SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated in a post on social media platform X on Sunday that the company intends to launch roughly five unmanned Starship missions to Mars in the next two years. “SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years. If those all land safely, then crewed missions are possible in four years. If we encounter challenges, then the crewed missions will be postponed another two years,” Musk wrote.

Musk had stated earlier this month that the first Starships to Mars would be launched when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens, that is in two years.

Earlier this year, Musk stated that the first uncrewed starship would arrive on Mars in five years, and the first crewed would follow in seven. A Starship rocket completed a full test voyage around the world on its fourth attempt in June, surviving a fiery, supersonic return from space and accomplishing a ground-breaking landing demonstration in the Indian Ocean.

Moreover, Musk is relying on Starship to help him achieve his objective of building a sizable, multifunctional next-generation spacecraft that can travel to Mars and the moon later this decade with passengers and cargo.

NASA earlier this year postponed the Artemis 3 mission, which will use SpaceX’s Starship to make the first crewed moon landing in fifty years, until September 2026. According to NASA, it was originally scheduled for late 2025.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa in June canceled a private mission around the moon he had paid for, which was to have used SpaceX’s Starship, citing schedule uncertainties in the rocket’s development. 

(With inputs from Reuters)