SpaceX, the upstart company, and NASA, the government agency, both have plans to venture to Mars and orbit the moon. And the Hawthorne company will need NASA’s technical support to achieve the first of its grand ambitions in deep space. — Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX presidentTwo years later, SpaceX won a $1.6-billion NASA contract to transport cargo to the space station. Marco Caceres, senior space analyst at the Teal Group, said the NASA supply missions gave SpaceX “almost instant credibility." Today, SpaceX and Boeing Co. are developing separate crew capsules as part of NASA contracts to transport astronauts to the space station.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 05, 2017 15:00 UTC