There Is Now A Tesla Roadster In Space And Humans Are Awesome

Humankind gets far too self-congratulatory far too easily, but in this case we really do need to pat Elon Musk and the geniuses of SpaceX on the back
There Is Now A Tesla Roadster In Space And Humans Are Awesome

In one of the most weird and wonderful achievements in mankind’s chequered history, Elon Musk’s SpaceX programme has fired a car into space.

His own original Tesla Roadster, complete with a space-suited mannequin called Starman, a soundtrack of David Bowie’s Space Oddity on repeat, and the words ‘Don’t Panic!’ taken from The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and written on the car’s infotainment screen, is now making its way around the inner reaches of the solar system. Incredible.

As legacies go, this one kind of puts dodgy Tesla Model 3 shut lines in the shade. The Falcon Heavy rocket blasted off from Florida in the middle of the afternoon and shot a perfect arc into orbit, splitting from its booster rockets – which then, graceful as synchronised swimmers, floated back down to a predetermined landing zone, touching the ground at almost exactly the same time.

The third booster was meant to land on a remote floating landing pad but ran out of propellant and ended up crashing, so this wasn’t quite a perfect 6.0 score, but the idea clearly works.

Printed on the circuit board of a car in deep space

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on

As well as the nods to Bowie and The Hitch Hiker’s Guide, SpaceX also printed a message reading ‘Made on Earth by Humans’ on a circuit board aboard history’s most unlikely space craft.

Starman and his Tesla could be in their elliptical orbit around the Sun and Mars for millions of years, or long after we’ve successfully ruined the planet, blown it up altogether or annoyed some other species enough to make them blow it up.

And all that will be left of our civilisation for future space archaeologists from across the galaxy to find will be a few fragments of TV network satellites and a dummy in an electric sports car, repeatedly being flung by gravity for some unknown and unfathomable reason between a small and lonely star and a tiny red planet.

To them, we say: good luck figuring that one out, guys.

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Comments

Anonymous

SpaceX ‘Launch Control’
Good one there by Elon

02/07/2018 - 07:46 |
65 | 1
Shoumik Kundu

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

lol i see wut u did there

02/08/2018 - 00:12 |
0 | 0
TheMindGarage

Making a rocket that can land again is a great achievement, but I feel like it’s all a big publicity stunt to cover up Tesla’s slow production.

02/07/2018 - 07:48 |
27 | 4
₩!Ź@ŔĐ Transit supervan

In reply to by TheMindGarage

Yeah a rocket isn’t exactly cheap . You can’t just make one especially one this big for publicity stunts

02/07/2018 - 07:50 |
6 | 0

Tesla and SpaceX are two different companies. They have worked on that before Tesla even existed.

02/07/2018 - 08:22 |
14 | 2
Anonymous

I know let’s send one to the moon next

02/07/2018 - 07:50 |
0 | 0
Ali Mahfooz

I wonder if aliens would understand English language 🤔

02/07/2018 - 08:00 |
30 | 1

Ikr…

02/07/2018 - 08:25 |
1 | 1

If Star Trek has taught me anything it’s that the entire Galaxy speaks English

02/07/2018 - 16:28 |
14 | 0
Olivier (CT's grammar commie)

In reply to by Ali Mahfooz

The fucckers are probably only going to talk Swahili

02/10/2018 - 03:49 |
0 | 0
Raphael_saksono

Yay martian car guys

02/07/2018 - 08:05 |
6 | 0

Ayy!

02/10/2018 - 13:33 |
2 | 0
Noah Thorley Images

Well done Elon, you did better than these guys:

02/07/2018 - 08:11 |
149 | 3

Hold on there, the Tesla has not landed yet…

02/07/2018 - 17:33 |
6 | 1
Anonymous

The big question is: which will be completed sooner - Starman orbiting the Earth in the Roadster, or Model 3 production targets?

02/07/2018 - 08:15 |
62 | 2
M A K

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Boom! The real questions.

02/07/2018 - 08:26 |
6 | 1
M A K

others: We need to come up with ideas to colonize habitable planets and come up with new ways to grow food faster and provide them with transport on those planets.
Elon: I sent a car to space, lol.

02/07/2018 - 08:25 |
22 | 0
DL🏁
02/07/2018 - 08:29 |
176 | 2

insert graham the christian voice here

02/08/2018 - 19:26 |
1 | 0

Alien: Calls Intergalactic taxi.
Taxi driver: Arrives with a Roadster

02/09/2018 - 13:55 |
1 | 0
Klush

Is that the Stig?

02/07/2018 - 08:54 |
1 | 1
TheDriver 1

In reply to by Klush

Basically his other American cousin

02/07/2018 - 10:48 |
0 | 0
Chewbacca_buddy (McLaren squad)(VW GTI Clubsport)(McLaren 60

In reply to by Klush

His space-exploring cousin

02/07/2018 - 11:01 |
13 | 0