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Tesla, SpaceX enthusiasts embraced at X Takeover this month
The X Takeover, formerly called the Tesla Takeover, is coming up later this month, and it’s expanding its scope this year to include more than just the electric vehicle (EV) company’s enthusiasts.
Taking place in San Luis Obispo, California, from July 26-28, the X Takeover has increased its offerings this year to accommodate fans of Tesla, SpaceX, and other tech and digital connectivity themes. Along with group rides, a massive live Tesla light show, and more, the event will include keynote speeches from Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and SpaceX-affiliated entrepreneur and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman.
The event is being organized by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley at the Madonna Inn, with opening events taking place on Friday, while breakout sessions and keynote speeches will happen on Saturday and Sunday. More than 60 exhibitors will be selling accessories, services, and other products, along with a camping expo, a Super modified Tesla contest, a Cybertruck showcase, and more.
“We are thrilled to unveil X Takeover and provide attendees with a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the worlds of Tesla, SpaceX, and beyond,” says John Stringer, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley President. “Our event will allow attendees to learn from industry experts, connect with like-minded individuals, and experience Tesla’s and SpaceX’s latest technological advancements, and we can’t wait to share them with the world.”
Event sponsors include T-Sportline, Tesplus, Michelin, and Tesla, and a portion of the proceeds from the event will also go toward the 17 Strong charity and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Tickets start at $45 for a one-day pass, or $60 for a Saturday-Sunday pass.
Last year’s Tesla Takeover had over 2,000 in attendance, and organizers expect this year to land somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000.
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You can see the full schedule for the 2024 X Takeover below, or check out the full Eventbrite page here to buy tickets.
X Takeover Schedule: Friday, July 26, 2024
- 5:00 p.m. – Open House at Tesla San Luis Obispo
- 6:00 p.m. – Pre-Event Central Coast Scenic Ride & Drive
- 9:00 p.m. – Epic Synchronized Tesla Light Show
X Takeover Schedule: Saturday, July 27, 2024
- 10:30 a.m. – Welcome and Introductions (ft. John Stringer, Kelvin Gee)
- 11:10 a.m. – Cyberbull$: Many Opportunities Ahead for Tesla in the Coming Years (ft. Alexandra Merz, Jeff Lutz, Galileo Russell, Herbert Ong)
- 11:50 a.m. – Enhance Your Tesla Experience: Discover TESPLUS’ Latest Accessories Lineup (ft. Chris Li, Ted Marena)
- 12:30 p.m. – Charge Ahead: Unlocking the Future of EV Charging with EVject’s Breakaway Adapter (ft. Kreg Peeler, Ted Marena)
- 1:10 p.m. – Tesla Adventure: Unleashing the Potential of Camping with Your Electric Ride (ft. Matthew Hofmann, Ted Marena)
- 1:50 p.m. – Living Electric: Exploring the Tesla Lifestyle and Community (ft. Kim Java, Ryan McCaffrey)
- 2:30 p.m. – Unleashing Efficiency: Michelin’s EV-Ready Product Line and the e.Primacy Tire (ft. Russell Shepherd, Ryan McCaffrey)
- 3:10 p.m. – Customizing the Future: T Sportline’s Innovations with Cybertruck Modification (ft. Brian Reese)
- 3:50 p.m. – Into the Future: Exploring Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, Robotics, and Neuralink (ft. Dr. Know It All, Whole Mars Catalog, Ryan Tanaka, Meet Kevin)
- 4:40 p.m. – Keynote: Shaping the Future of Automotive Innovation (ft. Franz von Holzhausen, John Stringer, Kelvin Gee)
- 5:30 p.m. – Group Photo, Super Modified Tesla Contest Winner, Passport Drawing, and Wrap Up (ft. Joe Jefferson)
X Takeover Schedule: Sunday, July 28, 2024
- 10:30 a.m. – Unplugged and Unstoppable: Revolutionizing the Cybertruck and America’s Police (ft. Ben Schaffer, John Stringer)
- 11:00 a.m. – Journey to the Stars: Exploring SpaceX’s Quest for Space Exploration (ft. Ellie in Space, Felix Schlang)
- 11:30 a.m. – Powering Perspectives: Discussions with Tesla Influencers (ft. Dirty Tesla, Bearded Tesla, Everyday Chris, Brian White)
- 12:40 p.m. – Keynote: From Entrepreneurship to the Cosmos: A Journey of Inspiration (ft. Jared Isaacman, John Stringer, Kelvin Gee)
- 1:30 p.m. – Passport Prize Giveaway and Wrap Up
Over 1,000 Tesla owners host largest light show yet in South Korea
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
SpaceX just picked up another $1.6 billion from the Pentagon, with the U.S. Space Force awarding two task orders worth $1.6 billion to fly 18 Falcon 9 missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California through the end of 2027. The launches will carry satellites for the Space Based Sensing and Targeting portfolio, a set of programs meant to help the military detect and track airborne threats and relay that information across forces in near real time.
