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SpaceX's Starman Tesla Roadster In Space
SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy rocket topped by Elon Musk's old Tesla Roadster "piloted" by a mannikin named "Starman" (after the David Bowie song) in 2018. But that's not the end of the story.
(Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster departing Earth with Starman at the wheel)
At the time, the SpaceX Tesla launch (for it was, indeed, Musk's personal Roadster) was a flashy flight. But that renown didn't prevent a case of mistaken identity seven years later, when an astronomer reported a sighting of the object as an asteroid. On Jan. 2, the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts — which tracks such finds — announced the discovery.A day later, once the Tesla truth was clear, the center retracted the claim. "The designation 2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted," the center wrote on Jan. 3.
(Via Space.com.)
I've been saying for years that science fiction writers and science fiction magazines have been predicting all manner of future technology and occurrences. Consider Biddiver, a 1941 short story by Theodore Sturgeon.
('Biddiver' by Theodore Sturgeon)
“You see,” he went on, staring at the picture, “from what you tell me, the space-travel mechanisms on the car had their master switch where any other Carrington [car] has its radio. This guy was apparently one of those people who can’t breathe unless a radio’s pounding their ear. Drunk as he was, you can bet that the first thing he did after he started the car was to turn on the radio. As soon as he did that, he took off.Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 4/2/2025)
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