Elon Musk’s ‘Starman’ in a Tesla Roadster completes five years in space
Remember when Elon Musk launched a whole Tesla into space with a dummy at the wheel? It’s been five years since then and the car is still out there.
Now the spacefaring electric car has completed a major milestone in its infinite journey after successfully completing its first orbit around the sun.
A website called Whereisroadster.com has been tracking Starman’s progress since 2018, tracking the car on its journey through space.
The Roadster was set to ‘cross the orbit of Mars for the fourth time since it launched’ as the car neared its fifth anniversary in space, according to the website’s creator Ben Pearson.
A website called WhereIsRoadster has been tracking Starman’s progress and said he’s now travelled 4,059,539,284 km, which means the 36,000-mile Tesla warranty has been well and truly exceeded.
Currently, the vehicle is 327,198,062 km from the Earth, moving towards us at a speed of 10,593 km/h.
If things go according to plan, the car will now orbit the sun until it crashes into something or when humans decide to finally clean up our space trash.
The Starman has completed about 3.2793 orbits around the Sun since launch. It takes the car about 557 days to orbit around the sun.
Musk’s roadster has cameras mounted on the car which beamed back incredible shots of its journey around Earth and onwards to infinity.
A sign on the dashboard read ‘Don’t panic!’, and Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’ played on the car’s stereo.
A Hot Wheels roadster toy car was also on the dashboard with a tiny spaceman on board.
According to an orbit-modelling study, Starman will swing back past Earth in 2091, coming within a few hundred thousand kilometres of our planet.
Considering the damage being inflicted upon it by the harshness of space, the Roadster may just be a worn aluminium shell by then.
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