Before that it should go in 2022
SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk announced on Friday that they have a “combat chance” to send their spacecraft rocket to Mars in 2024. They had hoped to send them by 2022.
Musk talked about sending an unmanned spacecraft rocket to Mars during the Mars Society’s 2020 virtual conference. The Starship rocket is currently in the prototype stage and has yet to go through a long test path before embarking on the solo mission to Mars. Musk later added that even the 2024 date was just a guess.
The SN5 Starship has features
Musk first spoke about his plan to send cargo ships to Mars in 2017. If the solo mission was successful, they planned a crewed mission after two years.
To date, SpaceX has completed two successful “hop” tests of its rocket at its Texas facility. The hop tests consisted of tossing it several hundred feet into the air before returning to earth.
Musk’s rocket is designed to carry up to 100 passengers and heavy cargo. Speaking at the Mars Society meeting, he said he was “80% -90% confident” that the Starship rocket would reach orbit next year. He then said he was “50% -60% confident” that SpaceX could get the rocket and its booster out of orbit and said they will likely lose some of them before they check the atmospheric return and landing to get.
Musk told Mars Society President Robert Zubrin that these were all just guesses. He said he had no secret information that he would keep to himself without sharing it. It seems Musk is cautious after some of his promised schedules didn’t go as planned.