.twitter.com/YR1udIpH1i
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) June 10, 2026
Elon Musk
SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app
SpaceXAI just powered its first consumer app and it predicts what you want to buy.
SpaceXAI just made its first move into consumer AI, and it involves your grocery cart. On June 3, 2026, Gopuff and SpaceXAI announced the launch of Go, a Grok-powered shopping assistant built directly into the Gopuff app that predicts what you need before you even start searching for it.
Gopuff is an instant delivery platform that operates more than 400 micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S., delivering everyday essentials, snacks, drinks, and household items in as little as 15 minutes. It is not a restaurant delivery app or a marketplace. It owns its inventory, controls its warehouses, and handles its own logistics, which means it has built one of the most detailed consumer behavior datasets in retail over its 13-year history.
Go combines SpaceXAI’s advanced reasoning, voice, and image generation models with Gopuff’s dataset of hundreds of millions of orders and real-time cultural signals from X to prepare a suggested cart the moment a customer opens the app. It learns each shopper’s habits and automatically builds a personalized cart based on time of day, location, order history, and real-time indicators. Returning customers can check out with a single tap.
Rather than searching for specific items, users can describe a situation like a game-day party or the desire for a healthy breakfast and Go will assemble a cart automatically. It can also predict when shoppers are running low on items like coffee or paper towels and have them packed and delivered in under 15 minutes. Grok voice integration lets users talk to the app in plain conversational language and check out completely hands-free.
Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said: “Today, we believe the greatest friction left in commerce is not delivery or instantaneous access to the essentials customers need. It’s the moment before: the thinking, the deciding, the remembering. We’re combining Gopuff’s demand intelligence with xAI’s frontier reasoning to create an everyday shopping experience that feels like a true extension of you.”
Why SpaceX just made a $60 billion bet on AI coding ahead of historic IPO
The timing carries context beyond the product launch. SpaceXAI was formed after SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s xAI earlier this year, folding one of the most advanced AI labs in the world into the same corporate structure as the company preparing what could be the largest IPO in history. SpaceXAI is dipping into consumer-focused AI just as it prepares for its public debut, and while Musk has openly discussed building an everything app, this launch uses Grok to power another company’s product rather than launching a standalone consumer platform. Every consumer-facing deployment of Grok ahead of the IPO roadshow adds tangible evidence that SpaceXAI is not just an infrastructure play but a direct competitor in the AI application layer where OpenAI and Google are already fighting for dominance.
Lifestyle
Tesla saves its passengers again – This time after a 300-foot cliff fall in Malibu
A Tesla Model 3 fell 300 feet off a Malibu cliff and both passengers survived.
A Tesla Model 3 plunged roughly 300 feet off a cliff on Mulholland Highway in Malibu on Friday morning, May 29, 2026, and both occupants survived. The crash was reported at approximately 7:30 a.m. near the 2500 block of Mulholland Highway, triggering a multi-agency rescue operation involving Malibu Search and Rescue, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the California Highway Patrol, and McCormick Ambulance.
When first responders arrived, the male driver was outside the vehicle shouting for help while the female passenger remained pinned inside the Tesla. Rescue crews rappelled down the cliffside on ropes to reach the wreckage. A flight medic was lowered by helicopter to begin treating both victims, and the driver was hoisted up to the roadway before crews used the Jaws of Life to free the trapped passenger. Both were airlifted to a local trauma center with moderate injuries despite a remarkable result for a fall that steep.
The outcome is not surprising, considering Model 3 earned an overall 5-star rating from NHTSA in every category and sub-category, and recorded the lowest probability of injury of any car ever evaluated by the U.S. New Car Assessment Program. The absence of a traditional engine in the front of the vehicle creates a longer crumple zone that absorbs impact energy before it reaches occupants, and the battery pack running along the floor gives the car an unusually low center of gravity that reinforces structural rigidity.
This is not the first time a Tesla has kept passengers alive after going off a cliff. A Tesla Model Y carrying a family of four survived a plunge off a cliff at Devil’s Slide near San Francisco in January 2023, with two adults and two children walking away from a 250-foot fall. That incident drew widespread attention to how the structural integrity of Tesla’s electric platform performs in extreme crash scenarios that most vehicles would not survive.
Tesla Model Y driver who drove off cliff with family attempts to avoid criminal conviction
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Elon Musk just put a $1 Trillion revenue number on SpaceX
