On 6 February 2018, a Tesla Roadster was launched as the mass simulator on the first ever Falcon Heavy launch — putting for the first time ever a car on a Mars-crossing orbit. While undoubted… ...

"Starman," with Gentry Lee reigniting the fervor of those times, returns us to the reality-based daydream of life on other planets, and the question of how authentic that dream ever was.

blaring in Starman's headset, would have played 133,695 times by now if the batteries still worked, which they don't. And most people don't realize he's coming back.

"Starman" sits in a Tesla Roadster after it was carried into space by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Feb. 6, 2018. SpaceX via AFP-Getty Images ...

You can watch SpaceX's Starman mannequin ride a Tesla Roadster in space live on YouTube after the successful Falcon Heavy test launch of Feb. 6, 2018. Check it out!

But Starman isn’t only a stunt. The craft will orbit the sun for tens of billions of years at about 13.5 miles per hour. So it will cross the orbits of Mars and Earth many times, and came within ...

Starman is a mannequin sporting a SpaceX flight suit, casually seated behind the wheel of a red Tesla Roadster. On Wednesday, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared the last image of Starman, as he ...

Starman and his red Tesla are in an elliptical orbit that swings the duo out past the orbit of Mars, before it cycles back to Earth's orbital distance and perihelion - its closest point to the Sun ...