After NASA’s space shuttle program came to an end after a long 30 years in 2011, NASA was left looking towards… well, nothing. After the Apollo program ended, there was a space shuttle sitting on the next launch pad over, and a new frontier for Americans, and the world to set its sights on. But that was not the case after the shuttle program ended.

There was a brief period of time where space travel seemed to have been forgotten about…until now.

On May 27^th 2020, SpaceX astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley launched from the illustrious cape Canaveral on the same launch pad that launched the first human beings on their trip to the moon. After numerous weather delays, the crew was ready to take off, and dock with the international space station (ISS).

Now, you may be thinking, “So what, people are launched to the ISS a lot, what is so important about this one?” Well, the answer is quite simple. This was the first time American Astronauts were launched from American soil in almost a decade. The crew docked with the ISS, stayed there for three months, and then splashed down about 30 miles off the coast of Cocoa Beach.

While certainly an impressive achievement, SpaceX has no plans of slowing down. Let’s take a look at what SpaceX plans to do in the next ten years.

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We’ve recently made a number of breakthroughs that I am just really fired up about

— Elon Musk

Moon Mission: 2023

Let’s start off simple here. Humans have not stepped foot on the moon since the 1970s, and even then the space race that was all the rage in the 1950s and 1960s had started to dwindle. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX is looking to change that. Musk is known for setting lofty goals, but he pretty much always delivers. SpaceX has plans to send humans on a moon mission in 2023. For most people 2023 seems like light years away, but in terms of space flight, the time comes pretty quick. The goal of the mission is to set up a permanent moon base, the first step into Elon Musk’s goal of becoming a permanently space faring civilization.

Mars Mission: 2027

Musk believes that the key to combatting extinction of the human race is finding other homes. Mars is the next logical spot. Mars bears a close resemblance to earth in multiple fashions. The atmosphere is similar, the days are about the same length, and temperatures on Mars are about as close to Earth as our solar system has to offer. However, getting to Mars is certainly no easy feat, and getting it done in a mere seven years is nearly impossible, but if Musk has proved anything, it is that he get’s the job done.

If you were offered a trip to mars or the moon, would you take it?

• Yes!
• No way!
• I'm not sure.

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Starship: BFR

This one is not necessarily a mission, but rather a launch vehicle. The launch vehicle named the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR for short, is slated to be the biggest rocket ever built. Coming in at a mass of 220,500 pounds, and a whopping height of 387 feet, this thing is what will carry that human race beyond our own planet.

The BFR will have two totally different purposes. One purpose is of course for deeper space missions such as Mars and the moon. It will also be employed here on earth though, as a much quicker form of transportation, as opposed to a plane.

The future of SpaceX is bright, and the future of human spaceflight is even brighter.