SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced Saturday its enormous Starship rocket would embark for Mars toward the end of 2026 with Tesla human-like robot Optimus on board, stating further human landings could come as early as 2029. Starship takes off for Mars near the end of next year with Optimus onboard.”
If those landings are successful, then human landings could begin as early as 2029, though 2031 is more probable,” Musk stated on his X social network. Musk, also the CEO of Tesla, unveiled the company’s Optimus robots at an event last year. He said the dancing robots would eventually be able to perform menial tasks, as well as provide friendship, and predicted they would sell for $20,000 to $30,000.
Starship – the largest and most powerful rocket in the world – is central to Musk’s long-term plan to colonize Mars. Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall – roughly 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty – Starship is intended to eventually be fully reusable.
NASA also is waiting for a version of Starship customized as a lunar lander for its Artemis mission, sending astronauts back to the Moon later this decade. But SpaceX will need to demonstrate first that the vehicle is dependable, safe for human crews, and able to do complex refueling in space – essential for deep space exploration.
SpaceX suffered a setback in the current month when its newest test flight of the Starship prototype crashed in a ball of flames, even though the booster was caught successfully in its orbital test. Just minutes after launch and separation of the booster, a live video feed indicated that the upper stage was tumbling out of control before the signal suddenly died. Dramatic video doing the rounds online depicted red-hot wreckage cascading down over the Bahamas.
