Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX, conducted a test flight of its Starship on Tuesday, May 27, marking the first flight test after two explosions earlier this year.
Currently, SpaceX is transferring personnel and resources to the new rocket, aiming to prepare this approximately 400-foot-tall spacecraft for a mission to land on Mars next year.
According to sources, in recent months, employees of the company have shifted their focus to the Starship project. SpaceX has made significant investments at its Starship base in Texas and has similar plans in Florida.
The company urgently needs to prove that the Starship can perform as promised by Musk and other executives. Insiders have revealed that the variant model development work for NASA’s 2027 moon landing mission using the Starship is behind schedule.
This year, SpaceX’s two consecutive Starship flight tests ended in explosions. The accidents resulted in disruptions in air traffic in Florida and the Caribbean, with debris scattered in various locations.
In a statement last Friday, the company mentioned having conducted comprehensive tests on the reasons for the previous failures and made adjustments for the next mission. However, SpaceX acknowledged that achieving the goals of the Starship project “will not happen overnight.”
Shana Diez, a senior engineer at SpaceX, acknowledged the challenging start for the Starship project this year after the second explosion. She highlighted that a single issue could lead to launch failure, and considering cost and time factors, addressing overall challenges would prove quite tricky.
Musk has been pushing SpaceX to attempt an unmanned Starship spacecraft landing on Mars next year. The advantage of attempting flights to Mars in 2026 lies in the closer proximity of Earth and Mars at that time, making the journey easier.
SpaceX’s goal of flying to Mars next year may align with the Trump administration’s new priorities at NASA. The recent White House budget proposal seeks to increase funding by $1 billion for Mars-related projects while significantly cutting budgets for several other federal agencies.
Additionally, SpaceX employees are currently involved in a project called “Starfall,” related to the Starship. Sources indicate that this project is linked to military plans and aims to utilize the spacecraft for rapid transport of military equipment globally in the future.
For years, the military and aerospace companies have been researching how to use rockets for swift delivery of goods, envisioning spacecraft that could fly over space within about an hour after launch, transporting large quantities of supplies to a base or remote area.
In 2017, SpaceX released an animation online showing people boarding the Starship docked on a barge in New York and reaching Shanghai within 39 minutes.
Musk also hopes to include a robot being developed by Tesla in the 2026 Mars mission. In a post on X platform in March this year, he stated, “The Starship will depart for Mars by the end of next year, carrying Optimus.”
Over two decades ago, Musk founded SpaceX with the ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars. He has described achieving interplanetary survival as the driving force of his life.
(Reference: Report by The Wall Street Journal)