Lifestyle
A journey to capture SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy static fire test
As a launch photographer that has a work schedule as volatile as the rocket fuel being used by the very same subject matter that I’m trying to capture on film, having a plan-B in place comes with the territory. For hours, everything can appear routine, as I cycle through my usual list of photo preparations. But in the blink of an eye, the launch team could discover an issue that disrupts the entire day. That couldn’t be truer than my recent attempts to cover the highly anticipated SpaceX Falcon Heavy static fire test.
In those instances when unexpected circumstances can change long-prepared plans, any work that has been conducted up to that point has to be repeated at the next launch attempt. It happens often and it’s part of the gig. Needless to say, this profession takes immense passion and patience. It also helps to have a home life that’s equally patient and supportive.
The whirlwind of excitement began in early January when SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy was scheduled for its first test fire from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Checking Twitter in the pre-dawn hours of an overcast Cape Canaveral day, I quickly learned that any opportunity to hear the deafening roar of Falcon Heavy’s 27 Merlin engines ignite would have to wait until the next day. The weather was unpleasant; the skies were saturated in a thick haze of dreary gray, and the birds were eerily silent around Kennedy Space Center’s neighboring Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge.
Falcon Heavy’s test wasn’t meant to be that day. Or in the days following.
Nasa’s VAB visible in the background from Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. (Photo/TomCross)
The nature preserve surrounding the Kennedy Space Center has well-maintained gravel roads, pathways, boardwalks, and pull-offs, each with gorgeous views of an untouched Florida landscape. It’s a popular location for birdwatchers and wildlife photographers.
An alligator crosses the gravel road at Black Point Wildlife Drive. (Photo/TomCross)
My journey to this location involves an hour-long drive through suburbs and rural areas, and a $10 entrance fee to the nature preserve. Gone are any signs of civilization, drowned in the silence of a peaceful Floridian backdrop of marshland and the occasional alligator making its way across gravel roads.
The weather ahead of Falcon Heavy’s second attempt at a test launch couldn’t be more perfect. Being one of the first to arrive on the scene, I had ample time to claim stake to a perfect vantage point for the perfect Falcon Heavy shot from the rooftop of my vehicle. Five Instagram stories into my stay and admittedly a few shameless selfies, the rest of the photojournalists began to arrive. It wasn’t long before a group of vacationers and sea of photographers arrived with cameras in tow and sights set on the Falcon Heavy launch pads.
To get a better view of the rocket engines during the static fire, I posted on top of my vehicle. (Photo/ Marcus Cote, @marcuscote_photo)
Through a thick haze, Falcon Heavy can be seen venting LOX (Liquid Oxygen). (Photo/TomCross)
As Falcon Heavy began venting LOX (Liquid Oxygen), a frenzy of rapid-fire shots immediately followed. The beast was breathing and would soon fire, so we thought.
A comment from one of the people in the crowd suggested that the large plume of LOX coming from SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy was a normal occurrence. The rumors began trickling in: ‘Falcon Heavy scrubbed for the day’ came first. Then, ‘dynamic loads’ cited in the next rumor.
Call it optimism or denial, every ounce of me rejected the notion that Falcon Heavy would not be firing today. Afterall, we saw the rocket venting and there was no confirmation of any sort that was making its way out of Cape Canaveral.
It wasn’t until we received word that a bug related to the hold-down clamp was the root cause for the cancellation. These clamps serve the critical function of firmly holding the rocket to the launch pad during static fire testing. If this component malfunctions, the rocket could potentially leave the pad. The attempt was scrubbed and rescheduled for another day.
My journey home had me pondering what I’d change for the next attempt.
The day had come for yet another Falcon Heavy static fire attempt. This time, I was armed with a mental image of the exact location of where to park and the exact steps needed for set up. I remembered to frame the image in a way that allows me to crop-out SpaceX’s competitor – United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) launch facilities. While we’re granted press access to SpaceX launches, we are prohibited from taking images of other companies’ launch facilities from the location of SpaceX’s launch pads. The same is true while we are in ULA locations: we can’t take images of SpaceX. So I maintain this unspoken rule while photographing Falcon Heavy out of respect for SpaceX and their brand. In some cases, it’s fitting to have the additional launch facilities in the image, but for my purposes of covering Falcon Heavy, it’s not.
-
- Part of my planning is to make sure that I can crop out ULA launch facilities. (Photo/TomCross)
-
- Falcon Heavy vertical at SpaceX Launch Complex 39A with ULA launch facility in the background. (Photo/TomCross)
Approximately 40 minutes into my drive to Cape Canaveral, or 15 miles from my setup location, I received a tweet that informed me of Falcon Heavy’s cancellation. I made a quick U-turn and hurried back home, where I signed up for SpaceX’s upcoming HispaSat launch that’s slated for mid-February. SpaceX is still serving customers regardless of Falcon Heavy’s delay and the rumor of Zuma’s failure.
