Could Virgin Orbit Beat SpaceX to Mars?
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been talking about going to Mars for a long time, but could Virgin Orbit be the first space company to actually go there without help from NASA?
It may sound crazy. SpaceX has been in business nearly two decades, and has been launching rockets for more than a dozen years already and contracting for NASA nearly that long. In contrast, Virgin Orbit didn't set up shop until just three years ago, and has yet to orbit its first satellite. And yet, despite its head start, SpaceX has already missed one self-imposed deadline to put a spaceship on Mars -- and not by a little.
After promising a few years ago that he'd put a lander on Mars by 2018, Musk has more recently pushed that deadline out to a 2021-to-2023 timeframe. It increasingly seems the SpaceX CEO is shifting his near-term sights toward the Moon, rather than Mars. In doing so, Musk has opened up a window of opportunity for someone else to steal the spotlight.
Source Fool.com
