Elon Musk gave an update on his plan for SpaceX Starship to reach Mars: 5 things to know

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Could humanity be just a few short years away from its first cosmic pioneers stepping foot on Mars?

If tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has anything to say about it, yes.

Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, has for years dreamed of ushering in a "multiplanetary" era where humans would set out toward the stars to establish a sprawling civilization on the Red Planet. And to achieve this grandiose dream, Musk has aggressively sought for his commercial spaceflight company to develop its ambitious Starship spacecraft.

The towering megarocket, composed of both an upper-stage vehicle and a lower-stage booster, has faced a series of setbacks in its three most recent flight tests.

But that hasn't stopped Musk, the world's richest man, from making big promises for the future of Starship and its role in U.S. spaceflight ambitions. His latest bold predictions for Starship came in a video SpaceX posted online last week.

In the video, which the company shared Thursday, May 29 on Musk's social media site X, the SpaceX founder offered a detailed timeline for Starship's first uncrewed trip to Mars, which would be followed by human missions.

“Progress is measured by the timeline to establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars,” Musk said during his talk, referring to Starship. “Each launch is about learning more and more about what’s needed to make life multi-planetary and to improve Starship to the point where it can be taking, ultimately, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people to Mars.”

Musk laid out his vision at a time when President Donald Trump has made clear his intentions to align NASA's spaceflight objectives with the goals of SpaceX. That latest indication came Friday, May 30 with the release of the White House's budget proposal, which would tap the private sector to help lay the groundwork for future Mars endeavors.

Here are five things to know about Elon Musk's grand vision for colonizing Mars, and how Trump, his close ally, could help make it a reality.

Why is Elon Musk interested in Mars?

Musk's latest public comments on his Mars plans came after he departed the Trump administration following a controversial stint slashing federal spending. Now that the tech mogul is one again focusing his attention on his businesses, he delivered a talk to SpaceX employees reiterating his long-held desire to colonize Mars.

Musk had been scheduled to deliver the remarks Tuesday, May 27 during a livestream presentation ahead of the ninth test flight for SpaceX's massive Starship. The event, billed as "The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary," was later rescheduled for after the launch before it was canceled altogether without notice.

SpaceX then shared video of Musk's talk two days later, which he made in front of employees from Starbase, the company's launch site near the U.S.-Mexico border that recently became its own Texas city. It's unclear when Musk gave the presentation.

Musk described the goal of sending humans to Mars as essential “for the long term survival of civilization." Under his vision, humans would not just step on the planet before departing, but would remain to establish a settlement that could function independently if any cataclysmic event were to ever happen on Earth.

"I think it would be the best adventure that one could possibly do, is to go and help build a new civilization on a new planet," Musk said to applause.

Why does Musk want to send Starship to Mars in 2026?

Musk wants to send the first uncrewed Starship to Mars by the end of 2026 for a very critical reason: The timeline coincides with an orbital alignment around the sun that would shorten the journey between Earth and Mars.

It's a slim window that occurs once about every two years, and if SpaceX misses it, Musk said they'd target another mission during the next alignment. If Starship were to blast off for the Red Planet by the end of 2026, the journey itself would take between seven to nine months.

“We’ll try to make that opportunity, if we get lucky,” Musk said during his talk. “I think we probably have a 50/50 chance right now.”

What would the first flight to Mars look like?

While no humans would have a seat on the first flight to Mars, Starship won't be empty. Instead, the vehicle would carry one or more Optimus robots designed and built by Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company.

"That would be an epic picture – to see Optimus walking around on the surface of Mars," Musk said.

SpaceX is still considering multiple potential landing sites on Mars for Starship, but the leading contender appears to be a region known as Arcadia. The volcanic plain is on Mars' northern hemisphere far from the planet's frigid poles with access to water sources in the form of shallow ice.

Arcadia is also flat enough to make landings and takeoffs relatively safer, Musk said.

Ultimately, Musk said he envisions eventually launching 1,000 to 2,000 Starships to Mars every two years so enough people and supplies can make it to the surface to quickly establish a city, of sorts.

Musk hopes to increase Starship testing, production

For Musk to make this dream a reality, SpaceX will have to race to develop its massive Starship spacecraft, designed specifically with a Martian destination in mind.

The bad news? the vehicle, which has yet to reach orbit in any of its flight tests beginning in 2023, has faced a series of setbacks in its last three launches.

The good news? Musk and SpaceX recently received key regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to ramp up testing to 25 flights a year.

In its most recent demonstration May 27, Starship spun out of control roughly halfway through its flight and disintegrated in a fireball before achieving some of its most important objectives. Still, the distance the vehicle traveled far surpassed the previous 2025 flights in January and March, when Starship exploded within minutes.

At more than 400 total feet in height, Starship is regarded as the world’s largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. The launch vehicle is composed of both a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot upper stage spacecraft, or capsule where crew and cargo would ride.

And a future version of it will be even bigger. Version 3, Musk explained, should be around 408 feet tall when fully stacked and be upgraded so the upper portion is capable of refueling in Earth orbit, which is necessary for it to reach distant destinations like Mars.

To meet Musk's high expectations, SpaceX is looking to expand operations to Florida in order to ramp up both Starship production and testing.

Trump wants $1 billion for private Mars exploration

Musk could also have some assistance from the White House, as President Trump has routinely voiced his support for SpaceX's Martian ambitions.

While Trump's recently-released 2026 budget proposal would cut NASAs funding by about 25% overall, it does call for allocating more than $1 billion for Mars exploration.

That includes established a new NASA initiative called the Commercial Mars Payload Services Program (CMPS). The program would operate similar to NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program by awarding contracts to private companies that would develop spacesuits, vehicles and other technology aimed at reaching the Red Planet.

Contributing: Reuters

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the Paste BN Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannet.com.