Somewhere out past the orbit of Mars, a cherry-red sports car with a spacesuited mannequin at the wheel is circling the Sun. This is not a metaphor. We did that, on purpose, in 2018.
The Tesla Roadster nicknamed Starman rode the first flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy as a test payload, then kept going onto a long solar orbit that reaches beyond Mars. It is still out there, and by every working definition, it is space debris.
- Object: Tesla Roadster ("Starman")
- Launched: February 6, 2018
- Vehicle: Falcon Heavy (maiden flight)
- Orbit: around the Sun, crossing Mars' distance
- Status: space debris
What counts as junk
It is a great stunt. It is also the cleanest lesson going in what the word debris actually means.
The moment it left human control, the Roadster became debris, exactly like a dead satellite or a spent rocket stage. The category was never about what the object is. It is about whether anyone can still steer it. That is the line Space Waste cares about, and most of the objects on the wrong side of it are a lot closer to home than Mars.
There is a car in space. Let it be the friendliest piece of debris you think about all week.
Open the live tracker →Sources: Tesla Roadster (Starman)