Elon Musk sets ambitious goal for unmanned Starship missions to Mars
SpaceX plans to conduct five unmanned Starship missions to Mars in the next two years. This announcement was made by CEO Elon Musk on social media platform X. Earlier this month, Musk indicated that the first Starships bound for Mars would be launched during the next Earth-Mars transfer window, expected in two years.
The timeline for manned missions depends on the success of these unmanned flights. Musk outlined a scenario where, if the unmanned missions land safely, manned missions could begin in four years. Conversely, if problems arise during the initial launches, manned missions would be delayed for another two years.
Musk’s history includes revised timelines for Starship readiness. Earlier this year, he predicted Starship’s first unmanned landing on Mars within five years, with a manned landing in seven years. In June, a Starship rocket successfully completed a full test mission, enduring a fiery hypersonic re-entry from space and a groundbreaking landing demonstration in the Indian Ocean. This was the fourth such achievement attempt.
Musk envisions Starship as a powerful, multifunctional spacecraft that could carry both people and cargo to the moon later this decade and eventually enable missions to Mars. Nasa’s Artemis 3 mission, the first manned lunar landing in half a century with SpaceX’s Starship, has been pushed back to September 2026 from its original goal of late 2025. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa canceled in June a private mission around the moon he had commissioned using SpaceX’s Starship because of uncertainties about the rocket’s development schedule.
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