Things are looking up for Elon Musk’s dominance of space. On 6 February, SpaceX launched the most powerful rocket on the market, placing Musk’s Tesla Roadster into an orbit that will take it beyond Mars, along with its symbolic driver, a dummy named Starman in a white SpaceX pressure suit.
Much of the internet exploded with glee and disbelief at the live pictures of a car hovering in front of Earth. It was fun, it was silly, it was beautiful, and it felt a bit like a symbol of the beginning of a new …