SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that the company plans to launch its first unmanned Starship to Mars in the next two years, aligning with the next Earth-Mars transfer window. Musk explained that these missions will be used to assess the reliability of safe landing on Mars. If successful, the first manned flights could take place in four years.
Speaking to X, Elon Musk said, “The first Starships to Mars will be launched in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing safely on Mars.”
He said, “If these landings are successful, the first manned flight to Mars will take place in 4 years. The flight rate will increase rapidly from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years. Being multiplanetary will greatly extend the potential lifespan of consciousness, since no longer will all of our eggs be, literally and metabolically, on the same planet.”
Musk said in another post that SpaceX created the first fully reusable rocket stage and made reuse economically viable.
“SpaceX created the first fully reusable rocket stage and, more importantly, made reuse economically viable. Creating multiplanetary life is essentially a cost-per-ton problem on Mars,” Musk wrote on X.
“The cost per ton of useful payload on the surface of Mars is currently about a billion dollars. To build a self-sustaining city there, this needs to be increased to US$100 thousand per ton, so the technology needs to be 10,000 times better. It is extremely difficult, but not impossible,” he said.
Successful launch of spacecraft by SpaceX
In June this year, SpaceX successfully launched its Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, and achieved several key goals during its fourth test flight, according to a report by CNN. The launch took place on June 6 at 8:50 a.m. ET from SpaceX’s private Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, with the company providing live coverage via X.
The Starship launch system consists of two main components: the upper Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster. During the launch, 32 of the booster’s 33 engines ignited, as noted in the SpaceX broadcast and reported by CNN.
Several milestones were achieved during the test flight, including the successful re-entry of the Starship capsule, which withstood the extreme heat as it passed through Earth’s atmosphere. Both the capsule and booster landed safely after the flight.
(With inputs from agencies and CNN)
