Rocket car heading for asteroid belt

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. Not only is it headed toward Mars, but almost to the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt.

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 nothing of 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.

Images of the exposed Roadster and “Starman”—named after a David Bowie song—against the backdrop of our blue planet, were burning up the internet long after Tuesday’s launch.

“I think it looks so ridiculous and impossible. You can tell it’s real because it looks so fake, honestly,” Musk said Tuesday night. “It’s still tripping me out.”

The Roadster is in an even more elongated orbit now that stretches from Earth on one end, all the way to the neighborhood of Ceres on the other.