Photo: sette/epa-efe/rex/shutterstock/EPA/ShutterstockEntrepreneur Elon Musk’s announcement last week accelerating plans for manned flights to Mars ratchets up political and public relations pressure on NASA’s efforts to reach the same goal. Industry officials and space experts consider the proposal by Mr. Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to land people on the red planet around the middle of the next decade extremely optimistic. From the Archives In late September 2016, Elon Musk revealed his vision for sending humans to Mars to colonize the Red Planet. No major announcements are imminent, but some experts foresee the council taking the lead to reassess, and likely restructure, NASA’s Mars endeavors. One possible scenario would involve eventually pitting Mr. Musk’s unconventional SpaceX, as the company is known, against traditional NASA contractors, industry officials said.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 04, 2017 18:53 UTC