Sixty years have been passed, since the first artificial satellite was launched into the outer space of Earth. In 1957 the Soviet Union sent Sputnik into the orbit, which triggered a “space race” between the USSR and USA. And now there is a new out-of-this-world mission and Colorado is helping to lead the way.

More than four decades have passed, since humans were launched into a space mission to the moon. Now, a private company SpaceX is planning to change that by sending two people into space next year.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said “I think this should be a really exciting mission that hopefully gets the world really excited about sending people into deep space again.”

Reigniting space travel is also launching a new kind of space race and it is no longer between countries like in the Sputnik era. But, instead it is between private companies.

A former employee of SpaceX, Phil Larson and the assistant dean of the University of Colorado’s School of Engineering and Applied Science said that they are taking the ball from NASA, from the government, which they have partnered with, and they are going to do big things.

Privatizing space travel is good news for Colorado, he said. “New Jobs, New jobs, new industries, new technologies,” he added.

Colorado is one of the main aerospace capitals of the world with numerous companies. Even schools, like CU, have developed numerous designs for NASA.

“They have launched instruments in spacecraft to every planet in the solar system and beyond,” he said.

With the beginning of a new era of space exploration taking off, Colorado is at the leading edge, launching new opportunities for upcoming decades.

Larson said that it is awesome to know that happening in Colorado, in the U.S., and he is happy, that they are helping to lead the way in this new era in space. It is not just governments anymore, he said.

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