#28
When will Starships and people get to Mars?
Interviews
6
Answers
6
X posts
4
Span
2024 to 2026
First asked Apr 8, 2024, most recently Jul 8, 2026. Excerpts below are from machine transcripts with filler words (um, uh, you know) and stutters removed; … marks a cut. They are not checked word for word, so use the link to hear the exact words, or the transcript link for the raw text. Timestamps: 3 cross-checked against YouTube captions, 3 from the archive transcript only. X has no link-to-time option, so X links open at the start.
How the answer evolved · oldest first
Apr 8, 2024 · In Good Company · asked by Nicolai Tangen
Q: So, and when do you think, so when do you think we'll be there for the first time?
First. Well, the first starship that will land on Mars, which obviously would not have people at first, I think it's probably within about five years. And then it would probably launch several ships and just confirm that they can land okay on Mars. We'll also be doing the moon simultaneously with that. So taking, I think we'll get people back to the moon, I should say within five years and we'll get uncrewed ships …
Oct 29, 2024 · Future Investment Initiative · asked by Interviewer
Q: When are you. When is starship on Mars?
I think we'll be able to launch some starships to Mars in two years. So the next Mars window, which is in about 26, 27 months, but we're just about to start. Or we're at the beginning of a Mars transit window now, and they occur every 26 months. So just over two years, we'll be sending our first uncrewed starships to Mars. And then if those work out well and we don't increment the crater accounts on Mars, then we'll …
Feb 28, 2025 · The Joe Rogan Experience · asked by Joe Rogan
Q: What's next step after that? Is it an unmanned voyage to Mars?
First unmanned flight of Mars. The Earth and Mars orbits synchronize every two years or every 26 months technically. So the next orbital synchronization is November of next year and you can launch plus minus a month roughly. So we'd have to launch in November or December of next year. So the default plan is to launch hopefully several starships to Mars at the end of next year.
Mar 17, 2025 · Verdict with Ted Cruz · asked by Ted Cruz
Q: If man lands on Mars in 29, how soon after that do you land on Mars?
Remains to be seen. I'm not sure. The important thing is that we build a self sustaining city on Mars as quickly as possible. The key threshold is when that city can continue to grow. Continue to prosper even when the supply ships from Earth stop coming. At that point, even if something were to happen on Earth, it might not be World War 3, but it might be that a bad virus. Yeah, it might not be anything. Those …
Sep 7, 2025 · All-In Summit · asked by Host
Q: Is it something that is for our generation or is it our children's generation? Where do you see that point?
I think it can be done in 30 years provided there's an exponential increase in the tonnage to Mars with each successive Mars transfer windows, which is every two years. So every two years the planets align and you can transfer to Mars. So I think in roughly 15, but maybe as few as 10, but 10 to 15 ish Mars transfer windows. If you're seeing exponential increases in the tonnage to Mars with each Mars transfer window, …
Jul 8, 2026 · The Sean Hannity Show: Interviewed by Gov. Greg Abbott · asked by Greg Abbott
Q: What does the Mars timeline look like with regard to what you want to accomplish there?
Yeah, so Mars is much harder to get to than the Moon. And you can only travel to Mars roughly every two years. So the Earth and Mars, the planets align such that you can travel to Mars only once every 26 months. So that's that. That makes it a lot harder than the Moon where you can go to the Moon pretty much any time. And it only takes a few days to get to the Moon, whereas it takes about six months to get to Mars. …
In his own posts on X
@elonmusk · Sep 8, 2024
@paulg Attempting to land giant spaceships on Mars will happen in that timeframe, but humans are only going after the landings are proven to be reliable. 4 years is best case for humans, might be 6, hopefully not 8.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Mar 15, 2025
Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus. If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely. https://t.co/JRBB95sgNN
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 15, 2025
I am confident that Starship will land humans on Mars. That path is clear. But what really matters is securing the future of consciousness, not just getting a small number of people to Mars. That probably requires getting over 100,000 people and 1M tons of cargo to Mars. The critical threshold to pass is making it such that Mars can grow even if supply ships from Earth stop coming for any reason.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Feb 8, 2026
For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years. The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars. It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city. That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.
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