Private space company like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and Blue Origin have outlined bold plans for 2019 to make humans a spacefaring species.
SpaceX’s goal is to build a city on Mars; Blue Origin’s is to help create a permanent settlement on the moon, and Virgin’s is to finally launch its first tourist flight.
These companies are taking small steps toward a long-term, large-scale presence in space, but their deadlines keep slipping.
One reason for that is the nearly untested business model of private human space travel, such as sending people far off.
For now, the companies make most of their money from enterprises that don’t involve humans, like launching satellites.
But because the most promising plans are backed by powerful people with big agendas, sci-fi could become fact.
Two corporations, Boeing and SpaceX, have contracts to fly humans to the International Space Station.