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SpaceX, Shift4’s private Inspiration4 mission lists its second crew member

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This coming October, four civilians are expected to launch in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission will be commanded by 38-year-old Jared Isaacman, an accomplished pilot and the founder and CEO of Shift4Payments, a credit card processing company. Joining the entrepreneur in this groundbreaking mission will be three other civilians, the first of which was confirmed recently. 

In an announcement on Monday, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital revealed that 29-year-old physician assistant and cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux would be joining Isaacman as the crew’s medical officer. Provided that the mission goes through, Arceneaux would be the youngest person in history to go to space. She would also be the first person to launch with a prosthesis, a reminder of her previous battle against cancer. 

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Arceneaux was 10 when she had surgery at St. Jude to replace her knee and get a titanium rod in her left thigh bone. While she still limps and suffers from occasional leg pain, SpaceX has cleared for flight. Speaking with The Associated Press, she remarked that her battle with cancer has really prepared her for the challenges of space travel. 

“My battle with cancer really prepared me for space travel. It made me tough, and then also I think it really taught me to expect the unexpected and go along for the ride,” she said, adding that through the Inspiration4 mission, she is aiming to prove to young patients and other cancer survivors that “the sky is not even the limit anymore.”

“It’s going to mean so much to these kids to see a survivor in space,” Arceneaux noted. 

Inspiration4 was announced by Isaacman on February 1, together with a pledge to raise $200 million for St. Jude, half of which would be from his personal contribution. As the commander of the mission, the founder and CEO of Shift4Payments opted to offer one of the four Crew Dragon capsule seats to St. Jude. Rick Shadyac, president of St. Jude’s fundraising organization, noted that Arceneaux was selected from among “scores” of hospital and fundraising employees who had previously been patients and who could effectively represent the next generation. 

As per the Inspiration4 mission’s website, the crew would be conducting experiments in space designed to expand humanity’s knowledge of the universe. Crew Dragon’s 365-lb cargo capacity would be allocated for both crew essentials and scientific equipment dedicated to microgravity researching experimentation. The mission aims to assign the maximum possible mass towards its research goals, which should provide access to space for inspiring projects that are “otherwise unable to overcome the high barriers of traditional space-based research.” The crew will likely be spending about 2-4 days in Earth’s orbit. 

With two of Inspiration4’s crew members now determined, the hunt is ongoing for the occupants of Crew Dragon’s two remaining seats. Isaacman, for his part, noted that he plans to reveal the last two crew members of the civilian space mission sometime in March. Liftoff is expected around October at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. 

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Watch Hayley Arceneaux’s interview with NBC NEWS TODAY in the video below. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us for news tips. Just send a message to tips@teslarati.com to give us a heads up. 

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead

Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now. 

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UK Government, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Marie Nilsson, chair of Sweden’s IF Metall union and a prominent critic of Tesla, has left X and is urging audiences to follow the union on Meta’s Threads instead.

Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now. 

Anti-Tesla union leader exits X

In a comment to Dagens Arbete (DA), Nilsson noted that her exit from X is not formally tied to IF Metall’s long-running labor dispute with Tesla Sweden. Still, she stated that her departure is affected by changes to the platform under Elon Musk’s leadership.

“We have stayed because many journalists pick up news there. But as more and more people have left X, we have felt that the standard has now been reached on that platform,” she said. 

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Jesper Pettersson, press officer at IF Metall, highlighted that the union’s departure from X is only indirectly linked to Tesla Sweden and Elon Musk. “Indirectly it does, since there is a lot of evidence that his ownership has caused the change in the platform to be so significant. 

“We have nevertheless assessed that the platform had value for reaching journalists, politicians and other opinion leaders. But it is a microscopic proportion of the public and our members who are there, and now that value has decreased,” Petterson added.

IF Metall sees Threads as an X alternative

After leaving X, IF Metall has begun using Threads, Meta’s alternative to the social media platform. The union described the move as experimental, noting that it is still evaluating how effective the platform will be for outreach and visibility.

Pettersson acknowledged that Meta also does not operate under Sweden’s collective bargaining model, but said the union sees little alternative if it wants to remain visible online.

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“In a perfect world, all large international companies would be supporters of the Swedish model when they come here. But unfortunately, the reality is not like that. If we are to be visible at all in this social media world, we have to play by the rules of the game. The alternative would be to become completely invisible, and that would not benefit our members,” he said. 

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Elon Musk confirms SpaceX is not developing a phone

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elon musk phone
Photo: Boss Hunting.com.au

Despite many recent rumors and various reports, Elon Musk confirmed today that SpaceX is not developing a phone based on Starlink, not once, but twice.

Today’s report from Reuters cited people familiar with the matter and stated internal discussions have seen SpaceX executives mulling the idea of building a mobile device that would connect directly to the Starlink satellite constellation.

Musk did state in late January that SpaceX developing a phone was “not out of the question at some point.” However, He also said it would have to be a major difference from current phones, and would be optimized “purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.”

While Musk said it was not out of the question “at some point,” that does not mean it is currently a project SpaceX is working on. The CEO reaffirmed this point twice on X this afternoon.

Musk said, “Reuters lies relentlessly,” in one post. In the next, he explicitly stated, “We are not developing a phone.”

Musk has basically always maintained that SpaceX has too many things going on, denying that a phone would be in the realm of upcoming projects. There are too many things in the works for Musk’s space exploration company, most notably the recent merger with xAI.

SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise

A Starlink phone would be an excellent idea, especially considering that SpaceX operates 9,500 satellites, serving over 9 million users worldwide. 650 of those satellites are dedicated to the company’s direct-to-device initiative, which provides cellular coverage on a global scale.

Nevertheless, there is the potential that the Starlink phone eventually become a project SpaceX works on. However, it is not currently in the scope of what the company needs to develop, so things are more focused on that as of right now.

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Tesla adds notable improvement to Dashcam feature

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has added a notable improvement to its Dashcam feature after complaints from owners have pushed the company to make a drastic change.

Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations that Tesla owners have communicated regarding the Dashcam feature is the lack of ability to retain any more than 60 minutes of driving footage before it is overwritten.

It does not matter what size USB jump drive is plugged into the vehicle. 60 minutes is all it will hold until new footage takes over the old. This can cause some issues, especially if you were saving an impressive clip of Full Self-Driving or an incident on the road, which could be lost if new footage was recorded.

This has now been changed, as Tesla has shown in the Release Notes for an upcoming Software Update in China. It will likely expand to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, and was first noticed by NotaTeslaApp.

The release notes state:

“Dashcam Dynamic Recording Duration – The dashcam dynamically adjusts the recording duration based on the available storage capacity of the connected USB drive. For example, with a 128 GB USB drive, the maximum recording duration is approximately 3 hours; with a 1 TB or larger USB drive, it can reach up to 24 hours. This ensures that as much video as possible is retained for review before it gets overwritten.”

Tesla Adds Dynamic Recording

Instead of having a 60-minute cap, the new system will now go off the memory in the USB drive. This means with:

  • 128 GB Jump Drive – Up to Three Hours of Rolling Footage
  • 1TB Jump Drive – Up to 24 Hours of Rolling Footage

This is dependent on the amount of storage available on the jump drive, meaning that if there are other things saved on it, it will take away from the amount of footage that can be retained.

While the feature is just now making its way to employees in China, it will likely be at least several weeks before it makes its way to the U.S., but owners should definitely expect it in the coming months.

It will be a welcome feature, especially as there will now be more customization to the number of clips and their duration that can be stored.

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