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

Black Phillip

Of all human engineering achievements to send into space they send a Tesla…. might as well as sent a toilet.

02/07/2018 - 16:31 |
0 | 4
Anonymous

Nice :)

02/07/2018 - 16:50 |
1 | 0
Anonymous

The flat earthers in the Twitter replies are cancer

02/08/2018 - 00:52 |
1 | 1
( ° ʖ °) dead

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

E X A C T L Y

02/08/2018 - 19:24 |
0 | 0
yowzers

I’m so glad the know what the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is. Literally almost crying right now.

P.S. Please downvote if this gets more than 42 upvotes

02/08/2018 - 03:35 |
0 | 0
got a new account

Tesla: “we are green”
Spends billions of dolars worth jet fuel to send a car to space

02/08/2018 - 10:21 |
0 | 1

It’s more like 1-2 million or even less

02/16/2018 - 14:21 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Who cares about this, what about producing cars so people can get them, tesla is the worst company in the automotive industry, even ford did better with the first car, the model t

02/08/2018 - 16:17 |
0 | 3
( ° ʖ °) dead

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

the model t isnt the first car ever it was actually a mercedes from 1885

02/08/2018 - 19:24 |
2 | 0
₩!Ź@ŔĐ Transit supervan

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

This is about space x not tesla and what space x have achieved is incredible . The falcon heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. It can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. You can hate tesla all you want dosen’t make this achievement by space x any less incredible

02/09/2018 - 15:41 |
3 | 0
DriftMaster 1

If he had a massive rug sat next to him, it would be amazing

02/08/2018 - 16:33 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

After this stunt I have become a Tesla fan. I will however keep driving my Corvette C6.

02/08/2018 - 18:12 |
0 | 0
Vincent Lin

I fear that radiation is going to make everything fall apart in short notice…

02/08/2018 - 20:25 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

I dont understand the point of sending that into space.

02/12/2018 - 15:42 |
0 | 0