President Obama believes SpaceX and other private, commercial space companies are the key to getting humanity to Mars. Obama laid out his reasoning for why Elon Musk's company and competitors like Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada Corporation are vital for human space exploration in an interview with YouTube star Destin Sandlin, who runs the Smarter Every Day educational YouTube channel.
Sandlin, the Alabaman missile flight test engineer asked Obama about his view on space and the future of space travel and Obama explained the next steps.
"Our next target is Mars, but in order to develop a stage for it can we look as an asteroid closer by ?"
Commercial space companies come into play because of how they can take over routine Earth orbit missions.
" try to transfer a lot of the work that's being done in low-Earth orbit to the commercial side," Obama said. "So you've seen companies like SpaceX that are starting to move into that gap. If they are moving cargo, launching satellites etc. NASA's job should be to focus on that big mission and I am confident that we actually can get to Mars."
Of course, Musk himself is quite keen to get to Mars, but a team-up with NASA would probably benefit SpaceX too.
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