Electric supercar flies into space on the world's most powerful rocket
Tesla Roadster, the car dubbed the iPhone X of the car industry, "rides" on the back of the Falcon Heavy rocket on its journey to Mars orbit.
Elon Musk, the American billionaire founder of aerospace company SpaceX, hid a message inside his bright red Tesla Roadster to send to any aliens who happened to come across the convertible electric car as it floated through space, according to Express. Musk celebrated the successful launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket by sharing a photo of the words "made by humans on Earth" written on the car's dashboard during its journey to Mars orbit.
Falcon Heavy became the world's most powerful operational rocket after taking off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, at 3:45 a.m. Vietnam time this morning. The $200,000 convertible was the strange item carried on this rocket on its first flight.
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| The Tesla flies into space on the back of the Falcon Heavy rocket. |
Amazing footage of the car flying away from Earth on its historic journey as the car's speakers played David Bowie's "Space Oddity" was watched by thousands around the world via live streaming. The car drifted through a vacuum with a mannequin named Starman in the driver's seat to guide it into orbit around the distant planet Mars.
"When Falcon Heavy takes off, it will be the world's most powerful operational rocket, with twice the thrust of today's rockets. With a payload capacity of nearly 64 tons, much larger than a Boeing 737 loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel, Falcon Heavy can carry twice as much cargo as the Delta IV Heavy rocket at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy builds on the performance and reliability of the Falcon 9 rocket," SpaceX said.
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| The words "Made by humans on Earth" on the car dashboard. |
Musk said the successful test launch would pave the way for future manned flights. "New rocket test flights usually carry large mockups of concrete or steel blocks. That seems incredibly boring. Of course, boring things suck, especially for companies, so we decided to launch something unusual and emotional. The Falcon Heavy payload is an original Tesla Roadster playing the song Space Oddity, which can stay in Mars orbit for a billion years," Musk shared.
The Falcon Heavy rocket is as tall as a 20-story building, powered by 27 Merlin engines and consisting of three booster stages from the Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 is SpaceX's famous reusable rocket, and the company successfully landed the booster stages back on Earth after the launch. "The rocket cores on both sides of the Falcon Heavy have landed on SpaceX's Landing Pads 1 and 2," the company announced on Twitter.
