Elon Musk’s SpaceX Plans To Be First Private Company To Land On Mars By 2018

Space X plans to be the first private company to land on Mars with its Dragon spacecraft as early as 2018, says billionaire CEO Elon Musk.

The news was unveiled in a tweet reading: “Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018. Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details to come”.

The SpaceX and Tesla boss later confirmed that: “Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system. Red Dragon Mars mission is the first test flight”.

However, he also said that it wouldn’t be for longer journeys, but more a way of testing future technology, stating that he “wouldn’t recommend transporting astronauts beyond Earth-moon region”.

SpaceX’s Dragon 9 rocket lifting off (SpaceX)

Earlier this month, SpaceX successfully landed its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on an ocean platform after it was used to launch a cargo ship full of supplies to the International Space Station.

The ability to reuse rockets could dramatically cut the cost of space travel in future.

Musk has previously said that his company could get humans to Mars as early as 2026.

Image credit: SpaceX