A plaque bearing the names of the employees who worked on the project is placed underneath the car, and a message on the vehicle's circuit board reads "Made on Earth by humans". A Hot Wheels miniature Roadster with a miniature Starman is mounted on the dashboard. There is a copy of Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the glovebox, along with references to the book in the form of a towel and a sign on the dashboard that reads " DON'T PANIC!". The mannequin was named after the David Bowie song " Starman", and the car's sound system was set before launch to continuously loop the Bowie song " Space Oddity". It was placed with the right hand on the steering wheel and the left elbow resting on the open window sill. Positioned in the driver's seat is "Starman", a full-scale human mannequin clad in a SpaceX pressure spacesuit. Photos of the car prior to payload encapsulation were released. Tubular structures were added to mount front and side cameras. The car was permanently mounted on the rocket in an inclined position above the payload adapter. Musk explained he wanted to inspire the public about the "possibility of something new happening in space" as part of his larger vision for spreading humanity to other planets. Īdvertising analysts noted Musk's sense of brand management and use of new media for his decision to launch a Tesla into space. 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. The orbit reaches a maximum distance from the Sun at aphelion of 1.66 astronomical units (au).
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.
It is the first production car launched into space and first to orbit the sun. The 2010 Roadster is personally owned by and previously used by Musk for commuting to work. The car and rocket are products of Tesla and SpaceX, respectively, both companies headed by Elon Musk. "Starman", a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit, occupies the driver's seat. 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.