Elon Musk 'highly confident' SpaceX can launch manned mission to Mars in 2024
Elon Musk 'highly confident' SpaceX can launch manned mission to Mars in 2024
(Web Desk) - Elon Musk has said he is ‘highly confident’ SpaceX can launch a manned mission to Mars in 2024. The private space company has recently celebrated delivering astronauts to the ISS for the first time as part of a taxi service for Nasa. But the ultimate aim of SpaceX has always been to take humans to Mars.
Musk made the statement during an interview with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of the German media company Axel Springer SE. The billionaire was speaking at Axel Springer’s Berlin headquarters after Musk had been presented with this year’s Axel Springer Award.
‘And then we want to try to send an uncrewed vehicle there in two years,’ Musk explained. The 2022 target for a first mission to Mars is important because of orbital dynamics between the two planets. Mars and Earth line up favourably every 26 months, which is the target window for any kind of space mission there.
Musk then said he was ‘highly confident’ SpaceX could launch a crewed mission to the Red Planet in 2026. However, that could come even earlier in 2024 ‘if we get lucky’.
