SpaceX

The agreement commits NASA to offer SpaceX help with deep space navigation and communications, design of the spacecraft’s 1 and help with developing the landing system. The SpaceX mission will use a version of the Dragon spacecraft that currently flies to the International Space Station under SpaceX's resupply 2 with Nasa. As part of work to develop a version of the capsule that can carry astronauts, SpaceX has developed and tested motors that allow the craft to make a safe landing on earth in the event of an emergency during take-off. SpaceX would adapt that system to allow the craft to touch down on Mars. The craft would be launched on its journey by SpaceX's new Falcon Heavy rocket, a heavy-lift version of its existing Falcon 9, which it expects to fly for the first time later this year. Because interplanetary missions require spacecraft to be launched from earth's surface faster than orbital flights such as missions to the space station, they depend on heavy rockets usually three standard rockets strapped together.