Musk plans to send an unmanned Starship to Mars by the end of 2026
Musk stated last Thursday that he intends to send an unmanned spacecraft to the Red Planet at the end of next year. A couple of days ago, his futuristic spacecraft faced another setback. Musk presented a detailed timeline of Starship’s development in a video, according to https://xrust.ru/. The material was posted on the website of his company SpaceX in Los Angeles. The sensational statement came a day after his departure from the White House. Previously, the billionaire said he planned to reduce his role in the government to focus on his various enterprises, including SpaceX and the electric vehicle and battery manufacturer Tesla. Musk acknowledged that his latest timelines for reaching Mars depend on whether Starship can achieve a range of complex technical tasks during flight tests, particularly in-orbit refueling after launch into low Earth orbit.
The end of 2026 will coincide with a small window occurring every two years when Mars and Earth align around the Sun for the closest approach between the two planets, which will take the spacecraft seven to nine months. The first flight to Mars will include a simulation of a crew consisting of one or several humanoid robots called Optimus, created by Tesla, with the first human crews expected to follow during the second or third landing.
Musk said he envisions eventually launching between 1,000 and 2,000 spacecraft to Mars every two years to quickly establish a self-sustaining permanent human settlement. Currently, NASA is aiming to return humans to the Moon’s surface aboard the Starship in 2027 — more than 50 years after the last crewed lunar landing during the Apollo era — as a stepping stone toward the eventual launch of astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.
https://xrust.ru/news/311232-mask-planiruet-otpravit-bespilotnik-starship-na-mars-k-koncu-2026-goda.html
