There were plenty of spectacular moments during the maiden launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket on Tuesday.
But perhaps the most dramatic scene occurred about four minutes after liftoff: The second stage of the rocket, headed deeper into space, discarded the white nose cone at its tip.
It revealed SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's cherry red sports car. Behind the wheel was a spacesuit-clad mannequin, named Starman. The car glided victoriously away from Earth as David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" blared on SpaceX's launch webcast.
The car is not on some scientific voyage. This was a test launch, so SpaceX needed a dummy payload -- and Musk previously said he wanted it to be the "[s]illiest thing we can imagine." So he picked his own luxurious Tesla roadster.
"I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future," he said in December.