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Jazmyn Contreras

On Oct. 7, SpaceX launched their Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The goal of this mission was to send a satellite into orbit for the Argentina Space Agency.

SpaceX was attempting their first Falcon 9 landing on the West Coast. They were successful in their attempt, and this will reduce the cost of space travel because now companies like SpaceX will be able to reuse their rockets, saving millions of dollars.This also means that the probability of sending people to Mars is greater since SpaceX can launch multiple missions without having to worry about the exorbitant price tag of a rocket.

A selection process currently in progress to send a manned trip to Mars; there are only around forty candidates and Mars-One will continue to select new candidates every 26 months.

Senior Francisco Martinez had this to say about the possibility of going to Mars in the future.

“I feel like it’ll take us seven years to launch a manned trip to Mars,” Martinez said, “but I would go if I had nothing else to do on Earth.”

The Falcon 9 alone costs $62 million dollars, and its successor the Falcon Heavy cost even more with a price tag of $90 million dollars.

Since the launch was in Southern California, nearby residents were able to see the launch from their backyards. Local student Diego Pasaye, 10, saw the event.

“My abuela called me out to the backyard to see something in the sky,” Pasaye said, “and when I went out there was the bright light moving in the sky, I thought it was aliens.”

Diego later found out that it was SpaceX launching a satellite into space.

“That’s pretty cool; I didn’t know they would launch that close,” Pasaye said. “Hopefully another one launches soon.”

On the other side of Downey, resident and senior Omar Aguilar viewed the event from his backyard.

“I was helping my brother work on his truck in the backyard, and he said look up,” Aguilar said. “I saw this bright light in the night sky and it looked amazing.”

With this resurgence of space travel, we enter the new space race. Where now instead of nations competing to explore space, private companies such as SpaceX are now leading the way. This recent launch showcases the capability SpaceX has to explore the final frontier of space.