On Tuesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took a break from distrusting A.I., building a hyperloop, and selling flamethrowers and cars to instead launch one of those aforementioned cars into outer damn space. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy made a successful launch, with Musk tweeting later in the day that their test payload — a $200K Tesla Roadster playing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” because that was the silliest thing they could imagine — had successfully exceeded Mars’ orbit. (They had intended for it to orbit Mars, so maybe “successfully” was the wrong word there.)
Meanwhile on Twitter, people were making jokes and imagining what Elon Musk might be up to:
https://twitter.com/AlexJamesFitz/status/960918869950058496
Musk even responded to that Baby Groot picture:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960951470190313472
Some people also offered praise for the David Bowie soundtrack and reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Congratulations @elonmusk and #SpaceX – how I wish Douglas Adams were alive to see “Don’t Panic” in large friendly letters on the Tesla That was a classy addition.
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) February 6, 2018
Others just marveled at the myriad trials and tribulations of life in 2018.
https://twitter.com/missbreton/status/961092340617240576
And some offered theories about why Elon Musk really sent that car into space.
Former school bully, now aged 46: Where the fuck is my car???
Elon Musk, stepping out of the shadows: You shouldn’t have called me “Peelon”, Andrew— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) February 7, 2018
Other theories were posited, some a bit more conspiratorial than others.
multiple generations who grew up in superhero movies and james bond and no one can recognize a supervillian when he launches a $200K car into space for no real reason
— Helena Fitzgerald (@helfitzgerald) February 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/markokloos/status/960961519897935873
Paul Ryan – "working Americans could earn as much as $1.50 extra a week!!"
Elon Musk – "I shall now send a stapler to Neptune"— Fred Delicious 🍆 (@Fred_Delicious) February 6, 2018
call me crazy but we shouldn’t yield space exploration to private enterprise and weirdo billionaires quite so gleefully imo
— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) February 7, 2018
Some people saw a prime opportunity to make puns.
https://twitter.com/dogboner/status/961009448604110850
https://twitter.com/BoogTweets/status/961001214623219713
While others saw this launch as an opportunity to set up a profitable “let’s launch people into the sun” side business.
Sending a Tesla to Mars is a wonderful milestone on the path to launching Peter Thiel into the sun.
— anildash.com (@anildash) February 6, 2018
It was a truly inspirational day.
inspiration really does come from anywhere pic.twitter.com/wZEC3iacKE
— Mike Tunison (@xmasape) February 7, 2018
Although some people just wanted to start a fight. (Careful, dude, he’ll launch your car into the sun.)
elon musk is a reddit ass bitch
— Alex Nichols (@Lowenaffchen) February 7, 2018
And, finally, someone proffered a classic Carl Sagan picture to remind everyone not to get too corporate with our space travel.
— dr. acula (@runDRG) February 6, 2018