Did SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Just Revise Or Reiterate His Timeline To Occupy Mars?

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Friday reminisced the initial days of SpaceX while also envisioning its future.

What Happened: On Sept. 28, 2008, SpaceX launched the Falcon 1 to orbit after consecutive failures to mark its first successful launch.

Musk responded to pictures posted by Falcon 1 Lead Engineer Jon Edwards from 2008, reminiscently saying, “Wow, we look super young haha.”

The CEO also responded to the short video shared by SpaceX to mark the 15th anniversary of the milestone and said, “Hopefully, there will be a thriving base on Mars in 15 years!”

Now, About Mars: SpaceX’s Starship — touted to be the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed — is key to realizing Musk’s dreams of making life “multi-planetary” by shuttling people and cargo to orbit, Moon and Mars.

SpaceX conducted the first test launch of Starship on April 20. The rocket exploded in less than four minutes after takeoff. Currently, the company is ready for the second test flight and awaiting a green light from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Earlier this year, in February, Musk said that human existence upon Mars is “possible” in five years and “highly likely” in 10 years if he were being “congenitally optimistic.” Musk’s new hopes for a “thriving base” on Mars in 15 years seems like an extension of this estimate.

Starship has yet to make it to orbit. However, Musk has made several predictions thus far, including that the first people would land on Mars in 2029 (a prediction made in March 2022) or that he would send a million people to Mars by 2050 aboard Starship (a prediction from 2020).

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