The potential of the Tesla Roadster in space hitting Earth isn’t an impossibility
- The Tesla Roadster, Starman, has been in space for seven years
- SpaceX’s gimmicky test could still collide with Earth
- But ‘Don’t Panic!’ the possibility of impact is very, very slim
Published on Mar 16, 2025 at 3:33 PM (UTC+4)
by Jack Marsh
Last updated on Mar 14, 2025 at 12:54 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
Somehow, a Tesla Roadster has been parked in space, orbiting the Earth for seven years, but the possibility of it colliding back to the ground is still real.
SpaceX, one of Tesla’s cousins in the Elon Musk empire, sent his Tesla Roadster, named Starman, out to orbit back in 2018.
Since then, it’s been floating around the Milky Way with only gravity as its GPS.
But there remains a distinct possibility that, one day, the Tesla Roadster could collide with Earth and create havoc.
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Starman the Tesla Roadster could still hit Earth
The Tesla Roadster appears to be rocking its way through space, jamming out to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy audiobook – as long as the battery hasn’t died – and has been spotted by amateur astronauts.
Currently, the Roadster is a gargantuan trip away from Earth. At the time of writing, a simulation site of the car claims that it is 237,481,194 miles away from our planet.
However, the predicted orbit of the car crosses lines with Earth and Mars, and takes roughly 557 days to make a trip around the sun. So the car’s 36,000-mile warranty has already been exceeded 97,000 times.
Given that its apparent course overlaps with both planets, it’s entirely possible that a collision could happen, and there is data to prove it.
According to one study conducted by Cornell University, there is a six percent chance that the car could collide with Earth.
But there’s a catch.
The study takes notes from the Tesla Roadster itself, which has a ‘Don’t Panic!’ slogan imprinted on the dash and has revealed that there is no need to worry.
That 6 percent chance of collision is over a one million-year time span.
Even then, on its way back down to Earth, Starman would burn up once it entered our thicker atmosphere.
SpaceX has been doing some fascinating work as of late, sending American billionaires into the galaxy and assisting NASA with heavy cargo transport to the Moon.
As for the Tesla Roadster, astronomers are skeptical about the accuracy of the predicted orbits, with the car being hard to follow.
Who knows what’s in store for Starman?
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