SpaceX CEO shares Starship’s Mars launch roadmap

SpaceX Founder and CEO, Elon Musk has shared Starship’s Mars mission roadmap, which could go into action in the next 2 years.

Starship is a two-stage rocket, the first stage uplifts the second stage to space and the vehicle operates like a ship for planetary travel.

The integrated version of Starship has been under testing since April 2023 and already completed four tests, while preparing for the fifth as of September 2024.

Throughout these test flights, Starship has achieved clean liftoff, hot-staging, and targeted landing for the first stage. On the other hand, the second stage has conducted several of its own milestones.

That includes engine ignitions after stage separation, taking the spacecraft to orbit, roaming in space for full duration, and engine reignition.

During the 4th flight, Starship entered Earth’s atmosphere and performed a landing burn. For testing and safety purposes, these rockets are landing at sea and not on a real platform. Both stages are designed for vertical landing recovery, leading to maximum reusability.

Achieving fully functional integrated stages is crucial for launching Mars missions. Amid that, the current pace of development could support Musk’s vision at least from what he said about the roadmap.

The SpaceX chief mentioned that the first couple of Starship missions will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. Mars and Earth get close to each other about every 26 months, and this event is called Close Approach.

These launches will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If everything goes well, SpaceX will prepare for a crewed flight in the next four years. Meanwhile, NASA has announced it’s working on technologies that will help to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s.

The agency has announced several new requirements to travel to the red planet including better space suits and cargo. The expected crew flight launch window for SpaceX will be around the same time as NASA.

Travel Impact

Musk said the Starship flight rate will grow after 2030 and the rocket will help to build a self-sustaining city in around 20 years.

The average distance between the two planets is 140 million miles. Mars’ closest approach to Earth was on August 27, 2003, when the two planets were 34,647,420 miles away.

Humans have never traveled in space this far. Therefore, first missions will have an unknown impact on passenger health due to long-distance.

So, first SpaceX and involved partners will have to find a way to send humans there safely, which will lead to further exploration of the red planet.