Jane Edwards
SpaceX has announced plans to fly an unmanned space vehicle to Mars by 2018 as part of its Red Dragon Mars mission, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Irene Klotz writes NASA will offer technical support to SpaceX on its mission to land Dragon 2 spacecraft in Mars in exchange for entry, descent and landing information that the company could provide to the space agency, which aims to fly humans to Mars in the 2030s.
SpaceX said it will disclose details of the program for the Mars mission at the International Astronautical Congress in September.
Christian Davenport also reported for The Washington Post that the company is working on the Falcon Heavy rocket that is scheduled to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida later this year.
SpaceX said in its website that the rocket is built “to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the moon or Mars.”
The company’s announcement comes weeks after its Falcon 9 rocket completed its first ocean landing operation on a floating drone ship for possible reuse after it launched the Dragon spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
