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| Mars landing by 2018 says SpaceX's Elon Musk | Mars landing by 2018 says SpaceX's Elon Musk |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| Billionaire Elon Musk is planning to send his Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018. | Billionaire Elon Musk is planning to send his Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018. |
| Mr Musk has long targeted a trip to Mars and has previously said he can get humans to the red planet by 2026. | Mr Musk has long targeted a trip to Mars and has previously said he can get humans to the red planet by 2026. |
| His company, SpaceX, is planning "Red Dragon" missions to Mars to test technology for bigger missions. | His company, SpaceX, is planning "Red Dragon" missions to Mars to test technology for bigger missions. |
| In a tweet, Mr Musk said that its Dragon 2 spacecraft is "designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system". | In a tweet, Mr Musk said that its Dragon 2 spacecraft is "designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system". |
| But Mr Musk "wouldn't recommend transporting astronauts beyond Earth-moon region" as the internal area of the spacecraft is only the size of a large car. | But Mr Musk "wouldn't recommend transporting astronauts beyond Earth-moon region" as the internal area of the spacecraft is only the size of a large car. |
| "Wouldn't be fun for longer journeys," he said in a tweet. | "Wouldn't be fun for longer journeys," he said in a tweet. |
| SpaceX has been developing rockets and has a $1.6bn (£1.08bn) contract with Nasa to supply the International Space Station. | |
| On Wednesday it won an $83m contract from the US Air Force to launch a satellite for GPS navigation services. | |
| It is a significant win for the company as, for the last decade, Lockheed Martin and Boeing have been supplying space launches for the military. | |
| Last December SpaceX had another breakthrough, landing its Falcon-9 unmanned rocket upright. | |
| That was an important development in its plan to cut the cost of space launches by re-using rockets. |