Time flies when you’re floating through the cold, inhospitable environs of space. It’s been seven years since SpaceX first test-launched its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. The Feb. 6, 2018 launch shot SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster into space. The cherry-red sports car is still out there and even suffered from a case of mistaken identity recently when astronomers thought it might be an asteroid.
A lot has happened since 2018. Musk turned Twitter into X. Tons of Starship development. Tons of Falcon 9 launches. Some more Falcon Heavy launches. Through it all, the red car and a mannequin named Starman have been in orbit around the sun.
Roadster as near-Earth object
Musk’s car was accidentally and briefly classified as an asteroid in 2025. The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center issued a bulletin on Jan. 2 announcing 2018 CN41 as a newly discovered near-Earth object. NEOs include asteroids and comets.
The MPC issued a follow-up notice on Jan. 3, saying, “The next day it was pointed out the orbit matches an artificial object 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper stage with the Tesla roadster. The designation 2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted.”
New space objects are discovered all the time. It’s important work. Astronomers aim to find and track asteroids that could potentially hit Earth. The MPC has cataloged over 37,500 NEOs, with 190 so far in January alone. The Roadster slipped through the cracks for a flash in time. It shows how a human-made object can resemble a natural one.
Find the Tesla Roadster
Where exactly is the car now? There’s a handy website that’ll show you.
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Whereisroadster.com tracks the location of Elon Musk’s car in space. This map is from Jan. 28, 2025. The Roadster’s path is in green.
It takes the car about 557 days to orbit the sun. According to Pearson’s work, the Tesla has exceeded its 36,000-mile warranty by over 96,330 times. The car famously pumped out David Bowie’s song Space Oddity at the start of its journey. If the battery and speakers were still working, the on-board mannequin would have heard Bowie’s masterpiece over 692,000 times. Talk about an earworm.
Researchers had already looked into the chances of the car hitting Earth some day, and calculated the odds at just 6% within 1 million years. The team also worked out that the Roadster will make a close(ish) encounter with Earth in 2091, when it will come within a couple hundred thousand miles of the planet where it was made.
Space is a harsh place, so it’s likely the Roadster and its pilot are pretty roughed up at this point. What will be its ultimate fate? It could be doomed to wander the solar system, or perhaps we’ll go fetch it someday and put it in a museum. Anyone want a lightly used, well-traveled electric car?
