The 21st Century Race For Space

An era of space exploration and exploitation is dawning. Remarkably, some of the boldest efforts to put humans into space are now led by private companies founded by a small cadre of maverick billionaire entrepreneurs. Beyond routine space travel and even space mining and manufacturing, the dream championed by Elon Musk and others is authentic space exploration. His company, SpaceX, already delivers supplies to the International Space Station and is positioned to transport astronauts next. Yet the true ambition is humanity's survival: to traverse our solar system and establish a Mars colony within the coming decade. Could commercial spaceflight firms eventually forge a space-faring civilization?