Pat Murphy's work takes him to manufacturing companies all over the U.S. One of the most exciting places he works is SpaceX, whose goal is to 'Occupy Mars.' Really.

When I was growing up, Americans were enthralled with the "space race," as it was called in the late 1950s and 1960s. Our space program was begun by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1955 with the immediate goal of launching a satellite into earth orbit in 1957.

Why 1957? That was the International Geophysical Year, set by international scientists as the year to begin launching earth-mapping satellites into space. And because the U.S. was engaged in a Cold War competition against the old Soviet Union, both nations set out to get their satellite into orbit first.

Americans didn't like the outcome of that race. They were shocked on Oct. 4, 1957, to read headlines such as this one in the New York Daily News: "SIGHT RED BABY MOON OVER U.S."

The Soviets had launched Sputnik 1, winning the race into space. All it did was beep radio signals, but it was first.

Angered at the Soviet win, Eisenhower put the Army into competition against the Navy's sputtering Vanguard program. The Army, with former German rocket scientist Werhner Von Braun at the helm, launched the Explorer 1 satellite, riding atop a Jupiter C rocket, a modernized V-2, into earth orbit on Jan. 31, 1958.

So, that's how it all began. In July 1969, the U.S. sent men to the moon and brought them back, achieving the goal set in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy.

After six manned landings, the Apollo moon program ended in 1972. The space program was scaled back to orbiting the earth in the space shuttle. Since that program ended in 2011, the U.S. has been forced to send astronauts to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket ship.

Now, excitement is building again because private companies are taking the lead in the quest to put people back into space beyond earth orbit. The leading private space firm is Space X, a company begun by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also manufactures Tesla electric cars. And as is often true when we're talking about rockets and space, Rockford people are involved somewhere in the process.

One of them is Patrick Murphy of Rockford, who does specialty work for Space X. He's the same Murphy who chairs the Rock Valley College Board of Trustees. When I saw him wearing a SpaceX jacket, I wanted to know about his connection with Musk's company. On Thursday, we talked.

Murphy is president and CEO of Metrology Resource Group, a Rockford-based company.

"We install inspection equipment, write software and train people how to use it. We help measure parts," he said.

Murphy's four-person firm represents Renishaw, a British company that makes the probing equipment he installs and trains people to use. He's been helping SpaceX for two to three years, he estimated.

Murphy, who started his career as a machinist, has lived in Rockford since 2002. He grew up in Minnesota. Murphy operates "in a niche market and in which there are only about 15 people who do what I do." So, he gets calls from manufacturers all over the country. When SpaceX called he headed out to their headquarters campus in Hawthorne, California, to get to work.

His work must be precise. For instance, at SpaceX, "when you drill holes, we need to know the right size, and I am talking within millionths of an inch."

SpaceX's latest plan, announced Wednesday, is to send two paying customers on a tourist trip around the moon and back in 2018, aboard its Dragon 2 spaceship.

But that's just an interim step, Murphy explained.

"On the SpaceX campus you see posters that say 'Occupy Mars.' That's the ultimate mission. Elon said they are going to do it between 2020 and 2025."

SpaceX also contracts with NASA. The firm recently launched a supply ship that restocked the International Space Station.

What Murphy finds remarkable about SpaceX is its hypermodern corporate culture.

"When you look at the engineering spaces, it's a very Google-like layout, very open. SpaceX promotes lots of interaction among employees. The engineers are very young, people who did not come from the space industry. Thinking outside the box is encouraged."

This makes sense, he said, "because they're doing something that's never been done before. There's no playbook, so a lot of the job is to write that playbook on how to build new rockets."

Chuck Sweeny: 815-987-1366; csweeny@rrstar.com; @chucksweeny