X-SciTech

Here's the Tesla that Elon Musk will launch into orbit around Mars

By JESSICA DOLCOURT

December 22, 2017 / 7:07 PM EST / CNET

Two days ago, SpaceX CEO and Tesla founder Elon Musk unveiled plans to launch his "midnight cherry Tesla Roadster" into space as part of the maiden voyage of the company's Falcon Heavy rocket in January.

The planned trajectory: a "billion year elliptic Mars orbit." The soundtrack: David Bowie's "Space Oddity."

On Friday, Musk revealed the setup in a photo slideshow posted to Instagram. The Roadster appears bright red in the center of SpaceX's slate grey rocket, called Falcon Heavy.

Musk's SpaceX venture, alongside Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic enterprise and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, is one of a few private companies committed to exploring travel to the Moon and Mars. The Falcon Heavy rocket is powerful enough to launch a fully booked 737 jet into orbit, and is designed to carry human cargo into space.

The mission is seen as a precursor to sending humans to Mars.

A Red Car for the Red Planet Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring. Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel. The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Dec 22, 2017 at 10:47am PST

This article originally appeared on CNET.