Once a protective coating called the fairing peeled away from the nose holding the payload, video beamed down live and broadcast via Twitter showed the slick, shiny automobile seeming to float in the dark of space until our big gray-blue planet drifted into view behind it, filling the background.
Whisps of white hinted at weather systems churning busily high above Earth’s surface. Starman had its right hand on the steering wheel and left arm stretched casually along the open left side of the car.
At another point in the video, a skinny, elongated reflection of the Earth — an image shaped roughly like a space rocket, of all things — crept forward along the left side of the car.
And through a strange optical effect, a similar reflection headed in the other direction from the front of the Tesla.
The tips of the two reflections kissed and merged into one shape, even as the rest of each kept flowing in opposite directions, lava-like, towards each other.
The original plan was to propel the car near Mars so that it orbits around the sun. However, the car will actually circulate in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter because the rocket carrying the car overshot the original trajectory.
While the SpaceX feat has drawn admiration from observers, it has also come under fire from critics for introducing more space junk.
According to Nasa, over 500,000 pieces of debris, or “space junk,” are tracked as they orbit the Earth. They all travel at speeds up to 28,163kph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft.
Nasa said the rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station, space shuttles and other spacecraft with humans aboard.
Meanwhile, the rockets that introduced the first car into outer space were newsworthy as well.
The Falcon Heavy is powered by three Falcon 9 two-stage rockets that are able to return to Earth and be reused. SpaceX developed the reusable rockets to reduce the cost of space travel.
Falcon 9 rockets have been used multiple times on resupply missions to the International Space Station. SpaceX has returned Falcon 9 rockets 21 times to land or to a barge on the ocean, according to space.com.
Launch of the Falcon Heavy has been anticipated for years. Musk announced that it was under development in 2011, but it ran into delays.
Falcon Heavy was the biggest and most powerful rocket launched into space since a Saturn V belonging to the US space agency Nasa blasted off in 1973. It also marked the first three-way landing back on Earth of reusable booster rockets.
A pre-launch test last month went well, according to Musk. The rocket fired its engines for about 10 seconds while remaining securely attached to a launch pad. It was one of the last steps SpaceX had to take before setting the launch date for the inaugural flight.
No auto brand has pulled off a publicity stunt quite like the one Tesla Inc. just managed. Not even Kia which have scored some kudos and Lexus which has attracted eyeballs with Super Bowl ads on Sunday.
Images of the car posted by Musk on Twitter and Instagram will serve as the latest example of electric-car maker’s unconventional promotion methods. It’s shunned traditional auto advertising and relied on its CEO’s star power to become a US$56 billion company, making it more valuable than Ford Motor Co.
“When automakers buy an ad spot in the Super Bowl, they aspire to create a spectacle with a commercial. In Elon Musk’s case, he makes the spectacle his own reality,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of industry analysis at Edmunds. “The buzz he creates with a stunt like this is far beyond what marketing dollars can buy you.”
The chief executive officer of both Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. equipped his Roadster with three cameras to capture what Musk said on Monday would be “epic views” as the car hurtles toward Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the sun.
“No one” does publicity stunts better, Michelle Krebs, an analyst with car-shopping website Autotrader, said by phone after tuning into the launch. “It was on every cable network. It’s like the old days of space launches. It was very impressive.” — Agencies
