Tesla Roadster

In-active Cargo Mass Simulator Crew Capacity: 2 Diameter: 1.8 m Height: 4.0 m

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Feb. 6, 2018

A car in space.

Flight Life

It is now on an heliocentric orbit with no planned return to Earth.

Description

The car, mounted on the rocket's second stage, acquired enough velocity to escape Earth's gravity and enter an elliptical heliocentric orbit crossing the orbit of Mars. The orbit reaches a maximum distance from the Sun at aphelion of 1.66 astronomical units (au). During the early portion of the voyage outside the Earth's atmosphere, live video was transmitted back to the mission control center and live-streamed for slightly over four hours.

History

Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that served as the dummy payload for the February 2018 Falcon Heavy test flight and became an artificial satellite of the Sun. "Starman", a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit, occupies the driver's seat. The car and rocket are products of Tesla and SpaceX, respectively, both companies founded by Elon Musk. The 2008-model Roadster was previously used by Musk for commuting to work, and is the only production car in space.



Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 5 hours ago
Starlink Group 17-51
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Starship
Success
2 days, 22 hours ago
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Kinetica 1
Success
3 days, 22 hours ago
5 satellites
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Share-ride of 5 commercial Earth observation and technology demonstration satellites to SSO, including SpaceTY's TY-48. Details TBD.


Long March 3B/E
Success
4 days, 9 hours ago
Tianlian 2-06
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Gravity-1
Success
5 days, 18 hours ago
9 satellites
Yellow Sea (launch location 5) - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

Carried 9 satellites on a share-ride to sun-synchronous orbit. Details TBD.


Falcon 9
Success
6 days ago
MRV-1
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

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Falcon 9
Success
6 days, 6 hours ago
Starlink Group 17-39
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Soyuz 2.1b
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
16 x Rassvet-3
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

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Vikram-I
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
Demo Flight
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Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer E
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