Starlink Launches As Elon Musk Arrives In Berlin — For Gigafactory 4?

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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s visions are being realized well in and out of this world, as the past week reveals. Elon Musk’s life has been surfing through land, sky, and space this week. Last fall, Musk tweeted, “Pace of innovation is all that matters in the long run.” He is certainly demonstrating that’s his companies’ mutual obsession.

Pace of innovation is all that matters in the long run

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2018

Successful deployment of 60 Starlink satellites confirmed! pic.twitter.com/bpBqO9oYR3

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2019

Falcon 9 first stage has landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship – the fourth launch and landing of this booster pic.twitter.com/qQvH7pwMDO

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2019

 

X Auto’s Iqtidar Ali and mutual friend Morten Lund yesterday revealed Musk’s whereabouts as he alerted us all to the successful deployment of 60 Starlink satellites. It wasn’t in space, but rather, in Germany.

 

Say hello to SpaceX'/Elon Musk's Gulfstream G650ER entering European airspace. Wonder what its business here is? #GF4@teslawelt @jpr007 @fuzzylogically @Model3Owners @DMC_Ryan @tesla_raj @bobbyllew @FullyChargedDan @pksilvia @BarkMSmeagol @ray4tesla @XAutoWorld100 @nasalahe pic.twitter.com/denp5YuKLJ

— Morten Grove – Captain of all Tesla-Ships 🚢 (@mortenlund89) November 11, 2019

Berlin Schönefeld it is pic.twitter.com/1iOXu2AyIh

— Morten Grove – Captain of all Tesla-Ships 🚢 (@mortenlund89) November 11, 2019

Falcon 9 delivers 60 Starlink satellites to orbit pic.twitter.com/Vgw10m0Tkz

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2019

Musk is in Berlin!

— BSB (@Genralanxiety) November 11, 2019

 

Following those tweets, German engineer and CleanTechnica contributor Alex Voigt shed more light on the matter.

 

Thats no surprise at all.

Its about Government support & that needs to be negotiated.

Merkel owns a PhD in Physics so they will understand each other & she is pragmatic.

Having GF4 in 🇩🇪 is the best way for Merkel & Altmaier to wake the German Auto industry up.

Its overdue

— Alex (@alex_avoigt) November 11, 2019

Falcon 9 delivers 60 Starlink satellites to orbit pic.twitter.com/Vgw10m0Tkz

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2019

Iqtidar points out that Musk’s timing is right on target for this topic:

“2019 was the year when ‘Elon Time’ came as close as possible to the real-time and things he announced late last year like the Model Y reveal and estimate production start time and the Gigafactory 3 China have come to fruition, unexpected by many.”

The reports are that Elon Musk is indeed in Germany. His flight over took place as the Falcon 9 was preparing to send 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on November 11, Monday.

One does wonder about the significance of Musk not being at the point of departure. He is consistently involved, with his charismatic presence definitely a prime highlight at these events. It must have been something important to pull him away.

Iqtidar points to a list of Musk to-dos:

“Landing in the German capital is speculated to be pointing towards the possible contract signing or MoU between Tesla and the German Government for the Gigafactory 4 Europe location. Elon Musk stated in the Tesla Q3′ Earnings Call last month that the location of the Gigafactory Europe will be announced before the end of this year.”

According to Elon, the announcement of Gigafactory 4’s location in Europe will come soon. Coming before the holiday season would be good for generous mainstream media coverage. It remains to be seen, but CleanTechnica will be following closely.

Update: Yes, Gigafactory 4 will be in Berlin:

🖤♥️💛 GIGA BERLIN 💛♥️🖤

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2019