The first unmanned flights of the Starship spacecraft to Mars are planned for two years from now, as announced by SpaceX founder Elon Musk on September 7.
“The first Starships to Mars will be launched in two years, when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. They will be unmanned vehicles to test the reliability of landing on Mars.” — he wrote on social network X.
According to Musk, if these landings are successful, the first manned flights will take off within four years.
At the same time, he said that if successful, the frequency of flights to Mars will begin to grow exponentially, as his plans are to build a “self-sustaining” city on the planet in the next 20 years.
“Multiplanetary existence will significantly increase the probability of conscious life,” – he summarized.
On July 21, Musk made a proposal to create a base on the Moon with a permanent settlement. The day before, he said it was time for the United States to reach greater heights by sending astronauts to Mars. He noted that anyone who wants to become a space traveler and help explore the planet “should have the opportunity to do so.”
In early April, the entrepreneur said that SpaceX could take people to the Moon in five years and to Mars in seven to nine years.
On March 14, SpaceX carried out the third experimental launch of Starship into space. The launch vehicle with the spacecraft installed on it took off from the SpaceX Starbase space base in Texas, Izvestia recalls.
