Elon Musk reveals major Starship update for SpaceX

Elon Musk just revealed when SpaceX will send Starship to Mars for the first time.

Starship is SpaceX’s mega-rocket that the company has been test-launching for about a year now. It will eventually carry humans to Mars, if all goes according to plan, becoming a vessel to make life interplanetary.

SpaceX aces fourth Starship flight test

Musk has bold plans for Starship, as he announced the bold timeline for when the rocket will start making trips to Mars. The first missions will be unplanned:

“The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years.”

Starship will make its first trips to Mars in 2026, and in 2028, crewed missions will begin. Whether these astronauts will set foot on Mars is a completely different story, but it would be a major development either way.

Musk then went on to say that the frequency of these flights from Earth to Mars using Starship will “grow exponentially from there.” He believes Mars will have a self-sustaining city roughly 20 years afterward.

Musk continued:

“Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet.”

The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens.

These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years.

Flight rate will… https://t.co/ZuiM00dpe9

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2024

Starship has had four test flights so far, and is currently preparing for its fifth, although the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not yet cleared SpaceX to launch. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), however, has approved the flight, but the FAA is truly the one who must give the green light.

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Elon Musk reveals when SpaceX Starship will go to Mars for first time