SpaceX plans to send unmanned Dragon spacecraft to Mars by 2018, with humans to follow

By way of tweets and Facebook posts, SpaceX this week announced plans to send its unmanned "Red Dragon" spacecraft to Mars as soon as 2018. Sending this privately-funded craft on a bold, brave, risky trip like this could bring SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk closer to his goal of getting humans to Mars.

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