David Bowie's "Space Oddity" Launched Toward Mars In Tesla Rocket

Can you hear me, Major Tom?

For the Falcon Heavy rocket that Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched into space February 6, the answer is a resounding yes.

Inside the rocket’s upper stage is a “midnight cherry Tesla Roadster” which is playing David Bowie’s 1969 classic, “Space Oddity.” Inside the car: a dummy known as “Starman,” an obvious reference to the Bowie song of the same name found on the 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

The rocket lifted off at 3:45 PM EST from Kennedy Space Center’s historic launch pad 39A (via CBS News). The launch was originally scheduled for 1:30 PM but was delayed for several hours due to weather conditions.

Elon Musk himself announced the Bowie soundtrack late last year in an Instagram post. See the post below.

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

As for why? Elon Musk has the answers:

I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017