NASA will launch two crewed missions in early February, sending astronauts to the ISS to prepare for Mars missions and another crew to orbit the moon.

SpaceX is gearing up to debut Starship’s Version 3, testing the upgraded rocket’s ability to reach orbit for the first time as the company races to fly missions to the Moon and Mars. SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk announced on X that Starship’s upcoming launch is in six weeks,

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has yet again explained why Mars is a crucial mission for humans. His SpaceX ambitions include multiple uncrewed missions to Mars that would lay groundwork for future human landings.

What everyone agrees on is that NASA needs a new spacecraft capable of relaying communications from Mars to Earth. This issue has become especially acute with the recent loss of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. NASA’s best communications relay remains the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has now been there for 20 years.

Larry Fink, president and CEO of investment firm BlackRock, interviewed Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX at the World Economic forum in Davos, Switzerland this week. They spoke about everything from AI to robotics to Mars,