see last image of elon musk's spaceX starman before failing to reach asteroid belt as claimed

yesterday elon musk launched spaceX’s ‘falcon heavy’ from cape canaveral carrying his 2008 cherry red tesla roadster inside. onboard, a mannequin named starman wearing a spaceX suit, drove the car with an endless loop of david bowie’s song ‘life on mars’. and for our enjoyment and to register a historical event, musk equipped the roadster with cameras which have live-streamed the event to everyone around the world.

spaceX starman onboard elon musk’s 2008 cherry red tesla
all images © spaceX / screenshots from youtube video

update february 8th: this article has been updated to include the last image of the tesla and its spaceman driver.

update february 8th: this article has been updated to include a revised orbit for the tesla given to NASA, which shows the car won’t make it to the asteroid belt.

elon musk posted the last image captures of the tesla on his instagram

in the video above you can see the incredible footage registered from the car passing by our planet. and for those concerned with the safety of starman, worry no more as elon musk revealed in a press conference that he was wearing an actual production of the spaceX suit instead of a prototype. this is the same suit that will be used by spaceX astronauts going to space on board crew dragon, the spaceship that will bring real people to space.

the car has been equipped with cameras that live streamed the event

featuring a monochromatic design, the black and white spacesuit stands out for its sleek design. developed in-house, the suit covers the qualification articles set by NASA to operate crew launches. that said, this was not just an ad for musk’s tesla and spaceX companies, but a test to see how the suit behaves in space missions.

‘I mean, it’s a dangerous trip, you want to look good,’ elon musk said. ‘it’s easy to make a spacesuit that looks good but doesn’t work; it’s really hard to make a spacesuit that works, and looks good… it definitely works though, you can just put it on and jump in a vacuum chamber.’

the mannequin was wearing the real spaceX suit, testing it in outerspace

since the tesla roadster has been in space, it seems it overshot its trajectory. it was originally planned that the vehicle would reach a path around the sun that would take the vehicle out to the distance of mars’ orbit. but a new orbit shows that the car will actually travel farther out than the orbit of mars, but not far enough to make it to the asteroid belt as originally claimed.

elon musk posted this via twitter showing that the tesla roadster will not reach the asteroid belt as originally claimed

musk initially posted an orbit which showed the tesla would go out into the asteroid belt, getting relatively close to the orbit of the dwarf planet ceres. however, astronomers noticed some discrepancies prompting a revision of the orbit to be sent to NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory on wednesday. you can find it by selecting ‘target body’ -143205). whilst this might not meet original claims, the overshooting of the orbit of mars is good news for scientists looking to send vehicles there one day.

beautiful views of planet earth can be seen in the video