Now that president-elect Donald Trump is set to return to power in the US, Elon Musk's plans for sending humans beyond Earth's orbit may be more likely to come to fruition.
Space industry experts told Business Insider that Musk's influence over Trump could help advance his business interests, including sending the first crewed mission to Mars.
"I'm hugely optimistic about what's going to happen in space now," Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, told Business Insider.