SpaceX made two intriguing announcements just recently. It increased the Falcon 9 launch cost for payloads bound for geosynchronous transfer orbit. More fascinating is its surprising announcement it's preparing to transport cargo to Mars.

The company's price list now has an item saying the transportation of a "payload to Mars" is one of its "Capabilities & Services." SpaceX has the capability to transport up to four metric tons of cargo to Mars aboard one of its Falcon 9 rockets. That mass increases to 13.6 metric tons aboard the new Falcon Heavy now under development.

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What this new service apparently means is that SpaceX plans to transport cargo from anyone willing to pay the hefty price to Mars. SpaceX doesn't expect its Red Dragon 2 spacecraft to land on Mars until 2018 and its manned mission by 2028 so it's strange SpaceX is making this service available this early. But it's still the first and only space transportation company that's making this service available to the public.

As for the price of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch to deliver 4.85 metric tons of cargo to GTO, that currently comes to $62 million. SpaceX recently added another $800,000 to that sum for a 1.3 percent increase in launch price. In comparison, Boeing and Lockheed Martin charge over twice more for the same service.

SpaceX, however, says Falcon 9 can loft as much as 8.3 metric tons of cargo to GTO and 22.8 metric tons to low earth orbit. The company's low launch costs is being made possible by its reusable first stage that's now made three successful return to Earth landings since April.

Reusable rockets are making space flights cheaper and SpaceX's competitors will have to adapt to this or go down in flames.

TagsSpaceX, Falcon 9, Mars