SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, has announced that the company plans to launch approximately five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars over the next two years. The announcement, made on Musk’s social media platform X, aligns with his earlier statements that the first Starships will depart for Mars when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens in two years.
Musk clarified that the timeline for crewed missions to Mars will depend on the success of these uncrewed flights. If the uncrewed Starships land safely, the first crewed mission could launch within four years. However, if challenges arise, the crewed missions will be postponed for an additional two years, Musk explained.
This announcement follows Musk’s earlier projections, where he had predicted the first uncrewed Starship to land on Mars within five years, and the first human landing on the planet within seven years.
In June, SpaceX achieved success when a Starship rocket successfully survived a fiery hypersonic return from space, landing in the Indian Ocean after a full test mission around the globe.
Musk is relying on Starship to achieve his long-term vision of a versatile next-generation spacecraft capable of sending people and cargo to the Moon by the end of the decade, and eventually to Mars.
NASA has also delayed its Artemis 3 mission—intended to use SpaceX’s Starship for the first crewed Moon landing in over 50 years—pushing it back to September 2026 from its original late 2025 target.
