Elon Musk’s launched his own person Tesla Roadster, complete with mannequin driver, Starman, into orbit around the sun on Feb. 6, 2018, using SpaceX’s massive Falcon Heavy rocket. It’s currently on an elliptical path that takes it out beyond Mars at its most distant point from the sun and near Earth’s orbit at its closest solar approach, making its orbital period around 557 Earth days. According to an orbit-modeling study performed last year the roadster will crash into Venus or Earth within the next 10-20 million years, with a 6% chance of it hitting the later within the next million or so years. Read more for another video and additional information.
“Debut flights of any rocket are risky and therefore often carry dummy payloads rather than valuable operational spacecraft. Musk said he chose the Roadster and Starman as dummies for fun, though it wouldn’t be shocking if marketing played a major role as well,” reports Space.com.
