Hyundai used 11 cars in Nevada desert to send a heartwarming message from daughter to her father on the International Space Station
Published on Aug 13, 2026 at 6:05 AM (UTC+4)
by Henry Kelsall
Last updated on Aug 13, 2026 at 12:40 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Mason Jones
Hyundai once used 11 cars in the Nevada desert to send a message from a daughter to her father, who was on board the International Space Station.
The space station has been orbiting the Earth for decades, and it’s one of the most remarkable engineering achievements in the world.
In 2015, Hyundai decided to send a message from Stephanie in Houston to her father Terry Virts, who was on board the ISS.
They did so by taking 11 Hyundai Genesis cars to create the largest tire track image ever recorded.
How Hyundai came up with its International Space Station message
The company used its ‘New Thinking’ approach to enable the family to connect with each other.
At the time, Stephanie was 13 years old and living in Houston, and her father was away on the ISS.
She had been missing her father immensely and wanted to send him a message.
Stephanie had written a message for her father, ‘Steph loves you!’.
Rather than just have that shown to him in a picture or video, Hyundai created something spectacular.
The motor company brought 11 of its Hyundai Genesis cars together.
They were taken to the Delamar Dry Lake in Nevada to write the message out for Stephanie.
The cars wrote the message with their tires
To enable the message to be seen from space, it needed to be huge.
So Hyundai had the 11 cars write it in a big way.
The resulting message was more than one and a half times the size of New York City’s Central Park.
The entire message ended up measuring 5.55 km2.
That ensured that it became the largest tire track image in the world.
This was officially certified by Guinness World Records.
A YouTube video was also produced alongside the writing of the message, showing Stephanie, her mom, and her father.
The video shows the 11 cars working together to write the message across the dry lake.
A helicopter also filmed the cars doing so.
The Hyundai message was visible from space
In the video, Stephanie said her dad loved to take pictures from above the Earth on the International Space Station.
With the space station in low orbit over Earth, it means a lot of landmarks can be seen from it.
Towards the end of the video, a link is established between Hyundai, Stephanie, and her father.
In it, her Terry revealed that he was able to spot the message, and he even took a picture of it from the space station.
“Keeping in line with Hyundai Motor’s corporate vision of being a ‘lifetime partner in automobiles and beyond’, the campaign highlights our philosophy of caring for customers through emotional interaction said Scott Noh, Head of Overseas Marketing Group, Hyundai Motor Company.
Deciding on the Nevada location took a lot of planning by the Hyundai team.
It was clearly an incredible challenge, but one that the manufacturer was brilliantly able to pull off.
International Space Station timeline
November 1998: The first module, Zarya, is launched into orbit by a Russian Proton rocket
December 1998: The Space Shuttle Endeavour delivers the Unity node, successfully connecting the first two segments of the facility together
November 2000: Expedition 1 arrives, marking the beginning of uninterrupted human presence in space
February 2001: The Destiny laboratory module is added, massively expanding the orbital outpost’s scientific research capabilities
March 2009: The permanent crew size expands from three to six members, allowing for more comprehensive global research
May 2011: Major assembly of the station is completed following the delivery of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
May 2020: SpaceX Crew Dragon successfully docks, marking the first commercial crew vehicle to deliver astronauts to the laboratory
November 2025: The multinational collaborative project officially celebrates 25 years of continuous human occupation
Henry joined the Supercar Blondie team in February 2025, and since then has covered a wide array of topics ranging from EVs, American barn finds, and the odd Cold War jet. He’s combined his passion for cars with his keen interest in motorsport and his side hustle as a volunteer steam locomotive fireman at a heritage steam railway.