The same sequence of extreme excitement that quickly translated to disappointment occurred in the days following. After a few more cancellations, I was in much need of a visit to the happiest place on Earth – Disney World.
If you ever get the opportunity to visit the Disney World theme parks in Orlando, Florida, a ride on Mission Space at Epcot is a must, especially if you’re a space nut. The ride is a launch simulator that takes you around the Earth and Moon, as you awake from a hypersleep state and find yourself inside an asteroid field. The ride is incredible. In fact, local astronauts along with NASA helped Disney’s Imagineering team develop the ride. Most notably, Story Musgrave who I had the pleasure of having coffee with in the past, was commissioned to help with the ride’s theme.
As Falcon Heavy’s schedule continued to drift further into the future, United Launch Alliance (ULA), SpaceX’s competitor, was launching a missile-detecting satellite to geostationary orbit about 23,000 miles in altitude. I hadn’t planned on attending this launch but the weather was beautiful and I was long overdue for some photography fun.
I gathered my gear, drove over to the coast to try out a new public location called Parrish Park / Max A. Brewer bridge. I made sure to explain who ULA was to our Instagram followers after a poll suggested that the majority of our fans did not know who the ULA was.
As I arrived at my new location, there were already rows of vehicles lined up along the shoreline of the river. I drove across the bridge on several occasions to find the perfect spot for stationing my cameras. I got in position 45 minutes before launch, unloaded my gear, attached my Miops Mobile Remote for a streak image, and tested the camera exposure setting. My fingertips were becoming increasingly more numb from prolonged exposure to the cold nighttime air, yet I still managed to attach my other camera to the tripod.
A couple walking past complimented me on my setup. After a few shots with my zoom-camera, the couple began walking toward me and asked if I heard about the launch scrub.
“Come on, it’s been too much lately!” immediately sounded off from my mouth. I was in disbelief. Sure enough, word soon got out that the launch would be rescheduled.
I heard the shutter of my long-exposure camera slam shut, as if it too was in utter disbelief of the recent events taking place, or lack thereof. I packed up and drove home, left only with the images in my mind of what that evening’s image could have looked like. And a life lesson that can only be attained through experience.
Bring hand warmers next time.
A streak image of a ULA launch in December 2016. (Photo/TomCross)
Investor's Corner
Tesla Robotaxi gets a massive upgrade in Nevada
Nevada regulators just approved a massive expansion of Tesla’s robotaxi fleet across the entire county.
Tesla’s robotaxi footprint in Nevada just grew by roughly 500 times in a single regulatory vote.
The Nevada Transportation Authority approved Tesla’s full Autonomous Vehicle Network Company permit on Thursday, clearing the way for the company to deploy up to 5,000 driverless vehicles across Clark County over the next 12 months. The decision came during a four hour general session meeting that Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt watched live and reported on X, noting the vote replaces the interim order that had limited Tesla to just 10 robotaxis on a narrow stretch of the Las Vegas Strip.
EXCLUSIVE: Tesla has just officially received approval for its full Autonomous Vehicle Network Company permit in Nevada, clearing the way for Tesla to launch a paid public Robotaxi service in Las Vegas.
This officially allows @Tesla to deploy up to 5,000 robotaxis over the next… pic.twitter.com/DPs5UtUlrE
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 20, 2026
That earlier cap, covered here after it surfaced on August 13, came with restrictions that looked stricter than what Tesla runs in Austin: a 45 mph speed ceiling, no airport pickups, and a geofence confined to the Strip corridor. The new approval extends Tesla’s operating authority to all of Clark County, with room to request an even wider geofence across the state.
Tesla representatives at the meeting said they have no intention of putting 5,000 cars on the road right away. Commercial rides are expected to start within 30 days, pending vehicle inspections, insurance filings, and fare approval, the standard steps every robotaxi operator in Nevada has had to clear.
Tesla’s own Robotaxi account replied to the news with a short line, The golden future is upon us.
The timing lines up with Tesla’s broader robotaxi push this month. The company is preparing to open Cybercab rides to the public in Austin as soon as this month, and it opened a sweepstakes for riders to win a seat at the launch event. Tesla filed its original application for a 5,000 vehicle Nevada fleet back in June, a request regulators trimmed to 10 vehicles when they issued the interim order in July. Thursday’s vote effectively grants the number Tesla asked for from the start.
