SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday that the rocket manufacturing company intends to launch about five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years, elaborating on his timeline from earlier this month.
What Happened: If the five uncrewed missions land safely, crewed missions will be possible in four years, Musk said. However, in case of challenges, the crewed missions will be postponed another two years, he added, pegging crewed Starship missions to Mars for as early as 2028 and latest by 2030.
Earlier this month, Musk said the first Starships will head to Mars in two years once the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. However, he didn’t specify how many uncrewed missions would be conducted to test the vehicle’s caliber to carry crew.
Musk aims to take humans to Earth orbit, Moon, and subsequently Mars with the Starship. The vehicle is still in the development phase and underwent its fourth test flight in June earlier this year. The rocket has yet to carry a payload to orbit.
Varying Timelines, Big Promises: NASA is currently relying on the successful development of a lunar lander variant of Starship to land humans back on the moon as part of its Artemis 3 mission. The last crewed lunar mission occurred in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.
However, earlier this year, NASA postponed the Artemis 3 mission to no earlier than September 2026 from its previous timeline of late 2025 citing ‘development challenges.’
In 2020, Musk also said that Starship will have hundreds of uncrewed missions before it can launch crew. The CEO, known for providing lofty claims on the Starship’s readiness, did not detail how the company intends to launch 100 uncrewed missions ahead of the Artemis 3 mission when it has only completed four test flights as of date.
Starship is now ready for its next test flight and awaiting regulatory approvals, SpaceX said last week. The company also said that it recently received a launch license date estimate of late November for the fifth flight from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), marking a two-month delay from the previously communicated date of mid-September.
The delay, SpaceX said, was not based on a new safety concern but on “superfluous” environmental analysis including concerns about the Starbase facility having a negative impact on local flora and fauna. However, the company disputed these claims.
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