SpaceX Red Dragon

SpaceX Red Dragon was a 2011 to 2017 concept for sending an uncrewed, modified Dragon 2 capsule to Mars as a low-cost lander, launched on a Falcon Heavy. Its first aim was to test entry, descent and landing techniques that a human crew could conceivably use, as a pathfinder for the much larger Mars architecture SpaceX announced in September 2016. The idea began in 2011 as a feasibility study with NASA Ames Research Center for a Discovery-class mission, was never funded by NASA, and in April 2016 became an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA for technical support and a launch no earlier than 2018. A 2014 study also proposed it for Mars sample return. In July 2017 SpaceX stopped propulsive landing for Dragon 2, the mission was cancelled, and the effort moved to Starship.