SpaceX’s Starship and heavy booster, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket system, will launch for Mars in 2026, with human landings likely beginning in 2031, billionaire Elon Musk announced on Saturday.
In a post on social networking site X, SpaceX CEO Musk stated that Starship will transport Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus to Mars. If conditions appear to be favourable for humans, it might begin “as soon as 2029.”
“Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus,” Musk informed the audience.
“If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely,” he predicted.
The Starship, a massive 30-foot-wide, 397-foot-tall rocket, is critical to Musk’s long-term goal of colonising Mars. Starship consists of a massive first-stage booster named Super Heavy and a 50-meter upper-stage spaceship dubbed Starship.
Musk aims to relocate at least one million people to Mars, as he said on X last year.
“Civilisation only passes the single-planet Great Filter when Mars can survive even if Earth supply ships stop coming,” he further stated. “One day, a trip to Mars will be like a flight across the country” . He also plans to establish a base on the Moon.
“Humanity should have a moon base, cities on Mars, and be out there among the stars,” the individual who owns X remarked.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, SpaceX lost communication with the Starship immediately after it launched on its eighth test flight.
Starship’s enormous first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, was caught by the Starbase’s launch tower around seven minutes after liftoff on March 7, using the structure’s “chopstick” arms, known as “Mechazilla,” on the launch tower.
However, the Starship spacecraft lost altitude control and lost communication with Earth. “Final contact with Starship came approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff,” the company added.
SpaceX lost touch with Ship even during the seventh test mission.
To fly the massive Starship again, SpaceX will require approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has requested a probe.
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