SpaceX aims to send ‘Red Dragon’ capsule to Mars in 2018

Pictures accompanying a tweet appear to show a Dragon capsule launching atop a Falcon Heavy rocket from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.

After the historic landing of the Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship off the coast of Florida earlier this month, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed that he will reveal the company’s vision for colonizing Mars at a conference in Mexico this September. “[The Red Dragon] wouldn’t be recommend [for] transporting astronauts beyond Earth-moon region”, he tweeted, explaining that the inner area of the spacecraft was about the “size of [an] SUV”, meaning it “wouldn’t be fun for longer journeys”. The engines will fire as the Red Dragon nears the planet’s surface, slowing its descent speed for a controlled landing. The novel is about an Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in search of a serial killer obsessed with a “Great Red Dragon” from a painting.

SpaceX is now contracted by NASA for satellite launches, cargo resupply missions to the space station and, by next year, manned launches to the space station.

“Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018”. Back in 2002, when Musk first established the private aerospace company SpaceX, he did so with the intent of creating the technologies needed to reduce the cost of space transportation and enable crewed missions to Mars.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX is shooting for Mars.

Elon Musk wants to send humans to Mars beginning in 2025 which in the space industry, is around the corner.

SpaceX would use the initial flights as a proof of concept with data informing future missions to Mars.

He later clarified that “Dragon 2 is created to be able to land anywhere in the solar system”. “That’s why we at NASA have made it a priority to reach out to partners in boardrooms, classrooms, laboratories, space agencies and even garages across our country and around the world”.

NASA, meanwhile, has its own Mars exploration program, meant to send astronauts there in the 2030s.

Heck, if they can actually get rolling at this accelerated schedule, SpaceX could potentially have a colony in place before NASA even makes it there (since NASA’s plan isn’t exactly oozing with confidence).