SpaceX sent the Falcon Heavy rocket on February 2018 to outer space and has been there ever since. But the spacecraft never went alone as in it was packed Elon Musk’s personal car, the Tesla Roadster carrying a mannequin passenger, named Starman. And now after 557 days, the cherry red vehicle that was the payload to the rocket has successfully made a full orbit trip around the sun.

However much the idea was a surprise with Elon himself admitting that the cargo was “kinda silly and fun”, he also went to defend the move saying that  “silly and fun things are important.” Luckily enough, Starman had already passed the orbit of Mars and was heading out toward the asteroid belt by November last year.

Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster in Falcon Heavy rocket before 2018 launch. Source: Electrek

But with Starman’s successful 122million kilometre-long journey so far, SpaceX has reported that the mannequin is not likely to get anywhere close to the earth anytime soon considering the estimates made so far on the earth’s movement around the sun.

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For the journey back home, the Tesla Roadster is expected to fly near Mars, about 7.4 million km away, on October 7, 2020, giving people the chance to at least get a glimpse of it on November 5th 2020. This is when the electric vehicle will be just under 52 million km away from the earth after which it will be a lonely time for Starman till 2047.

With SpaceX itself edging closer to deep space flight with plans of taking humans to the moon and Mars, there is a possibility that space travel will be a routine by the time Starman gets back to earth.