Lifestyle
Rocket launch photographer covering SpaceX: “I have the coolest job in the world”
“You have the coolest job in the world!” is something I hear quite often. Not because I get to post selfies on Instagram, while standing on top of the roof of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building that once served as home to the Space Shuttle, but because I film rockets.
My name is Tom Cross and I’m a credentialed rocket launch photographer for Teslarati at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Being mainly accustomed to story-telling through photographs, this blog will be a first for me, so bear with me as I attempt to bring you into my life and show you what it’s like to be involved in SpaceX launch operations as a press-photographer, in written word.
In addition, I’ve already begun posting little video snippets on Instagram, giving SpaceX fans insight on my launch preparations and a behind-the-scenes look at launch facilities. Another common question I get is: “What type of gear do you use?” For the techies out there, I’ll be answering these types of questions, while also providing tips on photography and editing.
I don’t expect this to be an overly technical type of blog and I’ll try to make it fun, nerdy, and quick to read. If you’re new to rockets or photography I think you’ll enjoy it because I haven’t gotten sucked into it so much to be exclusively interested in the esoteric things. Let’s make this an interactive experience so be sure to leave me a comment, ask questions, or tell me if I missed something you want to see!
It is a wonderful privilege to be able to turn a passion for photography and space exploration into a career, something that does not escape me one moment. I’m blessed to know that my wife and family are very supportive, as it takes quite an investment of time to do this type of work.
So, how did I get into this, you ask? Long story short: I used to watch Space Shuttle launches while growing up here in Florida. I was fascinated by them and wanted to know about the people who were handpicked to ride on the Shuttle, so I decided to learn more by reading the biographies of these astronauts. Most of them were inspiring and surprisingly entertaining. Astronauts have an incredible camaraderie and I find their sense of humor, derived from experiences only an astronaut would have, simply hilarious.
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That wasn’t enough though.
Because I lived so close to where all of the action was taking place, I began to frequent Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Center to experience and learn more about the industry. There, I had the opportunity to meet some of the astronauts that I’ve been reading about! What a blast (no pun intended) it was to be able to do that. It turns out, they’re no mythical space superhero. Rather, they’re interesting everyday people, too – believe it or not.
TomCross with Astronaut Tom Jones at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center.
I believe great images allow people to experience something in an intimately deep visual language that only they can truly understand, and it’s a special moment for me when I pull up one of my pictures on my iPhone and hand it over to them and see the positive reaction on their face.
I took photography classes at a local college. During my time as a professional paintball player I saw a lot of incredible images of the sport so, when I stopped playing, I began to take my own photos from my perspective as a former pro-player. My photography began with paintball events, teams, and players. Then, it moved into Racing at Daytona International Speedway from inside the team pits and the infield. I got hooked on shooting extreme sports and not being the type of person who is content on just watching – I had to be involved! Now, my long-time passion for space and photographing remarkable-extremes lead to shooting rocket launches and there’s nothing more thrilling to me than this!
https://twitter.com/_TomCross_/status/950281149871542272
Have you ever been here for a rocket launch? Close enough to hear it? Feel it?
2018 is going to be a lively year for space. I’m sure many of you reading this have either considered coming to witness the demo-launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy at the end of January, or already have plans for it. Either or, if you do come and see a guy speaking into a vlog camera and looking slightly overenthusiastic about it, chances are it’s going to be me, so come say hi.
Have a good one,
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On a very cold & dark morning at LC-39A photographing Falcon 9. (Photo by: Thaddeus Cesari, Observer, @thaddeusces)
Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
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Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
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It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
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Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
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