Tourists Take Pictures Of Elon Musks' Roadster Inside SpaceX Rocket
Elon Musk's "midnight cherry" Tesla Roadster is already creating a huge buzz even before it leaves for Mars. A tourist visiting the launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida took some snaps of the SpaceX mega rocket containing the car being driven out of its hangar possibly to be prepped for the launch which is set to be held next month.
The photo showed the closed and sealed fairing being hauled out on to the tarmac. The presence of two employees gives one an idea of just how massive the rocket set to carry the fairing into space is.
According to SpaceX, the Falcon Heavy will be capable of lifting into orbit more than 119,000 lbs – the mass equivalent to a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel. The launch is also the maiden flight of the rocket which Musk boasted will have double the thrust of the next largest rocket in use, the Delta 4 Heavy. As for the payload, Musk suggests that using his own roadster is part publicity and part whim.
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"Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring," Musk said. "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."
Earlier this week, Musk shared photos of the rocket with its Tesla Roadster payload fitted snuggly on its fairings. As expected, the images sparked new excitement for the upcoming launch. Among those who shared in the excitement as Steve Jurvetson, the venture capitalist who was an early investor and former board member of SpaceX and Tesla, who posted the images on his Twitter.
The Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the vehicle is scheduled to blast off next month from Cape Canaveral on the same pad as the Saturn V Apollo 11 moon rocket. The unmanned mission hopes to put the Roadster in orbit around Mars, "a red car for the red planet" as Musk puts it.
