Launched in in 2018, Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster is still floating through space seven years later
Launched into space back in 2018, Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster continues to ‘drive’ around the universe as it floats across the cosmos.
And it is pretty eye-opening to think about just how far the vehicle has gone as it meanders around the cosmic void that is space.
53-year-old Musk launched the car into space back in February 2018 as part of his SpaceX project, with the vehicle acting as the dummy payload for a Falcon Heavy test flight.
With a mannequin sat in the driving seat of the convertible motor – called Starman in tribute to the late, great David Bowie – it was dressed in an astronaut suit similar to what they might wear on a spacewalk or during lift or in to space.
Why did Elon Musk launch the Tesla Roadster in to space?
Musk put the Tesla Roadster in to the space rocket as a practical joke.
Labelling the launch as having a 50 percent chance of success or failure, he said he wanted the vessel to carry the ‘silliest’ thing that him and his SpaceX team could come up with.
Musk even took to X – which was then Twitter, given this was years before he had bought the platform for $44 billion – to ask people for their suggestions as to what should end up in space.
Enter the 2010 Roadster; a car that Musk would personally drive on his daily commute to and from work at Tesla headquarters in Austin, Texas. It was this very car that ended up being blasted into space.
Where is the Tesla Roadster now?
The Falcon Heavy test flight took place on 6 February, 2018. It was an immediate success, with it at the time the most powerful rocket to ever operate.
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Images of the Tesla Roadster went viral after the successful launch, with the car and mannequin photographed with Earth as the backdrop. Pretty surreal, really.
Since then, one website – whereisroadster.com – has been tracking the whereabouts of the Roadster as it continues to travel through space.
As of publishing this article, the car has been in space for six years, 11 months, and 25 days, meaning its seven year anniversary is almost here.
Right now, the car is a whopping 239,964,516 miles from planet Earth. And on top of that, it is moving at an incredibly 3,988 miles per hour (mph), making it the fastest car in the history of humanity.
It is now moving towards the Sun, with it 151,502,900 miles from the star.
What can you find on the Tesla Roadster?
Musk decided to have a bit of fun with his personal Roadster.
Setting the car sound system to loop one continuous song, it has been playing Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ on repeat. If the battery in the car is still working, the song will have been played more than 694,000 times.
There is also a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the glove box alongside a Hot Wheels miniature figurine on the dashboard area.
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