Elon Musk, Earth’s real life Tony Stark (see this infographic and this tidbit for proof,) just sent his Tesla Roadster into space aboard SpaceX‘s Falcon Heavy rocket on February 6, 2018.

See four hours of live footage of Starman and the Tesla Roadster in space.

See where Starman and Elon Musk’s Roadster are right now.

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to the “Don’t Panic!” message on the dashboard, there’s a second, hidden, message tucked away in the Roadster.

Nova Spivack of the Arch Mission Foundation, whose mission is to preserve and disseminate humanity’s knowledge across time and space for the benefit of future generations, explains:

“We are very happy to announce that our first Arch [data crystals that last billions of years] library, containing the Isaac Asimov Foundation Trilogy, was carried as payload on today’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch, enroute to permanent orbit around the Sun. We are eternally grateful to Elon Musk and his incredible team for advocating the Arch Mission Foundation and giving us our first ride into space.”

This is not the first time messages have been sent into space physically.

That honour goes to the Pioneer Plaques of 1972 and ’73 and the Voyager Golden Records of 1977.

Interestingly, interstellar radio messages predate that by a decade.

My take: did you know Marvel Comic’s Howard Stark, Ironman’s father, was modelled on Howard Hughes? Talk about coming full circle.