Elon Musk wants to send 5 unmanned Starships to Mars by 2026

Elon Musk revealed on his social media platform X (previously Twitter) that his space business, SpaceX, plans to deploy five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years. He also stated that if they all arrive successfully, crewed expeditions to the Red Planet will be achievable in just four years, or six if there are any complications along the route.

Musk plans to undertake Mars-bound launches every two years, when the planets are closest to each other in their orbits around the sun. He stated that while this makes reaching Mars more difficult, it also "serves to immunize Mars from many catastrophic events on Earth."

Over the past six years, Starship test launches have failed and required adjustments. Given the differences between Mars and Earth circumstances, some or all of the landings may fail.

Whatever happens with the landings, SpaceX plans to expand the number of spaceships flying to Mars dramatically every two years. The idea is to send ordinary people to Mars if they can afford it.

Musk's tweet on X referred back to previously discussed difficulties. To begin, he suggested that humanity had to speed up and become multi-planetary before anything happens on Earth to prevent it, such as a nuclear war, a supervirus, or a population collapse.

He then turned to politics, claiming that the Starship program is "being smothered by a mountain of government bureaucracy that grows every year."

The 2020s have the potential to be a pivotal decade in space travel, with NASA aiming to return people to the Moon and Musk aiming for Mars. However, given the history of delays in this subject, perhaps the 2030s will be more intriguing.