And how he blasted cherry red Tesla Roadster into the space
It as a mission accomplished for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk today when his company Space X successfully launched the most powerful rocket on Earth — Falcon Heavy — into space. The mission was a historic success but with one hitch.
While the Heavy took off smoothly, detached its side boosters and even sailed back down to the ground, it was Musk’s Tesla Roadster, which didn’t make its way back down and has now been lost.
And yes, Musk did put a cherry red Tesla Roadster into the rocket and blasted it out into space. A space-suited mannequin was also placed at the wheel, named “Starman”. A sign on the dashboard repeated the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy mantra “Don’t panic!” while one of the boards on the car had the message “Made on Earth by humans.”
View from SpaceX Launch Control. Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth. pic.twitter.com/QljN2VnL1O
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2018
In the pursuit of “an endless road trip past Mars”, Musk’s car is now headed off into very deep space.
According to reports, in the original plan, the car and the dummy would have gone into orbit between Mars and the Earth, slowly passing around the solar system. However, the Falcon Heavy rocket overshot its planned orbit around Mars and instead zoomed through space towards the Asteroid Belt at incredible speed, Musk revealed.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/2ypESsi1sF
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 6, 2018
The final fate of the car is unknown.
Musk has described the mission as “silly and fun” and also said he hopes this experience would “get people excited around the world”.
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