Elon Musk Mars Update
SpaceX’s earlier launch on September 1st, 2016 was remembered by the fiery explosion and humiliation it brought. It was a massive setback for SpaceX, and many questioned the company's reliability. Elon Musk was fairly nervous about the latest SpaceX launch on January 14th, but the Falcon 9 ship carried it’s 10 communications satellites into the sky without any difficulties. This was a great relief for the company, as they had lost a massive amount of reputation and money when their failure cost an Israeli company it’s 200 million dollar satellite.
This may not seem related to their Mars mission, but they are both testing as well as demonstrating their capabilities to NASA among others. Musk is currently planning its Red Dragon mission- a series of launches starting from 2018, then every 26 months, which is the short window when Mars and Earth are closest. The first 2018 launch will be one of the most important flights SpaceX has undertaken, even if the craft won’t actually carry the heavy payloads and equipment until later. This is because NASA has pledged their technical support, but not their scientific equipment. SpaceX is using a novel idea that NASA wants to see demonstrated before funding expensive equipment. If this mission goes through, SpaceX is set to continue its push for humans on Mars. Musk plans to have humans on Mars by 2022.