10 Things You Didn't Know About The Millennium Falcon
2. There's A Real One In Space
The SpaceX corporation builds and launches commercial spacecraft with the intention of making space travel and exploration cheaper as well as eventually colonising Mars. It was founded by Tony Stark-esque entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2002 and has managed to put a whole bunch of things up in space, only a couple of which have exploded while up there.
SpaceX's main family of rockets is the Falcon series. Falcon 9 is the current spacefarer of choice, and has demonstrated its ability to land on a ship vertically which is just about the most impressive thing that can be done with a gigantic tube full of fire. And how did the Falcon family get its name?
It was named after the Millennium Falcon of course, because Elon Musk is a massive nerd. So at any point in time there's a good chance there's a real Millennium Falcon is orbiting Earth, from a certain point of view.