Elon Musk’s Roadster is probably still cruising through space, two years on

I know that Elon Musk does many questionable and sometimes outrageous things, but remember that one time when he launched a Tesla Roadster into space using SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket?

Yep, that outrageous thing. The launch was a year ago, on 6 February 2019. That Roadster with his its lone occupant – a spacesuit-wearing mannequin named Starman – is probably still out there.

According to the experts, the sporty red car is still cruising through our solar system. And there’s a simple way for you to keep track of the Roadster and Starman too.

Where is the Roadster now?

Simply head over to Where is Roadster, a website created by programmer Ben Pearson to keep track of the vehicle’s location. According to the site, the vehicle is currently near Mars.

That means it’s roughly 298m kilometres from Earth, travelling at a speed of approximately 2985 kilometres per hour.

Starman is on a trajectory to pass through the Red Planet’s orbit, but it will never actually reach the Red Planet or enter its atmosphere, as intended.

The Tesla and its ‘driver’ is expected to continue orbiting the sun as part experiment and part art project. There may even be a Musk Museum of Crazy Things by then.

Two years in space wouldn’t have been kind to the Tesla Roadster, because well, the car was designed for Earth’s atmosphere, and the vast expanse of space.

Why did Elon Musk launch a Tesla Roadster into space?

The vehicle was initially launched by SpaceX to demonstrate the Falcon Heavy rocket’s capabilities. The Tesla Roadster launch was it’s maiden voyage.

Musk wanted to prove that the rocket could propel something in space which would be capable of reaching Mars. Well done, Super Heavy, mission accomplished.

If all is going according to plan – if space hasn’t destroyed it yet, or Starman wasn’t abducted by aliens – that sporty red car is still out there and will continue orbiting the Sun.

Will Starman ever come back

Probably. Researchers calculated that the Roadster will “have a fairly close encounter with Earth” in 2091. If Starman is ever to ‘set foot’ on Earth again, that would be the perfect time to send out a recovery craft.

According to Pearson’s data, the Roadster has clocked more than 1.6 billion kilometres of space travel and is well into its second orbit around our Sun.

Back in 2019, an orbit modelling study predicted a 6% chance of the Roadster crashing into Earth in the next 1m years. The same study found that there’s a 2.5% chance the car will crash into Venus.