# SpaceX SpaceX is Elon Musk's private aerospace company whose February 2018 Falcon Heavy test flight, which launched a cherry-red Tesla Roadster and a spacesuited mannequin into orbit, spawned a wave of image macros, flat-Earth jokes and Bowie tributes across Reddit and Twitter. The launch turned a corporate marketing stunt into one of the most-remixed viral moments of that year. ## Origin SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center on February 6, 2018, with two side boosters landing back at Cape Canaveral and the center core aiming for a drone ship. The official livestream and the in-space camera feed from the Roadster hit roughly 14 million and 10 million views inside a day and topped YouTube's trending page[3]. Hours after the launch, Musk told reporters he wanted a 'new space race,' framing the stunt as a challenge to Blue Origin and other rivals[1]. The first widely shared meme edit landed the next day. On February 7, 2018, Redditor anemik posted an image macro to /r/funny stacking the Roadster-in-orbit photo above a still of David Bowie from The Prestige[3]. On the same day, Redditor 99999fives posted a photoshopped Musk tweet to /r/dankmemes in which Musk reacts 'Hold up what the fuck?' to a flat-Earth image and the Illuminati reply 'Delete your account'[3]. - **Platform:** YouTube livestream / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2018 ## Overview SpaceX itself is a private aerospace company Musk founded in 2002 to lower the cost of spaceflight, with the long-term aim of settling Mars[1]. The meme side of SpaceX kicked off on February 6, 2018, when the company livestreamed the debut Falcon Heavy flight and used the payload slot for Musk's personal Tesla Roadster, complete with a mannequin nicknamed Starman strapped in the driver's seat[2]. Onboard cameras beamed back shots of the car drifting against a curved blue Earth, and those frames turned into the raw material for a week of edits. The recurring formats mostly used the Roadster-in-space photos as a punchline about flat-Earth believers, celebrity comparisons or Musk's own persona[3]. Reddit gravitated toward image macros that paired the Roadster shot with a still of David Bowie in The Prestige, riffing on Bowie's Space Oddity and Life on Mars[3]. Twitter jokes leaned on the visible curvature of the Earth in the launch footage to mock flat-Earth theorists[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is SpaceX? SpaceX is Elon Musk's private aerospace company, founded in 2002, that also became meme fuel after its 2018 Falcon Heavy launch sent a Tesla Roadster into orbit[1]. ### Where did SpaceX come from? The company itself dates to a warehouse in El Segundo, California in May 2002; the modern meme wave traces to the Falcon Heavy test flight on February 6, 2018[1]. ### What does SpaceX mean? In meme use, SpaceX refers to the cluster of Roadster-in-orbit image macros, Starman edits and flat-Earth jokes that followed the Falcon Heavy launch livestream[3]. ### How do you use SpaceX? The typical format pairs the on-orbit Roadster photo with a caption ribbing flat-Earth believers, or drops the Starman mannequin into unrelated pop-culture scenes like the David Bowie / Prestige mashup on /r/funny[3]. ### Is SpaceX still popular? The 2018 image-macro wave is a classic reference point rather than an active format; new bursts of jokes still spike around SpaceX events like the private passenger announcement in September 2018[3]. ## References 1. [https://www.businessinsider.com/falcon-heavy-space-race-elon-musk-spacex-blue-origin-2018-2]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCBE8ocOkAQ]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/spacex]() 4. [https://x.com/i/status/960992715579125760]() 5. [https://www.spacex.com/]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/spacex Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library