SpaceX's giant rocket may leave NASA in the dust

Later today, SpaceX is planning the most ambitious test yet of its massive new rocket Starship.If all goes well, it will lift off from a pad in South Texas, circle the Earth and then land vertically at the same pad 22 and a half hours later.The test would be a major milestone for a rocket that company founder Elon Musk says he hopes will one day carry astronauts to Mars.

But experts say the rapid development of Starship could also end up stranding one of the company's biggest boosters over the years: NASA.That's because as SpaceX ramps up its new rocket, it has said it will stop flying a much smaller one called Falcon 9.Falcon 9 launches the company's Dragon capsule, which is currently the only American spacecraft capable of ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station."Because Dragon has become such a successful and reliable vehicle, it became the de facto way for astronauts to get to orbit," said Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, a firm that tracks the space industry.According to a NASA announcement in September, the space agency has contracted with SpaceX for three additional flights to the International Space Station.

That would only allow Dragon to fly through 2028, assuming the missions were flown consecutively in six month increments and no further flights are contracted with SpaceX.The space station is currently set to retire in 2030.The current problem facing the space agency marks a stark reversal from earlier times, when it was SpaceX that was depending heavily on NASA.In 2008, following multiple failures of the Falcon 9, the space launch company was on the ropes."We were running on fumes at that point, we had virtually no money," Elon Musk told CBS' 60 Minutes in a 2014 interview.Then, just days before Christmas, NASA came through with a big contract."I couldn't even hold the phone, I just blurted out, 'I love you guys!'," Musk said.For the next decade, a steady diet of NASA and eventually Pentagon contracts we...