Highlights
- Elon Musk announced on Saturday that SpaceX plans to launch its first uncrewed flight to Mars in two years.
- He also stated that if these landings are successful, the first crewed missions to Mars could follow in four years.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced on Saturday that the company’s first uncrewed Starship flight to Mars is scheduled for two years from now, coinciding with the next Earth-Mars transfer window.
Musk detailed in a post on X that these initial missions will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing on Mars. He added that if these landings are successful, crewed flights to Mars could commence in four years.
Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, anticipates that flight rates will “grow exponentially” if these timelines are met. His long-term vision includes building a “self-sustaining city” on Mars within about 20 years.
These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years.
Flight rate will… https://t.co/ZuiM00dpe9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2024
Musk’s recent comments represent a slight adjustment from the timeline he initially outlined in April.
In a March 15 X post, Musk had stated, “Starship will be on Mars within 5 years,” without specifying whether the flight would be crewed or uncrewed.
Musk’s timelines for Mars colonization have frequently changed. In June 2016, at Vox’s Code Conference, he aimed to send astronauts to Mars by 2024, projecting a launch in 2024 and an arrival in 2025. By 2020, Musk had shifted his target to 2026, suggesting humans might reach Mars by then and mentioning an uncrewed vehicle launch within two years.
In March 2022, Musk revised his expectation once more, now aiming for a human landing on Mars by 2029.
2029
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 16, 2022
“If we don’t accelerate our progress, I’ll definitely be gone before we get there,” Musk remarked at the Satellite 2020 conference in March 2020.
SpaceX representatives did not respond immediately to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.