Zoox, the Amazon owned robotaxi operator, has run in Nevada since 2025 and was capped at 100 vehicles before Thursday’s decision. Tesla’s new ceiling puts it well ahead of that comparison on paper, though the company has said its actual fleet size will depend on how quickly FSD v15 rolls out, the software update executives have called the gateway to scaling unsupervised robotaxi operations nationwide.
Elon Musk
India tells Elon Musk’s X to “Follow the Law” in latest censorship update
Elon Musk says X now exposes government censorship, but India’s secrecy laws complicate that promise.
Elon Musk’s promise to make government censorship requests on X “clearly visible” is running into a wall in India, where the law forbids the very disclosure Musk is promising.
On August 15, Musk responded to an update from X’s open-source algorithm team by writing “Any censorship required by governments is now clearly visible.” The claim referred to a change X pushed two days earlier to its public xai-org/x-algorithm repository, which now includes a controversial filter written directly into the code. The filter suppresses posts from 665 accounts flagged by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court from appearing in the For You feed of any viewer located in Brazil, unless the viewer already follows the account. The election tied to the filter is scheduled for October 4.
India’s government wasn’t as impressed, and responded on Monday that “X will have to follow the law of the land,” in response to Musk’s transparency push covered by the Times of India. The problem is structural rather than political. India issues content blocking orders under Section 69A of its IT Act, and Rule 16 of the accompanying 2009 Blocking Rules requires those orders to stay confidential. Publishing an India equivalent of the Brazil filter, naming specific accounts and citing specific government orders, would itself violate Indian law. Government use of Section 69A has grown from roughly 6,000 orders a year between 2018 and 2023 to about 24,300 in 2025, according to a Tech Times report.
The contrast puts Musk’s transparency pledge in an odd spot. It works largely as advertised in Brazil, where electoral law requires disclosure and X can point to specific account IDs and a specific court order in public code. It cannot work the same way in India, where the law requires the opposite. X users in India will keep seeing content disappear from search and their feeds without any public accounting of why, even as X tells the rest of the world that its censorship compliance is now inspectable.
This isn’t the first time X’s fights with a national government have shaped how the platform operates. Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered X to suspend the accounts of sitting lawmakers and journalists in 2024, a standoff that cost X its Brazilian revenue for months and froze Starlink’s local accounts before the investigation into Musk and X was closed in March with no evidence of wrongdoing found. X also sued California over a state law requiring moderation disclosures, arguing the mandate itself violated the First Amendment.
Whether India’s government pursues anything beyond a public statement remains to be seen. For now, the mismatch between what X can legally publish and what different governments legally allow it to publish is the real story behind Musk’s seven word claim.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s driverless Cybercab just passed a big test with State Governor
Florida’s governor rode Tesla’s Cybercab at a closed test track and called the experience impressive.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rode in a Tesla Cybercab on a closed test track this week and came away impressed, posting on X that the vehicle “successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.” He called the ride “impressive.”
The stop was part of a broader event Monday at SunTrax, a 775 acre state owned proving ground in Auburndale that Florida built specifically to test autonomous and connected vehicles before they reach public roads. Standing next to a gold Cybercab, DeSantis described the car in plain terms: “You go in there and you just sit. You have a screen. There’s no steering wheel, no pedals. Clearly these things could be very beneficial.”
We took a ride on a robotaxi on the Suntrax course and it successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.
TESLARATI Premium Membership
$19.99 USDImpressive! https://t.co/FVAkzFLz3r
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 11, 2026
DeSantis paired the praise with a caveat that has followed autonomous vehicles since the category existed. “You don’t want to be in an autonomous vehicle and it drives you into a ditch. That would not be good,” he said, framing safety validation as the gate before wider deployment.
SunTrax, the 2.25 mile oval which the state calls the only high speed autonomous vehicle test track in the Southeast, can simulate rain, pedestrian crossings, hills and crowded urban conditions at highway speeds, letting companies push a car past what an early public rollout would risk. Tesla, Waymo and Beep all use the facility, and Florida’s regulatory approach, among the most permissive for autonomous vehicles in the country, doesn’t require a human operator inside a fully autonomous car.
Tesla has reason to want the blessing of Florida and states beyond, as the Cybercab entered volume production at Gigafactory Texas this spring and has since self certified as SAE Level 4 under Texas law. Public road testing so far has kept a safety monitor in the passenger seat, and Florida is where Tesla has been expanding its existing Model Y based Robotaxi service instead, adding Miami in July and then Orlando and Tampa two weeks later. A closed track endorsement from a sitting governor doesn’t change any of that, but it does put Tesla’s newest hardware in front of a state that has already shown it will move fast on rules.
Tesla will resolve massive China recall with stickers and a software update
Tesla Semi is officially headed to Europe
