Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster that SpaceX launched into space on their Falcon Heavy rocket last year has completed its first orbit around the sun, according to a tracking report.
If you have somehow forgotten about what is one of the coolest things to happen ever, here’s a quick reminder.
In February 2018, SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy rocket, and it needed a “dummy load” to send into space in order to demonstrate the capability.
Musk, who is the CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, decided to launch his own Tesla Roadster.
Due to the higher risk of failure with a brand-new rocket, SpaceX didn’t want to put something too valuable, like a satellite, but at the same time, Musk didn’t want to just launch a weight into space.
He figured that launching a Tesla Roadster would be more interesting and inspiring.
They installed the electric car inside the fairings on top of the second stage of the Falcon Heavy rocket:
They also strapped a dummy equipped with a spacesuit in the driver’s seat. They named it Starman.
On February 6, 2018, Falcon Heavy was successfully launched and it released the Tesla Roadster into space:
It resulted in some stunning images of Starman in the Roadster moving, away from Earth, at a higher speed than any other Tesla before it:
The Tesla Roadster is still moving through space at an extremely high speed, and according to the whereisroadster website, which has been tracking the veichle’s trajectory, it has now completed a full orbit around the sun:
According to the site, the Roadster is making its way closer to Mars:
The car is 70,093,131 miles (112,803,994 km, 0.754 AU, 6.27 light minutes) from Mars, moving toward the planet at a speed of 26,628 mi/h (42,854 km/h, 11.90 km/s).
It has exceeded warranty’s mileage limit by now.
Electrek’s Take
While some saw it as a waste of a good Tesla Roadster or creating space debris, I am a big fan of the project.
I liked it so much that I had Canvaspop make print-outs of the Roadster in space from high-res images that SpaceX released on Flickr, and I display it in my house:
The video of the launch was viewed by millions of people, and it inspired many to be interested in space again.
At the same time, it also created some great publicity for Tesla, with the Roadster being the first car launched into space.
Now it keeps breaking the record of being the car the furthest away from Earth.
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