President Donald Trump says we’re going to Mars, but Elon Musk shouldn't start packing bags. It's more popular than Jan. 6 pardons and deportation, and harder.

Arrival in early-to-mid December 2028 would place the spacecraft at Mars during northern hemisphere spring, providing favorable conditions for solar power and avoiding dust storm seasons.

The rest of the 400 landings have come courtesy of SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy, whose first stage consists of three modified Falcon 9 boosters. (The Heavy can notch three landings on a single mission, but it has flown just 11 times to date.)

With a friend in the White House, the tech billionaire's extraterrestrial ambitions are ready for lift-off - but not everybody is convinced

The SpaceX Starship - developed by Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX - blasted off from Texas on Thursday for its seventh test flight, but it encountered difficulties

In his prepared remarks, Trump, a longtime backer of U.S.-led space exploration and exploitation, singled out Mars and left the moon hanging.

Angry Astronaut and Nextbigfuture commenter are making the case that SpaceX and Elon Musk must switch to nuclear thermal rockets to colonize Mars. I will

Elon Musk’s company managed 138 successful orbital launches in 2024 - more than 40 more than the year before. SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell has said that the firm is aiming for even more launches this year, with a good chunk of them being Starship flight tests.

As of 2023, though, Beck hadn't yet decided what Rocket Lab's answer to Starlink might be, or what new business the company would enter into to provide profits superior to what can be earned simply launching payloads to space. Or at least he wasn't prepared to say this publicly. But in 2025, he may have finally made his decision.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made light of Starship's fiery end. "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!" he said on X.

It was in 2018, when Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk took the audacious step of 'strapping' a car before launching it into space. In February 2018, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster to Falcon Heavy Test flight.