It was in 2018, when Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk took the audacious step of ‘strapping’ a car before launching it into space. In February 2018, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster to Falcon Heavy Test flight.
An Asteroid About To Hit Earth?
The car was not alone or unmanned, at least technically. On the driver’s seat there was “Starman,” a mannequin in a spacesuit. Starman was also launched with the rocket.
The Roadster which was used in this mission, was Musk’s own personal vehicle.
Revisiting this abstruse chapter of space exploration, Musk reacted to a post on X, from one of his affiliate accounts.
A post by Mario Nawfal read, ASTRONOMERS MISTOOK ELON’S ROADSTER FOR AN ASTEROID.. NO, FOR REAL! Astronomers hilariously mistook Elon’s Roadster for an asteroid this month.”
Nawfal further added that seven years after its Falcon Heavy launch, the car drifted past Mars into the asteroid belt, only to swing back 150,000 miles from Earth.
The X user said, “Imagine spending billions on a space probe, to find… the beauty of an @tesla floating. Always double-check your ‘asteroids.’ The Roadster? Still orbiting the galaxy.”
Reacting to this post, Musk added his thoughts. In a post, quoting the above-mentioned post, Elon Musk said, “My car is orbiting Earth and Mars 🤷♂️”
The name starman used for the dummy used in this experiment is a direct reference to British artist David Bowie’s single, Starman.
Will It Crash Into The Sun?
One user reacting to Musk’s post said, Have you computed it’s orbit trajectory? Isn’t it more likely to orbit the Sun? Doesn’t Kepler’s first law of planetary motion say that objects orbit the Sun in an ellipse with the sun as one focus? It’s probably an unstable orbit and will crash into the Sun then you’ll really have Star man.”
