Elon Musk announced that SpaceX is aiming to launch its first uncrewed Starship mission to Mars in 2026, with the goal of testing landing capabilities. Musk believes that if successful, crewed missions could begin as early as 2030, emphasizing the need to reduce the cost per ton to Mars for multi-planetary life to be viable.
SpaceX is preparing for its first uncrewed Starship mission to Mars, set to launch in 2026 during the next Earth-Mars transfer window, according to CEO Elon Musk. The purpose of this mission is to evaluate how well Starship can land on the surface of Mars. Musk stated that the first crewed trips to Mars may happen in as little as four years if these landings are successful.
Elon Musk revealed SpaceX's ambitious ambitions on X (previously Twitter), saying, "The next Earth-Mars transfer window opens in two years, which is when the first Starships to Mars will launch. To test the viability of landing intact on Mars, these will be unmanned."
Musk emphasised SpaceX's advancements in making space travel profitable in a different piece. "Much more significantly, SpaceX made the reuse financially feasible in addition to developing the first rocket stage that is entirely reusable. The core issue with multi-planet life is the cost-per-ton to Mars."
SpaceX created the first fully reusable rocket stage and, much more importantly, made the reuse economically viable.
Making life multiplanetary is fundamentally a cost per ton to Mars problem.
It currently costs about a billion dollars per ton of useful payload to the surface… https://t.co/bVQJL8JeV5
According to Musk, the current cost of sending payloads to Mars is around USD $1 billion per tonne. By bringing this cost down to USD 100,000 per tonne, SpaceX hopes to increase the viability of the idea of a Martian colony. "Technology has to advance 10,000 times. really challenging, but not unachievable," Musk said.
SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, achieved critical milestones during its fourth test flight in June 2024. Launched from the Starbase facility in Texas, the rocket completed its mission objectives, including a controlled reentry of the Starship capsule and a soft splashdown of the Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico.
As SpaceX continues to innovate, the coming years will reveal whether Musk's interplanetary dreams can become an economic reality.