Elon Musk still has plans to go to Mars.
During a video conference at the International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan the SpaceX founder and CEO said that he thinks SpaceX could successfully make a landing on Mars within three to four years.
During the speech, Musk said that he thinks SpaceX's Starship has “a decent chance” of reaching orbit on its second test flight. Its first test flight took place in April of this year and did not go particularly well.
The upper stage of the launch vehicle failed to separate from the Lowe-stag Super Heavy while in flight, ultimately leading to a mid-air explosion. The launch was scheduled for 90 minutes; however, it ended up only lasting 4 minutes.
The FAA grounded the starship following April’s incident and stipulated 63 corrective actions SpaceX will need to implement in order to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Musk’s comments mirror those made by SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell last year who said that she thought we will see people on Mars within this decade.
The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket (collectively referred to as just Starship) is a fully reusable system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Before Aprils’s launch, SpaceX had also attempted a flight to a starship prototype in March of 2021 which crashed in a fiery explosion. Then, the FAA gave SpaceX a list of 75 measures it would need to introduce before it would be granted a launch license.
In the same keynote speech, Musk said he didn’t want to “set expectations too high” for the second launch of the Starship and also emphasized that despite the explosion the first launch was a success because SpaceX was able to learn from it.
SpaceX must obtain FAA authorization before it can fly the rocket again. It also must obtain environmental approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
