Elon Musk Plans On Launching a Rocket to Mars Carrying a Tesla Blasting Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’
Seriously? (See update.)
Update: Hilariously enough, Musk was totally fucking with everyone.
Original: Sometimes the line between genius and insanity blurs, and brilliant men say whacko things. Then there’s Elon Musk, who has demonstrated a gift for saying something kind of out there then basically doing it.
In 2016 Musk tweeted that he was tired of sitting in traffic so he would build “a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.” Many thought he was joking. He was not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5V_VzRrSBI
Friday night the billionaire who was supposedly one role model for Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark tweeted the following:
Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape. Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017
Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017
Granted, if anyone can afford to sacrifice a Tesla to the vast depths of space just to play “Space Oddity” for alien ears to hear, it’s probably Elon Musk.
Reactions to Musk’s tweets weren’t as incredulous as you’d expect, others were pretty critical.
https://twitter.com/JC_Channel/status/936793484303859712https://twitter.com/fulanafloyd/status/937003104276398080
In space no one can hear Space Oddity :]
— Zaalia Gerumis (@Zaaleeah) December 2, 2017
There are many arguments to be made about whether Musk’s idea is silly or in a way just plain insensitive, given what a man with his means and creativity could do for so many.
However there’s also the Bowie factor. If there’s a more perfect song and singer to have out there in the void, we can’t imagine it.
So enjoy a little “Space Oddity” below and keep an eye out to see if Elon Musk was just fucking with us. Chances are, he wasn’t.