SpaceX's 1st Mars Mission Won't Carry NASA Science Gear

NASA doesn't plan to put any science instruments aboard SpaceX's first Mars mission, which could launch as early as 2018, agency officials said. NASA wants to wait until SpaceX proves it can pull off a soft landing on the Red Planet before committing millions of dollars' worth of equipment to the spaceflight company's "Red Dragon" effort, said Jim Green, head of the agency's Planetary Science Division. "Landing on Mars is hard," Green said during a talk Tuesday (Dec. 13) here at the annual