For the Keks and an ‘ode to Eddie Van Halen’

Elon has the best space photographers. Kek.

ELON Musk's Tesla Roadster has just passed Mars after he blasted it into space back in 2018.

The car features a mannequin passenger called Starman who sits behind the steering wheel.

SpaceX tweeted: "Starman, last seen leaving Earth, made its first close approach with Mars today — within 0.05 astronomical units, or under 5 million miles, of the Red Planet."

The Tesla Roadster launched onboard the maiden test flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket.

Elon Musk wanted to send his own personal car into space.

The cherry red Tesla Roadster has the message "Don't panic!" emblazoned on the dashboard.

After initially surviving a five hour journey through the Van Allen Belt - an area of high radiation - the car is embarked on a journey through space that could last a billion years and take it as far as 250 million miles from Earth - the same as a trip around the equator 10,000 times.

Musk wanted the stunt to generate interest in SpaceX and said “silly and fun things are important”.

According to the Where is Roadster? website, Starman is around 38 million miles from Earth.

Starman was launched with music playing in each ear.

The Where is Roadster? website revealed: "If the battery was still working, Starman has listened to Space Oddity 264,803 times since he launched in one ear, and to Is there Life On Mars? 356,811 times in his other ear."

The vehicle orbits the Sun around once every 557 days.

That means another Mars flypast should happen again someday and Where is Roadster? will continue to track the progress.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/12878785/elon-musk-tesla-roadster-mars/

==RUSSIA has successfully tested an "unstoppable" nuclear missile that can fly

through the air at more than 6,000mph (9,600kph).==

The hypersonic weapon was fired from a naval ship in the White Sea, north of Russia, this week to celebrate President Vladimir Putin's 68th birthday.

Putin praised the successful test as a big event for Russia.

"Equipping our Armed Forces the army and the navy with the latest, truly unparalleled weapon systems will certainly ensure the defense capability of our country in the long term," the president said.

The Zircon - or Tsirkon - has been identified by Moscow’s state-controlled TV as Putin’s weapon of choice to wipe out American cities in the event of nuclear war.

He boasted that it's capable of flying at eight times the speed of sound – roughly 6,138mph (9878kph) – and will have a range of 620 miles (1,000km).

Speaking on Wednesday, Putin called the launch “a great event not only in the life of the Armed Forces, but also in the whole of Russia”.

The deadly missile is “the newest, truly unparalleled weapon system in the world” ensuring “the defence capability of our state”, he added.

Zircon missiles - also known as Tsirkon - have been in development for over 20 years and are considered a key next step for Putin's arsenal.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/12877502/russia-military-hypersonic-nuke-zircon/