Falcon Heavy launch is remarkable, inspirational

The idea of launching into space a Tesla Roadster, playing David Bowie's Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit, with the message "made on Earth by humans", may be more about marketing than about marking a milestone moment in our space odyssey.

Certainly many people would have thought a private company launching the most powerful rocket in the world into space, especially one that is lower in cost and reusable, would be a big enough story to make any publicity tricks unnecessary.

Elon Musk obviously thought differently, however, and his "Starman" is likely to live long in our collective memory.