Tesla Roadster with ‘Starman’ completes first orbit around the sun

[tacobell fan]

Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster that SpaceX launched into space on their Falcon Heavy rocket last year has completed its first orbit around the sun, according to a tracking report.

 

If you have somehow forgotten about what is one of the coolest things to happen ever, here’s a quick reminder.

In February 2018, SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy rocket, and it needed a “dummy load” to send into space in order to demonstrate the capability.

Musk, who is the CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, decided to launch his own Tesla Roadster.

Due to the higher risk of failure with a brand-new rocket, SpaceX didn’t want to put something too valuable, like a satellite, but at the same time, Musk didn’t want to just launch a weight into space.

He figured that launching a Tesla Roadster would be more interesting and inspiring.

They installed the electric car inside the fairings on top of the second stage of the Falcon Heavy rocket:

They also strapped a dummy equipped with a spacesuit in the driver’s seat. They named it Starman.

On February 6, 2018, Falcon Heavy was successfully launched and it released the Tesla Roadster into space:

It resulted in some stunning images of Starman in the Roadster moving, away from Earth, at a higher speed than any other Tesla before it: