Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy rocket launch could plummet back to Earth

It's next close approach to Earth could be before the century is out, in 2091

Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy rocket launch, which he used to hurl a red Telsa Roadster fired into space last week, might have been a success, but scientists have warned the vehicle could one day come crashing back down to earth.

However, it's probably not worth worrying about just yet, as the scientists added that if it did happen, it would be at some point "in the next million years".

Although, speaking in a paper published on Arxiv.org, they claimed it's next close approach to Earth could be before the century is out, in 2091.

Nevertheless, the chance of it hitting Earth is still very small - around six per cent in the next million years - and even if it did, it would likely to burn up in the atmosphere.

"We perform simulations to determine the fate of the object over the next several million years, under the relevant perturbations acting on the orbit," the scientist said in the paper. "The orbital evolution is initially dominated by close encounters with the Earth."

The chance of it hitting Earth is still very small - around six per cent in the next million years

They added that the repeated encounters lead to a random walk that eventually causes close encounters with other terrestrial planets and the sun.

"We estimate the dynamical lifetime of the Tesla to be a few tens of millions of years," they predicted.

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk successfully launched the re-usable SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket last week, projecting one of his own Tesla Roadsters into orbit in a key test of SpaceX's technology.

The launch billed as a 'risky test-flight' went entirely to plan, and crucially, the return to Earth, which brings the total cost of sending payloads up in the first place down by huge factors, was at least partially successful.

However, while the landing went according to plan, it wasn't quite perfect.

Two of the rocket boosters made a perfect, synchronised landing in Florida. The central booster, however, didn't have enough propellant for its landing on a sea-drone, and instead crashed into the ocean at around 500kph.

Now that the unconventional payload has reached orbit, NASA has officially designated it a celestial object.