The race to put a man on the Moon in the 1960s was one of the most profound rivalries between two countries ever. The conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States was heavily publicized during the 1960s, before it came to a close when the U.S put a man on the Moon in 1969. The time period known as the space race will never be forgotten, and will go down in history as one of the most influential competitions in recent years. Since the first man landed on the Moon, space exploration has exploded in popularity through pop culture as well as the science community. The idea of putting a man on Mars has been in the back of many minds since Apollo 11, and it’s inching closer to reality with independent companies pushing for far space exploration.

 A space race part two could become a reality come 2020, when two massive aerospace companies have plans to launch mars missions into space. SpaceX and Boeing butted heads recently on Twitter in a thread between Elon musk, SpaceX founder, and Boeing Company’s Twitter account. Conflict began when Musk replied, “Do it” to a Tweet by Fortune of an article entitled “Boeing CEO: We’re Going to Beat Elon to Mars.” Boeing Company swiftly replied with “Game on”.

  Boeing’s response seems to initiate a vary real space race to mars between two well established companies that are already working on Mars rockets. Both companies have worked with NASA to supply the International Space Station for years via their ground breaking rockets but SpaceX has a big advantage. SpaceX’s mission in space travel has always been not only to get rockets into deep space but then bring them back down to be reused. SpaceX successfully landed a used rocket back on earth in March of this year marking an important point in space travel history. Boeing however has yet to relaunch a used rocket making them significantly slower to the launch pad. Being that rockets take so much time and money to develop, SpaceX reusing their rockets is already putting them ahead of the curve. The competition will surely ramp up as we get closer to the projected launch dates of these rockets so keep your eyes wide for more butting heads between CEOs on Twitter.