SpaceX’s Starship to land first human on Mars by 2028, says Elon Musk

SpaceX's ambitious plan to launch missions to Mars using its Starship megarocket could begin in just two years, according to company founder and CEO Elon Musk. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on September 7, Musk outlined the company’s new timeline, stating that the first missions to the Red Planet will be uncrewed tests aimed at assessing the reliability of landing intact. 

"These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years," Musk wrote, citing the alignment between Earth and Mars, which occurs once every 26 months, as a key factor in planning.

Musk also expressed confidence that these early missions could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of flights. "Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years," he said. His long-term vision for Mars settlement is rooted in the belief that becoming a multiplanetary species is essential for the survival of human consciousness. "We will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet," Musk added.

Starship, SpaceX’s massive reusable rocket, is key to these aspirations. The spacecraft consists of two stages: the Super Heavy booster and the 165-foot-tall (50-meter) Starship spacecraft. Together, they form the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, standing 400 feet (122 meters) tall and generating 16.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, which is nearly double that of NASA's Artemis program's Space Launch System (SLS). Unlike the expendable SLS, Starship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, with plans for the Super Heavy booster to land back on the launch mount after liftoff for quick turnaround and reuse.

To date, SpaceX has conducted four test flights of Starship — in April and November of 2023 and March and June of 2024. Each test has shown improved performance, with the most recent mission achieving all of its major goals. The company is now preparing for the fifth test flight, which could happen soon. SpaceX has already completed test-fires of the Super Heavy and Starship for this mission, and for the first time, they will attempt to land the Super Heavy back on the launch mount using the launch tower's "chopstick" arms.

As Musk often says about Starship flights, "excitement is guaranteed."