Tesla Roadster (Starman)
The first car in deep space — Elon Musk's cherry-red Roadster, launched as Falcon Heavy's test payload with a spacesuited "Starman" at the wheel.
Vital statistics
01
Overview
On 6 February 2018, SpaceX flew the first Falcon Heavy and — instead of a boring concrete mass simulator — bolted Elon Musk's own midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster to the upper stage. A spacesuited mannequin named "Starman" sits at the wheel with David Bowie on a loop and a dashboard reading "DON'T PANIC!". The stage fired into a heliocentric orbit stretching from near Earth's distance out past Mars. It is the first automobile ever launched into deep space, and one of the more whimsical objects humanity has ever sent beyond the Earth.
02
Composition
Riding along with the car are a Hot Wheels Roadster with a miniature Starman on the dashboard, a copy of Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy etched on a quartz "Arch" storage disc, and a plaque carrying the names of SpaceX employees. Starman wears one of the actual pressure suits SpaceX designed for Crew Dragon astronauts.
05
Exploration
The Roadster carries no transponder, so its path is propagated from launch tracking and refined by occasional optical observations — JPL's Horizons system lists it as object −143205. It first crossed Mars's orbital distance weeks after launch and made its closest approach to Mars (~7 million km) in October 2020. Over millions of years its orbit is chaotic, with a small long-term chance of re-encountering Earth or Venus.
Did you know?
It is the only car with its own JPL Horizons ephemeris (object −143205).
The dashboard reads "DON'T PANIC!" — a nod to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
A copy of Asimov's Foundation trilogy rides along, etched on a quartz "Arch" disc.
Starman wears a real SpaceX pressure suit designed for Crew Dragon astronauts.
By the time it first crossed Mars's orbit it had "driven" farther than any car in history.
The radio was set to loop David Bowie — though there's no air out there to carry the sound.
Studies give it a few-percent chance of eventually hitting Earth or Venus over tens of millions of years.
Timeline
- 20182018
Falcon Heavy's maiden launch on Feb 6 sends the Roadster and Starman into a heliocentric orbit.
- 20182018
The upper-stage burn slightly overshoots — the orbit reaches past Mars rather than to it.
- 20202020
Makes its closest approach to Mars, about 7 million km, in October.
- 20202020
Completes its first full lap of the Sun in roughly 18 months.
