Scott_Colloredo_NASA

The first commercial crew flights from right here at Kennedy Space Center in the next few years, followed by our early steps to Mars using the Space Launch System. And that's just a start!

What you've probably heard about is that we leased one of our launch pads -- Launch Pad 39A -- to SpaceX. SpaceX has big plans to launch the Falcon 9 and the massive Falcon Heavy rocket from KSC. We'll all party after that first launch!

NASA is currently focused far beyond the moon to Mars. We're developing the Space Launch System and the deep space spacecraft Orion to go there. Meanwhile, NASA partners like Moon Express are planning trips to the moon to win Google's LunarX Prize.

We think commercial space travel is becoming more and more feasible all the time. Quite a few commercial companies are well on their way to developing systems to go suborbital and beyond.

If you're talking about horizontal launches, parallel to the earth, we have an ideal launch and landing site here at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility. Several companies are interested in using the SLF for tourism and scientific missions.