SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starship missions
to Mars in two years, CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday in a post on social media
platform X.
Earlier this month, Musk had said that the first Starships
to Mars would launch in two years "when the next Earth-Mars transfer
window opens." The CEO on Sunday said that the first crewed mission
timeline will depend upon the success of the uncrewed flights. If the uncrewed
missions land safely, crewed missions will be launched in four years. However,
in case of challenges, crewed missions will be postponed by another two years,
Musk said. Musk, known for providing changing timelines on Starship's
readiness, said earlier this year that the first uncrewed starship to land on
Mars would be within five years, with the first people landing on Mars within
seven years. In June, a Starship rocket survived a fiery, hypersonic return
from space and achieved a breakthrough landing demonstration in the Indian
Ocean, completing a full test mission around the globe on the rocket's fourth
try.
Musk is counting on Starship to fulfil his goal of producing
a large, multipurpose next-generation spacecraft capable of sending people and
cargo to the moon later this decade, and ultimately flying to Mars. NASA
earlier this year delayed Artemis 3 mission and its first crewed moon landing
in half a century using SpaceX's Starship, to September 2026. It was previously
planned for late 2025, NASA said. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa in June
cancelled a private mission around the moon he had paid for, which was to have
used SpaceX's Starship, citing schedule uncertainties in the rocket's
development.
