The Falcon Heavy's launch has had many fascinated and excited over its prospects for space flight. After all, it's not every day someone gets to send a roadster to space. However, amid the excitement, the Flat Earth Society has some words of caution for the public.
Falcon Heavy Launch
Last Feb. 6, the Falcon Heavy finally launched from Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center after months of delays. Since then, Starman has gotten the attention of people all over the world as he cruised in space in a red Tesla. Sure, it's a silly move to send a car to space, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk says it was just for fun and not, as some has implied, to promote Tesla.
As of the latest news, Starman is already on his way to the Asteroid Belt and said goodbye with a selfie. So what comes next? Apparently, the next step is for the Flat Earth Society to passively imply that the launch was perhaps faked.
'Exercise More Caution': The Flat Earth Society
In a short blog post, Pete Svarrior of The Flat Earth Society appeals to the public to "exercise more caution" when it comes to online content, pertaining to the live stream of Starman, which has been viewed by millions of people. According to Svarrior, people must be wary of the things that they believe simply because they have seen it on television or on the internet. He goes on to discuss the "blind belief" in online content, which affected the latest elections.
Though he did not directly call the Falcon Heavy launch and resulting live stream of Starman a hoax, he insists that seeing something online does not render it automatically true. He even stated in the blog that it was "a good car ad," and how Apple's Steve Wozniak once remarked how he did not trust Musk. To be clear, Wozniak's remarks were pertaining to the quality of Tesla cars and Musk's responsibility as a CEO.
Distrust Of Private Corporations
Though his points on exercising caution when it comes to online content is quite appropriate especially in the age of fake news, it seems his "caution" comes from the fact that the launch was initiated by a private corporation rather than the government. In fact, he even stated that corporations are only after profit, and not the truth or knowledge.
People who believe that the Earth is a globe because "they saw a car in space on the Internet" must be the new incarnation of "It's true, I saw it on TV!" It's a poor argument. Why would we believe any privately-held company to report the truth? — Flat Earth Society (@FlatEarthOrg) February 7, 2018
So far, Musk has not responded to the insinuation in the blog post, but it wouldn't be a surprise if he did. Just last November, Musk sent a tweet asking why there is no Flat Mars Society, and the official Twitter of the Flat Earth Society tweeted back, saying that it was because Mars has been observed to be round.
