Is Elon Musk even allowed to send his car to deep space?

After much fanfare, Elon Musk made it clear that he does plan to launch his Tesla Roadster to Mars on the Falcon Heavy next year — but questions remained over whether the mission is allowed. Are there any major federal hurdles SpaceX has to overcome in order to launch the very first sports car into deep space?
Musk initially said he wanted to send the car to Mars orbit, which could raise concerns about planetary protection. That’s the concept of preventing contamination of worlds in