Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship Aims for Mars and Beyond, Including Uranus
Elon Musk Sets Sights on Uranus as SpaceX’s Starship Aims for Mars
SpaceX’s Starship, a fully reusable megarocket, has completed just four live tests and broken the Earth’s atmosphere. But founder Elon Musk is aiming for the stars — quite literally. During a recent livestream, Musk made bold proclamations about the future of interstellar travel, including plans to land on Mars by 2027.
“I think we’ll launch the first Starship to Mars in less than three years. And things will really go exponential from there,” Musk said. He added that SpaceX plans to send multiple ships to Mars in the coming years, with the ultimate goal of sending 1,000 ships to the red planet every rendezvous.
But Musk’s ambitions don’t stop at Mars. During the livestream, he revealed his new goal of reaching Uranus, the seventh planet in our solar system. “We definitely want our rocket to reach Uranus. It’s a stretch goal to reach Uranus,” Musk said.
While Musk’s vision for interstellar travel is ambitious, it’s not without its challenges. SpaceX has conducted just a handful of unmanned tests of Starship so far, with plans for a fifth launch in the near future pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Musk also mentioned improvements to Starship, including a new, stronger heat shield for future tests.
Musk’s grand plans for space exploration have garnered both excitement and skepticism. Some see his goals as groundbreaking achievements in human history, while others view them as potential fodder for juvenile jokes, a territory Musk is no stranger to. Regardless, Musk’s vision for the future of space travel is certainly one to watch.