Boeing is planning to go to Mars, and the company is looking to do so before SpaceX.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said he is convinced that first person on Mars will reach there on a Boeing rocket. He was speaking at The Atlantic's "What's Next" conference in Chicago.

Muilenburg elaborated on Boeing's future plans. Apart from its quest to take humans to Mars, the company is also exploring space tourism. It plans to ferry passengers into low-earth orbit. Boeing is hopeful that with the adequate price drop, space tourism can develop into a "viable commercial market." Boeing is likely to face stiff competition in the market as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic also have their eyes on space tourism.

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Boeing is currently working on a heavy-lift rocket project named Space Launch System. The system is designed to increase traffic to Mars. Essentially, the main aim of the project is similar to SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport System.

Muilenburg emphasized that innovation is not concerned with technology only, but it has to be economically viable as well. To this end, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk plans to reduce the cost of travel to Mars to $200,000 per person.

Boeing and SpaceX compete in other areas as well as both the companies are leading contenders for NASA's commercial spaceflight contracts. Boeing estimates that about $60 billion would be spent on its manned mission to Mars by the late 2030s.