SpaceX Plans To Send Five Uncrewed Starships To Mars By 2026, Says Elon Musk

Elon Musk said on Sunday that SpaceX is planning to send five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars in two years. In a post on X, the SpaceX CEO noted that the first crewed mission timeline will depend upon the success of the uncrewed flights. 

Elon Musk also said that in case of challenges, crewed missions will be postponed by another two years. "No matter what happens with landing success, SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships traveling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity. We want to enable anyone who wants to be a space traveler to go to Mars," he added in the post. Musk also explained in his post that it is only possible to travel from Earth to Mars when the planets align every two years, making the task more difficult.

Reuters reported that the billionaire entrepreneur is counting on Starship to fulfill his goal of producing a multipurpose next-generation spacecraft that will be capable of sending people and cargo to the moon later this decade and ultimately flying to Mars. At the same time, US space agency NASA is readying to send astronauts to Mars by the 2030s.