Tesla founder Elon Musk’s 2008 Roadster blasted into space

Car-kind has taken one giant leap as SpaceX sends sister-company Tesla’s first production car on a mission to the great unknown.

Company founder Elon Musk attached his all-electric Roadster – based on the Lotus Elise – to his newest SpaceX rocket, blasting it into space.

It was the first test flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, which blasted off from the same launch pad used by Nasa at Kennedy Space Centre nearly 50 years ago to send the first men to the moon.

For the test flight, the red Roadster – which was Musk’s personal car – was enclosed in protective covering for the launch.

For SpaceX, the private rocket company also run by Musk, it was a test of its new, larger rocket designed to hoist supersize satellites and equipment to the moon, Mars or other far-flung points.

Millions of viewers around the globe watched the launch on YouTube.

Viewers were left with video images beamed from space of the Tesla circling the earth after the protective covering had dropped away and exposed the car.

A space-suited mannequin was at the wheel, named “Starman” after the David Bowie song.

Cameras mounted on the car fed video images of Starman travelling around Earth, looking akin to a Sunday driver with its right hand on the wheel and the left arm resting on the car’s door.

A sign on the dashboard read “Don’t panic!”, and Bowie’s Life on Mars? played in the background. A Hot Wheels roadster was also on the dash with a tiny spaceman on board.

Now the Roadster is heading for the asteroid belt after the rocket overshot Mars’ orbit – its original target.

Musk said: “It’s kind of silly and fun, but I think that silly and fun things are important.

“The imagery of it is something that’s going to get people excited around the world.

“(Before lift-off) I had this image of just a giant explosion on the pad, a wheel bouncing down the road, the Tesla logo landing somewhere. But fortunately, that’s not what happened.”

The Falcon Heavy is a combination of three Falcon 9s, the rocket that the company uses to ship supplies to the International Space Station and lift satellites.

SpaceX is reusing first-stage boosters to save on launch costs. Most other rocket makers discard their spent boosters in the ocean.