Starship to Depart for Mars in 2026, Musk Says
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced that his Starship spacecraft will go to Mars at the end of next year, carrying Tesla's humanoid bot Optimus. He wrote about this on the social network X.
‘Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus,’ the statement said.
According to Musk, if the mission is successful, the landing of humans on this planet could begin as early as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.
In April 2024, Musk told investors that he expects the Optimus robot to be able to perform tasks at the factory by the end of 2024.
In November, Reuters reported that Musk's dream of bringing humans to Mars would become a top national priority under US President Donald Trump. This will mean big changes for NASA's lunar programme and a boost for SpaceX.
Starship is crucial to SpaceX's future satellite launch business, a sector it currently dominates with its partially reusable Falcon 9, as well as Musk's aspirations to colonise Mars.
As The Gaze previously reported, in October 2024, SpaceX successfully conducted the first test flight of the Starship spacecraft without a crew. During the flight, the SpaceX team did something that had never been done before: unlike previous flights, when the launch vehicle fell into the Indian Ocean, this time, it slowed down and gently returned to the launch pad.