Illustration of Europe's life-hunting Rosalind Franklin rover on the surface of Mars. (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab)

At long last, SpaceX has a Mars launch firmly on the books.

Company founder and CEO Elon Musk has had the Red Planet in his sights for decades. Indeed, the world's richest man has repeatedly said that he established SpaceX in 2002 primarily to help humanity settle the fourth rock from the sun .

But the company hasn't launched a Mars mission to date, or even inked a customer for one — until now.

On Thursday (April 16), NASA announced that it has selected SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket to launch Europe's first-ever Mars rover, a life-hunting robot called Rosalind Franklin . If all goes to plan, the liftoff will take place in late 2028 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Things have certainly not gone to plan for Rosalind Franklin to this point, however.…