SpaceX Roadster (Starman)

SpaceX Roadster is not a natural celestial object, but rather a man-made object launched by SpaceX in February 2018 as part of the Falcon Heavy test flight. It is a red sports car owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and was launched as a demonstration of the Falcon Heavy's capabilities. The Roadster is not in a stable orbit around the Sun, but is instead on a heliocentric orbit that will take it to the asteroid belt and then back to the inner Solar System in the future. The Roadster also carries a mannequin named Starman, dressed in a spacesuit, in the driver's seat. The name "Roadster" refers to the type of car that is used as the payload for the Falcon Heavy, while "SpaceX" is the name of the private space exploration company founded by Elon Musk in 2002.

SpaceX Roadster (Starman) is currently in the constellation of Aquarius. The current Right Ascension of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) is 23h 27m 02s and the Declination is -03° 37’ 52” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt). The current magnitude of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) is 28.69 (JPL).

Today's rise, transit and set times of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Available Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is SpaceX Roadster (Starman)?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is SpaceX Roadster (Starman) from Earth?)
• When does SpaceX Roadster (Starman) rise and set?
• Brightness (see also How bright is SpaceX Roadster (Starman)?)
• Interactive orbit visualization. 3d visualization showing the orbit of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) with respect to the major Solar System objects.
• 15 days ephemerides. Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate SpaceX Roadster (Starman) in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate SpaceX Roadster (Starman) with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where SpaceX Roadster (Starman) is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

Also check out Where is SpaceX Roadster (Starman)?, a page that provides all the information needed to find SpaceX Roadster (Starman) in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

SpaceX Roadster (Starman) Distance from Earth

The distance of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) from Earth is currently 215,451,695 kilometers, equivalent to 1.440206 Astronomical Units. Light takes 11 minutes and 58.6695 seconds to travel from SpaceX Roadster (Starman) and arrive to us.

The following chart shows the distance of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth. The value of the distance of SpaceX Roadster from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest Approach of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) to Earth

Between 8 February 2018 and 31 December 2089, the closest approach of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) to Earth happens on Thu Feb 8 2018 at a distance of 0.002218 Astronomical Units, or 331,842 kilometers:

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

SpaceX Roadster (Starman) Brightness and Light Curve

The following chart is the predicted light curve (visual magnitude as a function of time) of SpaceX Roadster (Starman), according to the most recent ephemerides data. Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour.

Visualization of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) Orbit

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System. This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback!

SpaceX Roadster (Starman) 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of SpaceX Roadster (Starman) computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate SpaceX Roadster (Starman) in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
2023 May 29	23h 14m 15s	-05° 03’ 15”	28.79	Aquarius
2023 May 30	23h 15m 56s	-04° 52’ 00”	28.78	Aquarius
2023 May 31	23h 17m 38s	-04° 40’ 47”	28.77	Aquarius
2023 Jun 01	23h 19m 18s	-04° 29’ 36”	28.75	Aquarius
2023 Jun 02	23h 20m 58s	-04° 18’ 29”	28.74	Aquarius
2023 Jun 03	23h 22m 39s	-04° 07’ 23”	28.73	Aquarius
2023 Jun 04	23h 24m 18s	-03° 56’ 20”	28.72	Aquarius
2023 Jun 05	23h 25m 55s	-03° 45’ 19”	28.70	Aquarius
2023 Jun 06	23h 27m 33s	-03° 34’ 20”	28.69	Aquarius
2023 Jun 07	23h 29m 11s	-03° 23’ 26”	28.68	Aquarius
2023 Jun 08	23h 30m 47s	-03° 12’ 33”	28.66	Pisces
2023 Jun 09	23h 32m 23s	-03° 01’ 44”	28.65	Pisces
2023 Jun 10	23h 33m 59s	-02° 50’ 57”	28.63	Pisces
2023 Jun 11	23h 35m 33s	-02° 40’ 14”	28.62	Pisces