Musk announces first Starship flight to Mars for 2026

September 9 () –

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has announced that the Starship mega-rocket will begin flying missions to Mars in 2026, according to an updated program schedule.

“These missions will not have crews to test the reliability of an intact landing on Mars. If those landings go well, the first Manned flights to Mars will take place in 4 years“Musk said on his account on social network X.

“The flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the aim of building a self-sufficient city in about 20 years”Musk added in the same post. “Being multi-planetary will greatly increase the likely lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all of our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet.”

The stainless steel Starship consists of two elements: a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship. A stacked Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. It stands about 400 feet (122 meters) tall and generates 16.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff—nearly twice that of the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket for NASA’s Artemis lunar program. Space.com reports.

SLS is disposable, but Starship It is designed to be completely and quickly reusableIn fact, SpaceX plans to land Super Heavy back on the launch pad after each liftoff, allowing for rapid inspection, refurbishment and relaunch.

Starship has now flown four test missions to date: in April and November 2023 and March and June of this year. The vehicle has performed better on each successive flight, achieving all of its primary objectives on the most recent mission, including an orbital flight with controlled return to Earth.

The fifth flight will include the First attempt to land the Super Heavy back on the launch pad, an operation that will involve the use of the launch tower’s “toothpick” arms.