It isn’t often that something so unscientifically cool happens to be a major milestone in human progress. Last Tuesday, SpaceX successfully launched its newest rocket called the Falcon Heavy. The Falcon Heavy is a SHLLV (super heavy-lift launch vehicle), so it is capable of lifting 64 metric tons into space—second only to the Saturn V moon rocket.

However, the reason many people paid attention to the Falcon Heavy launch was because of its unorthodox payload. The Falcon Heavy didn’t launch a crew, nor a satellite, nor materials for a moonbase—the Falcon Heavy launched Elon Musk’s very own Tesla Roadster into a heliocentric (sun-centered) orbit. For about four hours after payload delivery, several cameras affixed to the car gave us some incredible footage of the car retreating from the Earth.

Musk pushed the symbolism even further. The spacesuit affixed to the Roadster’s steering wheel was affectionately given the name “Starman,” and the car played “Space Oddity” as it cruised into the void. Elon Musk is also a Douglas Adams fan: the glovebox contains a copy of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and a towel, and there is a sign on the car’s dashboard reading “Don’t Panic!” Finally, Musk printed a nod to his race and nationality on the circuitry of the car: “made on Earth by humans.” Musk explains his reasoning for his choice of payload at the very beginning of this post-launch press conference.

As well as being a pop culture success, the launch was a milestone in space exploration and human progress. What sets the Falcon Heavy apart from other SHLLVs is that it is designed to be reusable. After the boosters propel the payload into space, they are designed to loop around and land back on Earth’s surface, ready to be used again. This footage is what convinced me we are living in the future.

Unfortunately, the center core experienced an engine malfunction and failed to land. Musk has since promised some “pretty fun” footage for “the blooper reel.” In the meantime, you can watch SpaceX’s montage of previous rocket landing attempts, “How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster.”

Reusable heavy-payload rockets mean we can shoot stuff into space farther, more frequently, in larger chunks, and for a lower cost. After answering the first question in the same press conference linked above, Musk explains what the Falcon Heavy means for the future of space exploration:

“Falcon Heavy opens up a new class of payload. It can launch more than twice as much payload as any other rocket in the world . . . . It can launch things right to Pluto, and beyond, no stop needed. You don’t even need a gravity assist or anything. It can do anything you want.”

Musk also explained another significant side effect of the Falcon Heavy launch: competition.

“I think its going to encourage other companies and countries to say, ‘Hey, if SpaceX, which is a commercial company, can do this . . . then [we] could do it too . . . .’” Which is great. We want a new space race. Races are exciting!”

This isn’t to say we need another Cold War. But the prospect that a private company can do something so momentous on its own should serve as encouragement to other companies, and hopefully to governments around the world. Competition is the second best thing to worldwide cooperation for humans’ exploits in space, and I’m not sure how soon the latter is going to happen.

Before the Tesla Roadster’s cameras lost connection, it snapped

one final selfie with its home planet. Perhaps someone out there will find it and know that not only are there people on Earth trying their best, but they’ve got a sense of humor, too.