SpaceX: Images of a bumpy ride on the road to Mars

A handout image from a NASA live camera shows a fire burning on a launch pad after reports indicated that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which was scheduled to launch on 3 September, exploded during a test firing in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA — Image caption,
Disaster during a routine test. A Falcon 9 rocket explodes ahead of its scheduled launch of an Israeli communications satellite on Saturday. The company had been trying to clear a back-log in missions after another rocket exploded mid-launch in June 2015.

In this file photo of 13 June 2012, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, second right, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, right, look at the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the SpaceX Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas.

AP

Elon Musk (right) founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of slashing launch costs to make travel to Mars affordable. Instead of assembling parts from thousands of suppliers, the company would build as much machinery as it could in-house, including rocket engines.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on October 7, 2012. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasted off on 7 October, launching the cargo-laden Dragon capsule into orbit en route to the International Space Station for NASA's first privately-run supply mission.

Tribune News Service

Privatised space missions - in October 2012, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 with a Dragon capsule, to travel to the International Space Station in Nasa's first privately-run supply mission.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on its seventh official Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission to the orbiting International Space Station breaks apart on Sunday, June 28, 2015, after launching from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Orlando Sentinel

But SpaceX suffered a major set-back in June 2015. This Falcon 9 rocket on SpaceX's seventh resupply mission to the International Space Station broke apart after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

NASA

The holy grail of rocketry has long been reusability, and SpaceX has for some time recycled its rockets, using component parts. It made a successful "vertical landing" in December 2015 near the launch pad, but this landing of a Falcon 9, in January 2016, failed moments after touch-down, as the rocket tipped over on the drone ship it was supposed to land on.

A Falcon 9 rockets makes a successful landing on the drone-ship Of Course I Still Love You, in April 2016

SPACEX

After four failed attempts, SpaceX successfully landed a rocket on an ocean platform in April 2016.

SES/Carolina Thiede

A Luxembourg-based company says it will hire the returned rocket for a mission at the end of this year, when it launches an SES satellite to provide telecommunications services to the Americas. If successful, it would be the first time a satellite has ever been launched by a "second-hand" rocket, making it a historic moment in commercial rocketry.

Long view of the explosion of a Falcon 9 on Thursday 1 September

Erin Head

Thursday's explosion is a big set-back for SpaceX in its drive towards cheaper, easier space travel. The company is also preparing to fly Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA

The big dream is still Mars, where Elon Musk is planning to send his Dragon spacecraft as early as 2018. Next month, he is scheduled to unveil his plans for a Mars colony and how that would take effect.

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