Elon Musk’s car will travel beyond Mars
Vehicle hitched a ride on new Spacex rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The world’s first space sports car is cruising toward the asteroid belt, well beyond Mars.
Spacex chief Elon Musk confirmed the new, more distant route for his rocketing Tesla Roadster. The red electric convertible was the unorthodox cargo aboard his company’s brand new Falcon Heavy rocket during a test flight on Tuesday.
With the successful launch, the Heavy became the most powerful rocket flying today.
And Musk’s Roadster became the fastest car ever, hurtling off the planet and zooming away on a route that will now take it all the way to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Late Tuesday, Musk said the final firing of the rocket’s upper stage put his car on a more distant trajectory than anticipated.
A mannequin dressed in a “real deal” Spacex spacesuit — dubbed “Starman” by Musk — is strapped in behind the car’s wheel. Usually test flights carry things of no value, like concrete blocks. Musk found that “boring” and put his cherry-red Tesla on top. He’s in charge of the carmaker as well as the private space company.
The original plan had the car traveling only as far as Mars, coming close to the red planet but hopefully not nicking it. If it survives the swarming asteroid belt, the car and its occupant are expected to continue orbiting for millions if not billions of years.
Buzz Aldrin, second man to step onto the moon, celebrated after watching the rocket soar “from my favorite launch pad.” The Heavy lifted off from the same spot as
NASA’S now-retired but more powerful Saturn V moon rockets and space shuttles.
Musk said he doesn’t plan to fly people on the Heavy — that will mainly be used to launch supersize satellites. But he’s accelerating development of an even bigger rocket for deep-space crews — “a beast.”
His overriding goal is to establish a city on Mars, sending people there in a flotilla of Spacex spaceships launched by colossal Spacex rockets. Before dashing off to the red planet, Musk said he’d want to try out this spaceship in orbit around Earth — possibly in three to four years with the supersize rocket — and then the moon.
At a news conference Tuesday night, Musk told reporters that as early as next year, he may begin test flights of the mega spaceship in Texas. These short hops would take the ship several miles high and then come back down for a landing.
Tuesday’s success of the Heavy provides a confidence boost to these future plans, Musk said. Two of the three first-stage boosters flew back for side-by-side landings; the third booster was lost at sea.