Shocking amount of miles traveled by Tesla sent into space
- This Tesla Roadster was launched into space back in 2018
- In the six years since it has traveled an eye-watering distance
- It’s not set to come back to Earth any time soon
Published on Oct 06, 2024 at 4:00 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Oct 04, 2024 at 6:53 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Elon Musk launched a Tesla into space a few years ago and it’s reached a shockingly high mileage.
On 6 February 2018, a Falcon Heavy was sent into orbit, with a Tesla Roadster on board containing a dummy called ‘Starman’.
Starman was dressed up in an astronaut suit for the occasion.
In the six years since his mission began, he’s traveled an awfully long way.
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How far has Starman traveled in six years?
Given the odd nature of the mission, it’s no wonder there’s an interest in tracking Starman’s progress.
One website continuously tracks the miles that he has racked up since leaving Earth.
At the time of this article being written, he has crossed over 169 million miles, moving at a speed of 38,406mph.
For those keeping score at home, that puts him at 148 million miles from the Sun and 270 million miles from Mars.
For a long while, it was expected that it was heading for the red planet.
But as it currently stands, the Roadster is a long way from any planet.
Not all of SpaceX’s missions are so far from home – only recently they executed the first commercial spacewalk with a stunning view of the Earth.
What’s more, this SpaceX engineer became the first person to play violin beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
What is the Tesla Roadster’s mileage in real terms?
Having completed 4.3657 orbits of the Sun – the equivalent of driving all the world’s roads 83 times – the Roadster will have had a lot of time out in the universe.
If the battery was still working, Starman would have listened to David Bowie’s Space Oddity 669,685 times since he launched in one ear, and to the singer’s other hit Life On Mars 890,245 times in his other ear.
Even Ziggy Stardust’s most committed fans could concede that sounds awfully repetitive.
At one point, it was theorized that Starman was coming back to Earth.
That would have given new meaning to Bowie’s line ‘There’s a Starman waiting in the sky, he’d like to come and meet us’, eh?
But the tracker website reports that the Roadster is moving away from Earth at this current time.
