Time flies as you flow through the cold, priceless surroundings of space. It’s seven years since SpaceX first Test-launched his powerful Falcon Tung rocket. On February 6, 2018 Launch Shot SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster in space. The sports car is still out there and even has a bit of a case of wrong identity recently when astronomers thought it could be an asteroid.
Much has happened since 2018. Musk became Twitter to X. Tons of Starship Development. Tons of Falcon 9 launches. Some more Falcon Heavy launches. Throughout it all, the red car and a mannequin named Starman have been in orbit around the sun.
Roadster as nearly earth object
Musk’s car was accidentally and briefly classified as an asteroid in 2025. The smaller planetary center of the International Astronomical Union issued a Bulletin on January 2nd, announcing 2018 CN41 as a newly discovered object near earth. NEOS includes asteroids and comets.
MPC issued a follow-up message on January 3rd and said: “The next day it was pointed out that the course matches an artificial object 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper Stage with Tesla Roadster. The term 2018 CN41 is deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted and deleted will be erected as omitted.
New space objects are discovered all the time. It is important work. Astronomers aim to find and trace asteroids that could potentially affect the earth. MPC has cataloged over 37,500 NEOs with 190 so far in January alone. Roadster slid through the cracks for a flash in time. It shows how a man -made object can look like a natural.
Find Tesla Roadster
Where exactly is the car now? There is a practical site that shows you.
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Whereisboadster.com tracks the location of Elon Musk’s car in space. This card is from January 28, 2025. Roadster’s path is in green.
Wherisboadster.com has been in operation since 2018 and trace the car on its journey through space. Creator Ben Pearson’s side follows the location of the car and calculates the distance it is erected. As it approaches its seventh anniversary in the room, Roadster has “run” about 3.5 trillion miles.
It takes the car about 557 days to cire around the sun. According to Pearson’s work, Tesla has exceeded its 36,000 km warranty by over 96,330 times. The car pumped famous David Bowies Space Oddity song at the start of his journey. If the battery and speakers were still working, the built -in mannequin would have heard Bowie’s masterpiece over 692,000 times. Talk about an earworm.
Researchers had already examined The chances of the car that affects the ground One day and calculated the odds of only 6% within a million years. The team also worked out that Roadster will come near (Ish) with the Earth in 2091, where it comes within a few hundred thousand miles (a few hundred thousand kilometers) of the planet where it was made.
The room is a hard place, so it is likely that Roadster and its pilot are pretty rough at this time. What will be its ultimate fate? It may be doomed to wander the solar system, or maybe humanity will pick it up one day and put it in a museum. Is there anyone who wants an easily used, well -traveled electric car?