SpaceX is set to launch around five uncrewed Starships to Mars over the next two years, CEO Elon Musk says. Musk announced on Sunday that the SpaceX Mars mission will tally with the next Earth-Mars transfer window, scheduled to kick off in 2 years.
Musk's post reads, "No matter what happens with landing success, SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships traveling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity. We want to enable anyone who wants to be a space traveler to go to Mars! That means you or your family or friends – anyone who dreams of a great adventure."
According to the report, SpaceX will assess the success of unscrewed flights to Mars towards determining the timeline of its crewed launches. Successfully landing the unscrewed missions over the next two years means crewed Starships could start launching in four years. Otherwise, the crewed timeline might suffer an additional two-year setback.
Musk's Timeline to Land Humans on Mars
Meanwhile, Musk had mentioned that SpaceX's unscrewed mission could launch within five years, while the red planet could receive humans in seven years. The world's richest man hopes these space exploration efforts could see humans and cargo transit between Earth, Mars, and the Moon.
He says, "We want to enable anyone who wants to be a space traveler to go to Mars! That means you or your family or friends – anyone who dreams of a great adventure." "Eventually, there will be thousands of Starships going to Mars, and it will be a glorious sight to see!" Musk added.
NASA's Artemis 3 mission, initially planned for late 2025, has been delayed to September 2026 due to development uncertainties. The mission, which will use SpaceX's starship, follows similar rhetoric with Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa's planned Starship mission. Maezawa canceled a scheduled private mission around the moon aboard a Starship over delays in rocket development.
SpaceX Criticizes Mounting Bureaucracy as a Major Concern
Musk, whose eerie perspectives have never stopped, continues his pursuit of a potential human existence outside Earth while citing growing government bureaucracy as the significant bottleneck to his quest. "The fundamental existential question is whether humanity becomes sustainably multi-planetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that," he continued, highlighting the potential fallout of nuclear wars, super-viral attacks, or population collapses.
“One of my biggest concerns right now is that the Starship program is being smothered by a mountain of government bureaucracy that grows every year. This stifling red tape is affecting all large projects in America.”
He also subtly opposes Kamala winning the US elections, expressing concerns that the current spate of “bureaucracy” in the Democratic government will extend under the next US administration. To Musk, additional bureaucracy “would destroy the Mars program and doom humanity.”
Key Takeaway
Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to launch five uncrewed Starships to Mars in 2 years. Depending on their success, crewed Starships could launch in four years (or six) as the world's richest man seeks alternative living conditions for humans outside Earth.
Meanwhile, Musk criticizes what he termed “mounting bureaucracy” in the US Democratic government as a significant burden to SpaceX’s exploration efforts, alongside other major projects in the country.