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:
Musk even responded to that Baby Groot picture:
Some people also offered praise for the David Bowie soundtrack and reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Others just marveled at the myriad trials and tribulations of life in 2018.
And some offered theories about why Elon Musk really sent that car into space.
Other theories were posited, some a bit more conspiratorial than others.
Some people saw a prime opportunity to make puns.
While others saw this launch as an opportunity to set up a profitable “let’s launch people into the sun” side business.
It was a truly inspirational day.
Although some people just wanted to start a fight. (Careful, dude, he’ll launch your car into the sun.)
And, finally, someone proffered a classic Carl Sagan picture to remind everyone not to get too corporate with our space travel.
