Car Playing David Bowie’s Music Will Be Shot Into Space
SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, will send the Falcon Heavy rocket on its first-ever proper flight, where it plans to release one of his Tesla Roadsters into space today. An animated video of how the flight is expected to go was released, and it features David Bowie's "Life on Mars?"
You can watch the video above.
The Verge notes that the car will separate from the rocket shortly after the three booster stages have returned to Earth. From there, the Roadster, with the top down, will head toward Mars at a speed of seven miles a second. In the driver's seat will be a dummy wearing a spacesuit created by SpaceX.
Musk expects the car to get near to where Mars orbits around the sun, roughly 141 million miles from Earth, after which it will float around space forever, much like Bowie's Major Tom.
Of course, this is only if everything goes according to plan. At a test last month, the Falcon Heavy performed well. But that test, called a "static fire," didn't involve the rocket leaving the launchpad.
The video is set to "Life on Mars?" but Musk previously said the car will be playing Bowie's "Space Oddity," even though sound can't be heard in outer space. The Space Falcon is scheduled to liftoff at 1:30PM ET from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.