Industry leaders are gathering in Cape Canaveral this week at the 44th annual Space Congress.

  • Space Congress discusses science, engineering and aeronautics
  • SpaceX discussed its progress with the commercial crew program
  • SpaceX hopes to send NASA astronauts to the ISS by 2017

Hundreds have come to town to talk about topics in the science, engineering and aeronautics field.

At the forefront: the work done so far, and what's to come in the commercial spaceflight sector.

"Our goal is to inspire a whole generation of space travelers," SpaceX Commercial Crew Director Benjamin Reed said.

Reed addressed the group as part of a panel discussion.

His grandfather worked on the Space Coast decades ago on the Apollo Program. He's proud his company is leading the way, and partnering with NASA to currently fly cargo and soon, crew, to the International Space Station. That frees up NASA to explore deep space.

"If we are going to open up this new space age, there has to be a whole bunch of players, lots of people doing it, lots of people working hard. So commercial spaceflight is the way to go in partnership with NASA, and other agencies, we're going to do it," said Reed.

"The commercial aspect just brings a whole new energy and enthusiasm," said Lisa Colloredo of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

She says with the private companies taking care of Low Earth orbit missions, NASA can reach to the stars.

"We can focus our energies and new technologies for deep space and Mars activities," Colloredo said.

SpaceX says they are on track for sending NASA astronauts to the ISS by 2017.

The next launch from the Space Coast is this Thursday. SpaceX will bring a communications satellite to orbit. The two-hour window opens at 5:40 p.m.