Did Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster survive being launched into space by SpaceX?

Answer: Yes, according to live video feed that SpaceX just released.

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On Tuesday, Feb. 6, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk made good on another one of his out-of-this-world ideas by launching his cherry-red Tesla Roadster into space on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. In the driver’s seat was a dummy, named Starman, dressed in one of SpaceX’s spacesuits.

The launch was mostly a success, with the rocket’s two side boosters returning themselves simultaneously to the launchpad after detaching from the rocket post-launch. The core rocket is supposed to land on an unmanned barge positioned in the Atlantic, but as of this writing the success of that stage of the launch has yet to be confirmed.

The car itself, however, successfully made it into orbit, at which point Musk and SpaceX revealed that it had been decked out with a suite of cameras sending a live feed back down to Earth. The result is a very long video of Starman in the Roadster from a number of different angles as the car slowly rotates. The shots, particularly those of the Earth, are stunning. The ultimate destination is Mars, but the cameras will probably run out of power and/or move out of transmission range long before it gets there.

Check out the video, first posted on YouTube, below.



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Kate is a senior copy editor in Northern California. She holds a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in professional writing from the University of California, Davis.