The award falls under National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1, the Space Force’s faster, commercial style procurement track for missions that do not require the military’s most demanding certification process. It is also the largest single order publicly disclosed under that program so far, and the first task order issued since the Space Force nearly tripled Lane 1’s contract ceiling from $5.6 billion to $17 billion on July 17.
SpaceX to become America’s Military data backbone for missiles, drones, and warfighters
Eric Zarybnisky, the Space Force’s acting portfolio acquisition executive for space access, said the entire process, from identifying the requirement to signing the contract, took about two months, including a month set aside for companies to prepare proposals.
SpaceX is not just launching these satellites. It already holds the contracts to build two of the programs within the same portfolio, $4.16 billion for the Space Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator system and $2.29 billion for the Space Data Network Backbone, which Teslarati covered in May. That means SpaceX is now responsible for both building key pieces of the military’s next generation sensing network and getting them into orbit.
With this latest award, SpaceX’s Pentagon contract total for 2026 alone tops $8 billion, adding to a defense portfolio that already includes the Golden Dome missile defense software group SpaceX joined in April and a string of GPS launches it inherited after ULA’s Vulcan rocket ran into a booster anomaly, which we detailed in March.
Lane 1’s vendor pool technically includes seven companies: SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, Impulse Space, and Relativity Space. In practice, SpaceX remains the only provider with the combination of launch cadence, flight proven Falcon 9 hardware, and West Coast infrastructure to support a campaign requiring roughly one Vandenberg launch a month for the next year and a half.
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Some lawmakers have flagged the growing concentration of national security launches with one company as a risk worth watching. For now, the Space Force keeps backing SpaceX, with it being the company that shows up ready to launch.
Elon Musk shed two new bits of detail on Starship following its 13th test launch, which was an overwhelming success.
SpaceX launched Starship for the 13th time last Friday after two delays: one on Monday when several Raptor engines did not ignite, and another on Thursday due to unfavorable weather conditions in Starbase, Texas.
The launch was overwhelmingly successful. SpaceX was able to complete a necessary test of the heat shield tiles by increasing the acceleration of Starship from launch throughout the flight; 20 Starlink v3 satellites were released with no issue; the Super Heavy Booster landed safely in the Gulf of America, Ship successfully reignited engines while in space; and it also splashed down without incident in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
Nevertheless, more details are coming out about Starship, and Musk is doing the talking.
Starship Will Be Retrieved in the Ocean
Musk revealed on Tuesday night that Starship would be recovered by a ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX routinely tries to recover Starship after splashdown in an effort to find out more about the flight by examining the spacecraft afterward.
We’re sending a ship out to recover Starship https://t.co/fUqUZTITO9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2026
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This helps engineers find out more about why things might have happened, allows them to examine any potential damage or anomalies that might have occurred, and increases the chances of an even more successful flight next time thanks to the additional information recovered.
Ship Could Have Been Caught by Tower Arms, Musk claims
Musk has already indicated that SpaceX will plan to attempt a catch of Starship with the 14th test flight. While this would be a major accomplishment, it would be an expected next step, considering the fact that the Super Heavy Booster has already been caught by the chopsticks on numerous occasions.
The ship landing was precise, meaning that it would have been caught by the tower arms https://t.co/6nbNrRfX9P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
A ship catch would be a great indication of where SpaceX stands in terms of reusability and launch cadence. A successful catch with relatively no incidents would be a good sign that SpaceX is nearing a more frequent launch of Starship, but also that the reusability of the massive rocket would be something many would expect in the near future.
It is a necessity to make life multiplanetary.
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Elon Musk has updated his timeline for when humans will walk on Mars and for when ships will simply get there.
The objective of getting to Mars has been one of Musk’s biggest goals since becoming a serial entrepreneur and realizing that time on Earth is limited. Musk has said several times he hopes to die on Mars, and not by impact.
Musk now believes that people will be on Mars in “roughly 5 to 7 years.” He said that a Mars lander will get there “a few years sooner.”
People on Mars in roughly 5 to 7 years.
Mars lander a few years sooner.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
The response from Musk comes after NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that SpaceX’s biggest priority is the Moon and not Mars. Because of this, Isaacman conceded that he believes nuclear power and propulsion investments will provide “potentially the pathway with the fewest miracles required to put four people on Mars in the next 10 to 15 years.”
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Of course, this is what NASA can do through taxpayer funding and nuclear investments, he added.
Musk’s grand ambitions are much more optimistic than most, and it is certainly a double-edged sword. This is not the first time timelines for Mars have been somewhat lofty, especially to those normal thinkers like you and me, not super geniuses like Musk.
In fact, the SpaceX and Tesla frontman has said on at least a dozen occasions that we could be on Mars in the coming years. Musk said 2020 would be the big year as early as 2009. In 2020, he was “highly confident” of a landing in 2026, and had even said 2024 in a best-case scenario.
The point is, the range has varied, and it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll get there. This latest adjustment to the timeline is typical of Musk, and while the Moon has seemingly taken priority over Mars, it is still worth mentioning that the ultimate goal is to make life multiplanetary, and it starts potentially with the Red Planet.
SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites
Elon Musk sheds two new bits of detail on Starship after 13th test launch
