Screencap via SpaceX
The maiden voyage of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will have some interesting cargo, Elon Musk revealed on Twitter. Musk’s own cherry red Tesla Roadster playing “Space Oddity” over its stereo system will be aboard the rocket with its final destination being Mars’ orbit.
Just kidding! He made it all up.
Musk laid it all out in a series of tweets, including the Roadster is probably going to be missing from Elon’s garage for billions of years:
Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape. Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017
Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017
At least Musk was realistic about the possibility of the car not making there. I’m not sure I’m sold on a pretty red car becoming orbiting space junk around Mars, but at least Mars’ orbit isn’t as cluttered as ours. (Yet.)
Musk also said that it will be a first-generation Roadster, and explained why the red car was going into Mars’ orbit, too:
Red car for a red planet
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017
Falcon Heavy is planned to be the most powerful rocket ever made when it hopefully launches in January 2018 (already a delay from previous launch plans), so it needed something appropriately epic to take along with it. After all, SpaceX hopes it will take them on missions to the moon and Mars. Thus, one of Musk’s other achievements – an electric car – is going along for the ride.
Alas, after sounding pretty serious about the plan on Twitter and to numerous outlets reporting on the idea, Musk told The Verge that he wasn’t serious about this after all.
Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017
Was it the space junk comments, or the sad thought of living without a good red sports car? Either way, not jettisoning a car in space is probably for the best.