Elon Musk's Tesla mistaken for asteroid in near-Earth collision scare

A Tesla Roadster launched by SpaceX in 2018 was mistakenly identified as a near-Earth asteroid.

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A mysterious object initially identified as a potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid has turned out to be none other than Elon Musk's cherry-red Tesla Roadster that SpaceX launched into space in 2018.

Earlier this month, an amateur astronomer discovered what appeared to be an asteroid, designated 2018 CN41, that seemed to be passing alarmingly close to Earth. The object came within less than 240,000 km of the planet—closer than the Moon’s orbit—raising concerns of a potential collision.

However, the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the agency responsible for cataloging asteroids, quickly retracted the classification after determining that the object was actually Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster, which was sent into space aboard SpaceX’s inaugural Falcon Heavy flight.

Photo: SpaceX

“The designation 2018 CN41, announced in MPEC 2025-A38 on Jan 2, 2025 UT, is being deleted,” the MPC said in an official notice. “It was pointed out the orbit matches an artificial object 2018-017A, Falcon Heavy Upper stage with the Tesla roadster. The designation 2018 CN41 is being deleted and will be listed as omitted.”

The car, which features a mannequin driver named "Starman," was launched in 2018 as a dummy payload and has been orbiting the Sun ever since. At the time, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the unconventional payload choice was meant to make space exploration more exciting.

Photo: SpaceX

“Anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel,” Musk had said.

The amateur astronomer behind the initial discovery of the object, identified only as “G” from Turkey, admitted he was “ecstatic” when he first submitted the identification to the MPC. However, doubts began to creep in as he analyzed its orbital trajectory.

“The Falcon launch had never crossed my mind. I almost concluded it was an actual NEO (near-Earth object) and stopped looking, but I asked around on the Minor Planet Mailing List just to erase my final doubts,” G told Astronomy.

Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell from the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics later confirmed that the object was indeed the Tesla Roadster, leading to the MPC’s retraction.

“At the very least, we managed to filter out some non-minor-planet observations from the MPC database,” G added.

The bizarre mix-up serves as a reminder that not all objects in space are natural celestial bodies—some, like Musk’s Tesla, are just joyrides that have taken an interplanetary detour.