Elon Musk's 'Starman' Tesla Roadster isn't your typical piece of space junk

Launching a Tesla Roadster into outer space may have been ridiculous, but the vehicle is far from being worthless space junk.

The stunt actually served an important engineering purpose.

Engineers commonly load their rockets with heavy simulation cargo — often made of metal — so they can accurately test how these expensive launchers will behave as they blast through the skies at some 18,000 miles per hour. 

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's outer space Tesla will overshoot Mars and land somewhere in the asteroid belt

Elon Musk — in a somewhat grotesque show of wealth — decided to send a Tesla in lieu of hunks of metal, called mass models, which are intended to simulate how a load of cargo will act during a rocket's flight.  Read more...

More about Space, Science, Rocket Launch, Elon Musk, and Space Junk

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