SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch: Will the Tesla Roadster hit the asteroid belt?

Elon Musk’s very own cherry red convertible, which was launched with the Falcon Heavy rocket on Tuesday, was supposed to be on an orbit around the sun.

The powerful rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 3.45pm EST (8.45pm GMT) before breaking out to into space.

The planned trajectory would have put the Tesla out to the distance of Mars’ orbit.

But the Falcon Heavy carrying the vehicle turned out to be much more powerful than expected – making it the world’s most powerful rocket.

Will the Tesla Roadster hit the asteroid belt?

Elon Musk confirmed late Tuesday the Falcon Heavy and its lone Starman passenger have completed one final engine burn towards a “trans-Mars injection”.

SpaceX was hopeful the rocket and its $200,000 (£143,000) cargo enter a billion year orbit reaching Mars, but it appears the dummy Starman had different plans in mind.

Mr Musk revealed today the final rocket burst worked better than intended, quite significantly shifting the Roadster’s trajectory. 

The founder tweeted: “Third burn successful. Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt.”

However, the Tesla won’t make it to the asteroid belt as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk previously claimed.

After some astronomers noticed some discrepancies with the SpaceX figures, the agency then sent a revised orbit to NASA.

This revealed the car will indeed travel further than the orbit of Mars, but ultimately will not reach the asteroid belt.

The belt begins about 329 million miles from the Sun, and the Tesla will reach a distance about 160 million miles away from the Solar System’s star.

Where is the Tesla roadster now?

According to new website ‘whereisroadster.com’, the very special payload is thousands of miles away from earth.

The current location is 270547 miles (435403 km) from Earth, at 11.15am GMT, moving at a speed of 2315 miles/hour (3726 km/hour)