On a billion-year orbit around the Sun
As we previously reported, Elon Musk wants to send a Tesla Roadster in space with the maiden launch of his Falcon Heavy rocket. Now we have the pictures to prove it.
Elon Musk's SpaceX company is currently on a roll. Launch after launch, it manages to make space cargo hauling while retrieving and reusing the rockets as something mundane. Perhaps this is why he decided to launch at night, just to remind people how spectacular rocket launches actually are.
But the upcoming Falcon Heavy is another kind of a beast. It's three times more powerful and most likely will be the one that sends the first humans to Mars. For the time being, Musk will settle with sending a Tesla Roadster in space, which, by the way, would be just a fraction of the rocket's 63.8 metric tons capacity.
Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring.
Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel.
The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO
So, how does the Tesla Roadster compare with the extremely big Falcon Heavy? Take a look for yourself, courtesy of Elon Musk's Instagram astonishing photo gallery.
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