OK Elon Musk now I am impressed

[Frodo]

I have a high bar. 

Launching a red convertible into orbit near Mars and playing Bowie is just cool. 

[oakranger]

1)  wonder what kind of insurance he has in that car?   
2) if allies hijack the car, who dose he report the criminal act to?
3) "IF" that car makes it back on earth......it would be interesting to see the damages it inflected while in space.

[BaldEagl]

The booster rocket's tandem landing was way cool.

[Lusche]

Launching a red convertible into orbit near Mars and playing Bowie is just cool. 

It's not in a orbit near Mars.

It's on a Hohmann transfer orbit around the sun, bringing it as close to the sun as Earth and (at times) as far away as Mars. Right now it's still quite close to the Earth.
Or, in other words: "a precessing Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the sun."


EDIT:

Seems that's somewhat old information, according to Mr Musks last tweet the heliocentric orbit will be larger than that:

[Lusche]

1)  wonder what kind of insurance he has in that car?

[Zimme83]

The car will be mostly a pile of steel and aluminum within a year or so, the radiation will disintegrate pretty much everything else.
Center booster was lost unfortunately but its not a big deal, the test was a smashing success.

[fd ski]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ

[Kanth]

it is cool. 

I have a high bar. 

Launching a red convertible into orbit near Mars and playing Bowie is just cool. 

[oakranger]

The car will be mostly a pile of steel and aluminum within a year or so, the radiation will disintegrate pretty much everything else.
Center booster was lost unfortunately but its not a big deal, the test was a smashing success.

That lost is fortunate that it happen.

[SilverZ06]

I took some pictures of the launch. I was approx 14.5 miles away. I was incredible. The landing boosters were awesome! http://www.silveyphotos.com/p415810675

[Lusche]

I took some pictures of the launch.

 

[oboe]

Thanks for sharing those pics!   what a cool rocket that is.

[eagl]

Regarding the new orbit...  From what Elon Musk said at the press conference, I think they fired the transfer stage for max duration just to see how far it would go, longer than would be necessary for a mars flyby.  Apparently the onboard batteries are good for just 12 hrs so once it's on its way, they can't track it anyhow and don't have a way to test another rocket burn for mars capture.  So they just fired it till it quit, to see what max performance looks like for that configuration.

[Ripsnort]

1)  wonder what kind of insurance he has in that car?   
2) if allies hijack the car, who dose he report the criminal act to?
3) "IF" that car makes it back on earth......it would be interesting to see the damages it inflected while in space.

1) Farmers. (We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two. )
2) If Allies, no one. It's in friendly hands. If ALIENS, report it to Sigourney Weaver.
3) Nothing a little elbow grease and a porter cable random orbital polisher won't buff out.

[Ripsnort]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ

Yes, how soon we forget!

I am amazed that this Millennium generation of aerospace engineers and scientists could actually have this much success without complaining about too much milk fat in the lattes.