SpaceX
Tesla Roadster getting prepped for takeoff
Earlier in December, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the first flight of the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, tentatively scheduled for liftoff next month, would have as its payload a “midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity.” Earlier this week, Musk tweeted photos of the Falcon Heavy getting ready for launch, but the payload was notably missing.
Not anymore.
On Friday, Musk used his Instagram account to share multiple photos of a Tesla Roadster the CEO claims is being prepared for its “a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.
In the caption of the Instagram photos, Elon Musk elaborated a little bit on the thinking behind sending a Tesla Roadster into space, though honestly, the reasoning amounts to little more than “Why not?”
“Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks,” Musk wrote. “That seemed extremely boring. Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel.”
It’s a pretty busy day for SpaceX. In addition to preparing a Tesla Roadster for its billion-year mission to the Final Frontier, the company is also preparing a Falcon 9 for a launch today. That rocket will be taking the Iridium-4 communications satellite into orbit. If the rocket is unable to launch today (the launch window is instantaneous), the company will try again on Saturday or Sunday.
You can view the Instagram gallery that Elon Musk uploaded below:
A Red Car for the Red Planet Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring. Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel. The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.