See all Motoring NewsFounder and CEO of ‘SpaceX’ space exploration technologies corporation and electric car giants ‘Tesla’ Elon Musk yesterday made history by launching his red Tesla Roadster into space whilst playing David Bowie’s Song ‘Life on Mars’ on repeat.
Said to cost around $1bn per flight, Mr Musk used a super Rocket named the ‘Falcon Heavy Vehicle’ to send the car into orbit around Mars. The worlds most powerful rocket took off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 3.45pm local time (8.45pm GMT). The driver’s seat of the vehicle sits a dummy driver which Mr Musk fittingly names ‘Starman’.
The car will take six months to travel the 200 million miles to Mars and it is not guaranteed it will make it all the way, with the chances of success being only 50-50 according to the SpaceX CEO.
Speaking ahead of the launch, the South African entrepreneur said: "It’ll be a really huge downer if it blows up. If something goes wrong, hopefully it goes wrong far into the mission so we at least learn as much as possible along the way”.
He has also promised “epic views” of space from cameras that are strapped to the vehicle to which there will be a live YouTube feed available to view for the entire journey.