A Craigslist ad for the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket that was tested on Tuesday appeared last week. Along with a picture of the rocket and a description the seller wants to make his intentions clear, that he's selling a used rocket.
The price is severely discounted for something of this kind.
Gently Used
The bizarre Craigslist ad calls it a "used orbital launch vehicle." A picture can be seen accompanying the ad, it shows a rocket floating in the water. In the ad, it makes it clear that what's pictured is a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
A new Falcon 9 rocket costs around $60 million to make and $200,000 for fuel costs. The person in the ad is looking for the low cost of $9.9 million or "best offer." Even if people don't have the cash to be able to pay the Craigslist user, the ad states that bitcoin is also accepted as a form of payment.
There is the inconvenience of the rocket being able to be shipped. The user states that whoever ends up buying the rocket will have to bring their own tugboat to be able to bring the rocket home with them.
Here is the full description in the ad.
"Gently used the orbital rocket in good condition. Fully loaded with onboard flight computer, launch and landing hardware. Take off and land anywhere! 9X Merlin engines each capable of producing 200k lb.ft of thrust. Just fuel it up and it's ready to go. Says Falcon 9 on the body, slight burnt paint can be buffed out.
Must bring own tugboat, no shipping. Asking for $9,900,000 or best offer. Do not lowball, this is an orbital capable autonomous rocket. You will not find another one like it."
Unfortunately, the ad has been taken down so nobody is able to buy the Falcon 9 rocket from Craigslist.
SpaceX Successful Launch
While this person was trying to sell a SpaceX rocket, SpaceX successfully launched the most powerful rocket in the world the Falcon Heavy. It features three engines that each power the Falcon 9 rocket that someone was attempting to sell on Craigslist.
SpaceX's achievement has been seen as a step for the company to get closer to Elon Musk's goal of sending a manned mission to Mars. That's still far away as the mission is still projected to happen sometime in the 2020s. Falcon Heavy's flight shows that bigger rockets could work, and puts SpaceX at the front of the commercial space market.
Attached to the end of the Falcon Heavy rocket was a Tesla Roadster with a mannequin strapped in. The car will remain in orbit around the sun, and its orbit may reach as far as Mars.
