Yes, there is currently a 2008 Midnight Cherry Tesla Roadster orbiting the sun. Launched on February 6, 2018, as the dummy payload for the maiden flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, the car is "driven" by a mannequin in a spacesuit nicknamed "Starman." As of 2026, the car has traveled billions of miles and has completed nearly four full orbits around the sun. While it was once pristine, it has likely been severely degraded by solar radiation, micro-meteoroids, and extreme temperature fluctuations, leaving the leather seats and paint bleached or shredded. There is no camera feed anymore, but astronomers can still track its position using orbital mechanics. It is currently acting as an artificial "asteroid" and is expected to continue its journey for millions of years, eventually having a very small mathematical chance of colliding with Earth or Venus in the distant future.
That’s a great question! The short answer is yes, there is at least one car in space — and it’s arguably the most famous car in history.
The car is a Tesla Roadster, launched by SpaceX on February 6, 2018, as the dummy payload for the first test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket. It’s not a functional car meant for transportation, but a real, cherry-red Tesla with a mannequin named “Starman” in the driver’s seat.
Here are the key details:
- Current Location: It’s in a heliocentric orbit (orbiting the Sun), traveling on an elliptical path that crosses the orbits of both Earth and Mars.
- Status: It’s not headed toward any specific planet. It’s essentially a piece of space debris, though a very culturally significant one. Over very long timescales (millions of years), it has a small chance of crashing into Earth, Venus, or the Sun.
- What’s happening to it: Exposed to the harsh environment of space—intense radiation, extreme temperature swings, and micrometeoroid impacts—the car’s materials are slowly degrading. Its paint is being sandblasted by cosmic rays, its tires and interior plastics are likely cracking and disintegrating, and its carbon-fiber frame is being bombarded by radiation.
Other “Cars” or Vehicle-Like Objects in Space
While the Tesla Roadster is the only consumer car, there are other vehicle-like objects:
- Lunar Rovers: The Apollo missions (15, 16, and 17) left electric Lunar Roving Vehicles (LRVs) on the Moon’s surface. These were foldable, battery-powered cars designed for astronauts to drive on the Moon. They are still there today.
- Mars Rovers: Vehicles like Perseverance, Curiosity, Opportunity, and Spirit are robotic, motorized vehicles exploring the surface of Mars. They are essentially highly advanced, remote-controlled space cars.
- Lunokhod Rovers: The Soviet Union landed two robotic, wheeled rovers (Lunokhod 1 and 2) on the Moon in the 1970s.
So, to summarize:
- A consumer car? Yes, one: Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster, orbiting the Sun.