NASA Inks Partnership With SpaceX To Supply The International Space Station

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Space exploration will be soon privatized. This week, NASA announced the first private business to do a supply run to the International Space Station would launch on October 7th. The company, SpaceX, will co-fund the mission with NASA to re-supply the orbiting space station.

The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, signed a deal with NASA for the next 12 missions to the space station and is excited for this venture to haul cargo for NASA. Musk spoke to CBS This Morning about the partnership with NASA, his hopes for the future of space exploration, and SpaceX’s long-term goals for the Red Planet Mars:

The technology necessary to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars, ultimately with the goal of establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars. I know it’s within the realm of possible… You need to live in a dome initially but over time you could terraform Mars to look like Earth and eventually walk around outside without anything on. …So it’s a fixer-upper of a planet. In order for us to have a future that’s exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we’re a space-bearing civilization.

Elon Musk is the co-founder of PayPal and CEO of Tesla Motors, which continues to develop both a luxury and an economy electric car. Business Week once called Musk a 21st century industrialist, a visionary, and a throwback to John D. Rockefeller. The magazine also named Musk “the next Steve Jobs.” Musk founded SpaceX to “revolutionize space transportation and ultimately make it possible for people to live on other planets.”

Imagine in the next 30 years, more and more companies and corporations will be making their way to the stars. Private business owners will leave Earth to build their businesses on the Moon, Mars, or orbiting space stations. It’s an exciting time for all mankind.