SpaceX thrusters just made a Tesla Roadster ‘fly’ (and Elon Musk’s car is still out there in space)
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Well, that was a memorable debut.
Tesla unveiled its highly anticipated new Roadster last night (Oct. 16) with a spectacular stunt, using SpaceX thrusters to make the vehicle “fly.”
“This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car, OK?” Elon Musk, who runs both companies, said during the livestreamed reveal, which was held at SpaceX’s rocket-testing facility in McGregor, Texas. “But it takes the the fun meter to 11 out of 10.”
Tesla first announced the next-gen Roadster in 2017, saying at the time that it would be released in 2020. In 2018, Musk announced that the new car would incorporate some SpaceX tech.
“SpaceX option package for new Tesla Roadster will include ~10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around car. These rocket engines dramatically improve acceleration, top speed, braking & cornering. Maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly…” he wrote on Twitter in June of that year. (In 2022, Musk bought Twitter, which he subsequently renamed X.)
So last night’s demonstration didn’t come entirely out of left field — but it was still eye-popping. The show began with the Roadster driving up a ramp that quickly became a vertical wall and then an overhanging ledge. The Roadster clung to the surface, hanging upside-down from the ledge like a gecko on a ceiling thanks to a special fan suction system on its chassis.
“I mean, this car really sucks, OK?” Musk said, channeling his inner stand-up comedian. “This car could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch. It could suck a tennis ball through a hose pipe.”
The suction feature is not just a novelty, he added: It will help the Roadster stay connected to the ground during high-speed turns, allowing drivers to corner incredibly well.
And the sucking was just an opening act. The Tesla soon launched itself from its position beneath the ramp’s nearly horizontal ledge, executed a barrel roll in midair, and landed softly, all thanks to its SpaceX cold-gas thrusters.
“A friend of mine, Peter Thiel, once said that the future promised us flying cars, but instead we got 140 characters,” Musk said after the Roadster touched down. “Well, not anymore.”
The car has main thrusters in the rear, he explained, as well as attitude-control thrusters that control its orientation.
“So it can basically fly like a rocket, and it could do rolls,” Musk said. “It could do, like, crazy gymnastics — whatever you want, really.”
The Roadster has a total of 10 thrusters, which are fed by 600 liters — about 250 kilograms (550 pounds) — of compressed air, Tesla Engineering Vice President Lars Moravy said during last night’s event. That air is housed in carbon fiber overwrapped pressure vessels, which fill “every usable void in the car,” Tesla said via X last night.
The Tesla team put those thrusters to work multiple times during the presentation, at one point launching the Roadster over a line of six vehicles, including a Tesla semi-truck cab.
Nobody was behind the wheel during these stunts — nobody with a pulse, anyway. The driver’s seat was occupied by a mannequin clad in a black-and-white SpaceX spacesuit.
This was a nod to “Starman,” the dummy behind the wheel of Musk’s cherry-red first-gen Roadster, which launched into orbit around the sun in February 2018 on the first-ever flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.
Starman and his Roadster are still in space, by the way, and will be for a while. Modeling work suggests the duo will keep orbiting our star for millions of years before ultimately slamming into either Earth or Venus.
Last night’s Roadster demo was something of a tease, for the car is not yet in showrooms. Musk said Tesla aims to begin producing it in 2028.
And don’t expect to see the “flying” version on the road then, or anytime; it’s hard to imagine regulators certifying that vehicle for everyday use. It will likely be a status symbol for a few wealthy and connected folks, locked away in spacious and well-appointed garages.
Indeed, you can’t put down on a deposit for the “Rocket” version of the new Roadster on Tesla’s website; purchase of that vehicle is by invite only.
Two other Roadster versions are for sale — “Performance” and “Thrust.” Tesla’s website describes the Performance variant as “road ready,” with “active aero and a multi-mode suction system.” Thrust, by contrast, is “race ready.” It has active aero and suction “plus acceleration thrusters.”
It costs $50,000 to reserve a Performance vehicle and $250,000 to reserve a Thrust. Tesla has not yet revealed the total cost of any of the new Roadster variants.
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