What are you talking about. That gif is showing the fairing separation. There's no sphere.

amazing, is the car strapped to the outside of the rest of the ship? how does it remain so stable after the separation? by "sphere" i just meant the case it is shown inside of at the start, since the markings on the wall resemble motion tracking panels used for 3d projection. perhaps I just underestimate the precision and smoothness of the fairing separation, or am misunderstanding how the car is rigged so as to remain so stable.

This is what the payload looks like: http://st.motortrend.com/uploads/sites/5/2018/02/Tesla-Roads...

ah ok that makes more sense, thanks for that pic. too cool!

It's like putting a satellite into orbit, right? Up until the rocket stops burning, it's held in place by something, then it's released, then enclosure opens with minimal/nonexistent effect on the payload, leaving it out there... In this case, the car has enough velocity to float to it's Sun orbit, I guess.

No, the 3rd burn took it from earth orbit to sun orbit.