March 2025 marks a major milestone in the U.S. space program, as NASA and private companies like SpaceX prepare for groundbreaking missions to Mars and beyond. After years of planning, technological development, and collaboration between government and private space companies, human missions to Mars are on the horizon, with NASA’s Artemis program serving as the first step in sending astronauts to the Red Planet.
The Artemis II mission, scheduled for later in 2025, will be the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, a key step in testing the systems needed for long-duration space travel. The goal of Artemis is to establish a sustainable lunar base, which will serve as a proving ground for technologies and systems that will be used in future missions to Mars. NASA’s plan is to send astronauts to the Moon by 2026, followed by Mars missions in the 2030s.
SpaceX is also playing a significant role in this new era of space exploration, with Starship, its next-generation spacecraft, on track for its first crewed mission to Mars in the coming years. Starship, designed to carry both cargo and passengers, will be the spacecraft that enables long-duration human missions to deep space. The development of this spacecraft is crucial to the future of interplanetary travel, and SpaceX is on track to conduct the first uncrewed mission to Mars in the late 2020s, with the first crewed mission expected in the early 2030s.
As humanity looks toward Mars, the possibilities for future exploration are expanding. The next decade promises to be an exciting time for space enthusiasts and scientists alike, with missions to the Moon and Mars opening the door to further exploration of the solar system and beyond.