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SpaceX is planning to be the first private company to land on Mars within the next two years.

The company said it is planning to send its Dragon spaceraft to the red planet as early as 2018.

Bosses announced their intentions in a statement on Twitter this afternoon.

A spokesperson tweeted: "Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018. Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details to come."

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Earlier this month the US aerospace company successfully landed a reusable rocket on an ocean platform, after four previous attempts failed.

Mission controllers cheered as the Falcon 9 rocket remained upright on the platform off the coast of Florida on Friday April 8.

It was returning from delivering an inflatable habitat into space for Nasa. The inflatable room will attach to the International Space Station (ISS) for a two-year test and will become the first such habitat for use by humans in orbit.

(Image: SpaceX)

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Built by Nevada company Bigelow Aerospace, the habitat is intended to pave the way for the use of such rooms for long space trips, including to Mars.

(Image: Getty)

It is thought that the ability to reuse rocket launchers will dramatically reduce the cost of space travel, making it possible for many more people to visit space.

As well as space tourism, suborbital spaceflight opens the door to a range of scientific research and technological development - from biotech and materials science to fluid physics and engineering.