SpaceX
targets 2018 for first Mars mission
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[April 28, 2016]
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - SpaceX
plans to send an unmanned Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018,
the company said on Wednesday, a first step in achieving founder Elon
Musk’s goal to fly people to another planet.
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U.S. space agency NASA, which is aiming for a human mission to
Mars in the 2030s, said it will provide technical support for
SpaceX’s first foray, known as Red Dragon.
SpaceX "could provide valuable entry, descent and landing data to
NASA for our journey to Mars, while providing support to American
industry," NASA said in a statement.
The announcement marks SpaceX's first target date for its unmanned
mission to Mars.
The SpaceX program is intended to develop technologies needed for
human transportation to Mars, a long-term aim for Musk's privately
held company, which is formally known as Space Exploration
Technologies.
The company said it will provide details of its Mars program at the
International Astronautical Congress in September.
 "Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar
system," Musk posted on Twitter. "Red Dragon Mars mission is the
first test flight."
He said that with an internal volume about the size of a sports
utility vehicle, the Dragon spacecraft would be uncomfortable for
people making the long journey to Mars.
Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur who helped to found Tesla Motors
and PayPal, started SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of slashing launch
costs to make Mars travel affordable.
SpaceX intends to debut its Mars rocket, a heavy-lift version of the
Falcon 9 booster currently flying, later this year.
The company recently has made spaceflight history by returning
Falcon 9 rockets to landing pads on land and sea - key to Musk's
quest to develop a relatively cheap, reusable launch vehicle.
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SpaceX now flies cargo versions of its Dragon capsule to and from
the International Space Station under a $2 billion resupply services
contract with NASA.
SpaceX also is upgrading the capsules to carry astronauts, with test
flights to the station scheduled for 2017, under a separate NASA
contract worth up to $2.6 billion.
NASA does not plan to provide financial assistance to SpaceX's Mars
mission. The agency is investing in its own heavy-lift rocket,
capsule and launch pad modifications targeting Mars travel.
By the time NASA expects to debut a test flight in lunar orbit with
astronauts onboard in 2023, the agency will have spent about $24
billion on the program, an April 2016 Government Accountability
Office report shows.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Letitia Stein and Bill Trott)
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