“Occupy Mars” is the slogan of the shirt that Elon Musk wears almost all the time during Starship test flights, but their plans over at SpaceX may not yet be able to progress as the company faces massive setbacks.
SpaceX and Musk have a plan to bring humans to Mars by as early as 2028, fast-tracking its previous claims that it would take place by 2030. However, all of that would still greatly depend on the Starship program.
To date, the Starship program is still in its testing phase, and while the company logged several successes in 2024, 2025 has not been a great one for them as all missions of the company ended in explosions.
SpaceX, Musk Plans to Send Humans to Mars by 2028
SpaceX released a new video that features the feats of the Starship program and had Musk talking about what is up ahead for the company’s current missions of making the rocket work. The goal remains the same for the company, and it is to make life and humans “multiplanetary,” an ideal that the company and its leader have talked about over the years.
Here, they claimed that there is a plan for SpaceX to soon begin its Mars missions by as early as 2028, and in a short three-year period, the company envisions that its Starship would be ready to carry humans to the Red Planet.
This would begin with a 2026 launch of the Starship rocket to Mars, and this first mission would have no crew on board and focus on an actual test of the journey to the neighboring planet that is about 140 million miles away.
Read Also:
SpaceX Starship Is Gearing Up to Launch Every Other Week From Starbase Following FAA Approval
The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary: an update from @elonmusk on SpaceX's plan to reach Mars pic.twitter.com/d2cnsVKK80
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 29, 2025
Starship Failures May Delay SpaceX Mars Plans
SpaceX and Musk are known for being ambitious with their plans, with the company claiming that in a short three to four years, there would be a crewed mission to Mars featuring the Starship rockets.
However, the company is still facing massive setbacks in its Starship program, as all of its flights this year ended in “rapid unscheduled disassembly” (RUD), which essentially means that the rocket exploded.
Elon Musk’s Starship: To Mars and Beyond
SpaceX’s massive plans for the Starship have long involved Mars, a mission that it wants to launch within this decade. Previously, Musk revealed that they wanted to build over 1,000 Starships that would be used to bring humanity to Mars, and there, they would establish the first Mars colony with him as its leader.
Musk also previously said that the deorbiting of the International Space Station should be a top priority and be accelerated as this would mark humanity’s next frontier in the cosmos.
Before the first humans board the Starship in the years-long journey to Mars, Tesla’s Optimus humanoid bot would be the first one to board the powerful rocket in its journey towards the Red Planet.
SpaceX believes that Mars would be a significant steppingstone for humanity’s multiplanetary lifestyle in the future, one that would not confine them to the Earth exclusively and have them exploring other areas of the vast cosmos.
However, before that happens, SpaceX first needs to ace the many test flights of the Starship program and be consistent to the point that it would no longer explode in different missions.
Related Article:
Starship Flight 9 Ended as SpaceX’s 3rd Straight Failure—Will Tests Still Continue?