Elon Musk explained why he sent Tesla Roadster into space seven years ago as it's revealed where it is now

It's been about seven years since Elon Musk launched a Tesla Roadster up into space, and the car is still up there.

Remember 2018? It seems like an absolute age ago and a lot has happened since then, but all the while a car has been floating up in the vastness of space.

The Earth has changed quite a bit since then and the man who sent it there has certainly ended up with a rather altered reputation in the meantime.

As for why he sent his car up into space, there are a few reasons and one part of it is simply because he could.

When you've got a space company and a car company, you can just blast a car up into space and it's not like anyone can stop you.

Seven years in space. This car flies almost as well as time. (SpaceX via Getty Images)

However, at the time of the launch, he also said he hoped that one day humans would be able to settle on other planets and that his 'descendants will be able to drag it back to a museum'.

Musk has also said that he wanted to put the 'silliest' thing his SpaceX team could think of into space, and the Roadster was fitted with a crash test dummy in the driver's seat called 'Starman' after the David Bowie song.

He'd given his mission a 50-50 chance of succeeding, so apparently the team responsible for getting the Roadster into space was fitted out to have a bit of fun with it.

The Bowie tune 'Space Oddity' was set to play on repeat through the car's sound system, though, of course, since in space nobody can hear you scream they also can't hear an admittedly excellent song.

Besides, the car has been up there for seven years now and it can only keep playing the song as long as it still has a battery to do so.

The car was kitted out to be the 'silliest' thing you could put in space, so it's got a mannequin in a space suit, a Hot Wheels and a classic book. (SpaceX via Getty Images)

The car was also fitted with a Hot Wheels toy and a copy of the Douglas Adams book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

As for where it is now, at time of writing it's over 240 million miles away from the Earth according to the website whereisroadster.com, which tries to keep track of it.

It's actually closer to the Sun than our planet, being about 151 million miles away from the mass of incandescent gas at the centre of our solar system.

However, that's apparently because our planet and the car are currently on different sides of the star, so give it a bit of time and we'll be closer again.

There is a risk, though rather a low one, that the Roadster could eventually come crashing back down to Earth one day, and if it did happen it'd land Elon Musk in quite a bit of trouble.