Human colony on Mars soon? Elon Musk unveils timeline of bold Mars mission

SpaceX is gearing up for its most ambitious project yet: sending uncrewed Starships to Mars within the next two years. The company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, revealed this on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, outlining the plan to launch the first missions to the Red Planet in 2026 when Earth and Mars align again.

“These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars,” Musk said, emphasising the importance of these trial runs. If all goes well, SpaceX plans to follow up with crewed missions in just four years. According to Musk, these crewed launches could be the stepping stone to something even bigger: the creation of a self-sustaining city on Mars within the next two decades.

SpaceX has always set its sights high, but this announcement represents a tangible timeline for Musk’s long-term vision. Musk stated that the flight rate will “grow exponentially” after these initial tests, paving the way for human settlement. He’s clearly not just thinking of sending a few astronauts on a short trip—he’s thinking of building an entire city on another planet.

In April, Musk suggested the first uncrewed landing on Mars would happen within five years, with human missions following two years later. However, this recent update seems to speed up those projections, showing Musk’s increasing confidence in Starship’s potential.

Grand ambitions for Starship

Musk’s dreams of colonising Mars hinge on the success of Starship, SpaceX’s next-gen spacecraft. Designed to be a reusable, multipurpose vehicle, Starship is built to carry both cargo and crew to destinations far beyond Earth’s orbit.

Starship has already shown significant progress. In June, a prototype completed a hypersonic return to Earth, surviving a fiery descent and landing in the Indian Ocean. This marked a major breakthrough after three failed attempts, giving SpaceX critical data on how the craft performs during re-entry. It’s this same spacecraft that Musk plans to send to Mars in the near future.

Rescue mission for Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore

While the Mars missions make headlines, SpaceX is also playing a crucial role in more immediate space efforts. NASA has enlisted the company to rescue two astronauts—Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore—who are currently stranded in space.

The situation arose after Boeing’s Starliner, which was supposed to bring the astronauts back to Earth, encountered technical issues during its debut crewed flight test to the International Space Station. NASA decided to send Starliner back to Earth uncrewed, and it safely landed in New Mexico over the weekend.

Now, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will head to space on a crewed mission to deliver two new astronauts and return with Williams and Wilmore in February 2025.