Elon Musk wants to open a portal to Mars by October 2026

Elon Musk's SpaceX is looking to launch five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars over the next two years. He stated that the first crewed mission timeline will depend upon the success of the uncrewed flights.

In Short

• SpaceX is planning to send humans to Mars in the next four years
• Musk envisions Starship as a multipurpose spacecraft
• Previously, he noted that the first Starship missions to Mars are targeted for 2026

Elon Musk has recently announced that his space tech company, SpaceX is planning to launch around five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars over the next two years. Musk, on Sunday, posted on X, stating that if all of these ships landed safely on Mars, then the company will send crewed missions in the next four years. He also added that such missions are only possible to travel from Earth to Mars every two years, when the planets are aligned. "This increases the difficulty of the task, but also serves to immunize Mars from many catastrophic events on Earth," he said.

Additionally, he also said that even if the scheduled mission fails, SpaceX will continue to increase the number of spaceships travelling to Mars, with every transit opportunity. Hence, the first crewed mission timeline will depend upon the success of the uncrewed flights.

Space X CEO Musk added, "We want to enable anyone who wants to be a space traveller to go to Mars! That means you or your family or friends – anyone who dreams of a great adventure. Eventually, there will be thousands of starships going to Mars, and it will be a glorious sight to see! Can you imagine? Wow."

Previously, Musk had outlined an ambitious Starship timeline, anticipating the first unmanned Mars landing in five years and the first manned mission to follow just seven years from now. In June, Starship achieved a major milestone, surviving a blistering hypersonic descent and landing safely in the Indian Ocean, marking the culmination of a successful around-the-world test flight on its fourth attempt.

While the post was aiming for scientific achievements and future tasks, it took a sudden political turn. Here, Musk added that one of the major concerns he has is the bureaucracy. He said, "While I have many concerns about a potential Kamala regime, my absolute showstopper is that the bureaucracy currently choking America to death is guaranteed to grow under a Democratic Party administration. This would destroy the Mars program and doom humanity."

While the post is targeting the Space X mission to Mars, it ends on a political note. Elon Musk interviewed Donald Trump in August this year.