Tesla car hurls into flight on SpaceX rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX’s big new rocket blasted off Tuesday on its first test flight, carrying a red sports car aiming for an endless road trip past Mars.
The Falcon Heavy rose from the same launch pad used by NASA nearly 50 years ago to send men to the moon. With liftoff, the Heavy became the most powerful rocket in use today, doubling the liftoff punch of its closest competitor.
The three boosters and 27 engines roared to life at Kennedy Space Center, as thousands watched from surrounding beaches, bridges and roads, jamming the highways in scenes unmatched since NASA’s last space shuttle flight. At SpaceX Mission Control in Southern California, employees screamed, whistled and raised pumped fists into the air as the launch commentators called off each milestone.
Two of the boosters— both recycled from previous launches — returned minutes later for simultaneous, side-by-side touchdowns on land at Cape Canaveral. Sonic booms rumbled across the region with the vertical landings. The third booster slammed into the Atlantic, missing an ocean platform 300 miles offshore.
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk owns the rocketing Tesla Roadster, which is shooting for a solar orbit that will reach all the way to Mars. As head of the electric carmaker Tesla, he combined his passions to add a dramatic flair to the Heavy’s long-awaited inaugural flight. Ballast for a rocket debut is usually concrete or steel slabs, or experiments.
Cameras mounted on the car fed stunning video of the convertible floating high above the ocean with its driver, a space-suited dummy, named “Starman” after the Davie Bowie song. A sign on the dashboard read: “Don’t panic!” Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” played in the background at one point.
“View from SpaceX Launch Control,” Musk wrote via Twitter. “Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth.”
Minutes later, he provided a livestream of “Starman” tooling around the blue home planet, looking something like a NASCAR racer out for a Sunday drive, with its right hand on the wheel and the left arm resting on the car’s door.
When asked a few months ago why he was launching a Roadster, Musk said on Twitter: “I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future.”And if anyone — or anything — ever finds the car, Musk wants them to know where it came from (as long as they can read English). Printed on the circuit board of the car: “Made on Earth by humans.”