Launches January 2018
Earlier this month, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. In a second tweet, he said the payload for the test flight would be his own personal first-generation Tesla Roadster. A post that appeared on Instagram today shows he was dead serious.
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
The gallery post of seven images shows the Roadster mounted at a 45-degree angle to a pedestal inside the two unassembled halves of the payload fairing. Launching a car into space sounds like something Musk would do, but this is the first confirmation that it’s actually happening.
As Musk writes in the post, mass simulators like concrete and steel are “boring,” so the decision was made to “send something unusual, something that made us feel.” According to Musk, the car will be locked in Mars orbit for 1 billion years playing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” for as long as it has power. That is, of course, assuming it doesn’t blow up after launch. The Falcon Heavy is a reusable heavy-lift rocket designed to get large payloads into space. It was built with the intention of one day getting humans to Mars. The first test launch is scheduled for January 2018.
Source: Elon Musk via Instagram