Things are looking up for Elon Musk鈥檚 dominance of space. On 6 February, SpaceX launched the most powerful rocket on the market, placing Musk鈥檚 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 golden age of space exploration.
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But others questioned just what Musk was symbolising. 鈥淎bout Elon鈥檚 big day鈥� this is a car commercial in space. Everyone: pls stop participating,鈥� activist Naomi Klein, one of many people expressing their unease at the audacious spectacle.
Klein is not wrong. Musk鈥檚 choice to make his product the indelible image of humanity鈥檚 future in space was a brilliant strategic move. The public won鈥檛 forget the images of our planet鈥檚 reflection in Musk鈥檚 shiny red car. The stunt also helped to mask news, , that Tesla had made its largest quarterly loss ever 鈥� over $675 million.
But the car and its passenger are not just a cosmic advert. They are also symbols of the Silicon Valley culture that made Elon Musk so wealthy and famous 鈥� a culture notorious for its lack of diversity and its laser focus on financial interests.
To put it directly, every part of the Falcon Heavy payload is aggressively male. It begins with Starman, a genderless crash test dummy that is nevertheless not a Starwoman or Starperson or even just Starbot. Inside the car, SpaceX placed copies of the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov, books with mostly male characters written by a man with a of treating women badly. Lettering on the car鈥檚 dashboard reads 鈥淒on鈥檛 Panic鈥�, a reference to Douglas Adams鈥檚 The Hitchhiker鈥檚 Guide to the Galaxy. According to SpaceX, the car鈥檚 speakers were also blasting out David Bowie鈥檚 Space Oddity as the rocket ascended.
That鈥檚 a lot of white men. The same could be said of watching and celebrating the Falcon Heavy launch. And the car is a very human object, but only the very wealthiest can afford a Tesla Roadster.
Images of the Roadster and its passenger soaring high above our planet are awe-inspiring, just like astronauts鈥� photographs of Earth or selfies taken by the Curiosity rover. But there is one key difference. Curiosity was paid for with taxpayer money and built to learn about our place in the cosmos. It is a robot, but it鈥檚 an extension of all of us. The Tesla may be sleeker, faster and funnier, but it is not communal or inclusive.
The culture of private space flight is still under construction, and SpaceX is becoming a dominant builder. Stunts like Starman and his red sports car may be all fun and silliness now, but there is a longer game afoot. Ultimately, Elon Musk wants to put humans on Mars. If he is in charge of the future of the human race as he is with SpaceX, will he choose to encourage diversity and scientific inquiry? Or will he just send white starmen in pricey sports cars?
