McGREGOR, Texas — The star of Tesla's Roadster reveal was not really the car. It was the cluster of small rocket thrusters hidden inside it, engineered by SpaceX, that let a street car leave the ground and fly.
Musk calls it the SpaceX package, and it is the clearest example yet of hardware crossing between his two best-known companies. SpaceX designs and tests propulsion for a living, and much of that work happens at the McGregor site just down the road from Wednesday's event. Details on the broader program are on SpaceX's site.
How the Package Works
At the heart of the system is a large carbon-wrapped pressure vessel — essentially a high-strength air tank — mounted where a conventional car carries rear seats. It feeds roughly ten cold-gas thrusters tucked behind removable panels around the car: behind the license plate, beside the brake lights, and along the lower body.
Those jets vent compressed air on demand. Fired rearward, they add thrust for acceleration. Fired forward, they help the car brake. Fired to the side, they sharpen cornering. And fired downward in a tightly controlled sequence, they produce enough lift for the short hover and flight that stunned the crowd. It is the same instinct for reusable, software-governed propulsion that has made SpaceX a company that keeps out-engineering the rest of the world.
