A year in the life of Starman lasts about 557 of our Earth days.
The Tesla Roadster that SpaceX sent into outer space in Feb. 2018 has now completed one full orbit around the sun. The distance “driven” amounts to roughly 762 million miles which, according to Where Is Roadster?, means the car’s 36,000 mile warranty has been exceeded more than 21,000 times.
Good luck getting that thing serviced, Starman.
It’s been quite a journey for the spacesuit-clad dummy who should still be positioned at the wheel of the spacefaring Roadster. He ended up there initially as part of a test launch for the Falcon Heavy, a reusable SpaceX rocket that’s designed to carry heavy payloads beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Space enthusiasts have been monitoring Starman’s progress ever since, watching the skies for his occasional appearances. He even inspired a totally bizarre video game.
The last time we talked about Starman at Mashable, it was Nov. 2018, nine months after launch. At that point, Starman and his trusty Roadster had already made it past Mars. Now, the car is approaching the red planet again — only 69 million miles to go at the time of publish, so skip the “are we there yet?” please — as it starts a second circle around the sun.
There are some fun stats to be found on that Where Is Roadster? website, and it’s a cool thing to bookmark if you nerd out about space. My favorite stat: David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” which was playing on a loop when the car launched, would have repeated more than 151,000 times by now — but only if the Roadster’s battery still had any juice.
That’s probably not the case, with so few EV charging stations to be found in the spaceways. But it’s a lovely though, this idea of a fake spaceman flying through the stars and jamming to Bowie for all eternity.