You might remember how, back in February, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, carrying with it a cherry red Tesla Roadster and a dummy driver named “Starman.” Now, almost nine months later, the vehicle has made its way past Mars’ orbit.
SpaceX shared the Tesla Roadster’s current location in a tweet. The company revealed that Starman just passed by Mars and is about to loop around back to Earth. It would fly by our planet in August 2019.
“Starman’s current location. Next stop, the restaurant at the end of the universe,” SpaceX wrote on Twitter and released the following image.
Starman’s current location. Next stop, the restaurant at the end of the universe. pic.twitter.com/Ty5m8IjJpE
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) 3 november 2018
The roadster reached its furthest point from the sun on November 8, before heading back towards the center of the solar system. The Roadster is set to go around the sun once every 557 days, on a slightly offset orbit.
According to Musk and SpaceX, the Roadster was doing around 70 000 kilometer per hour (44,500 mph) when it passed Mars.