When will SpaceX go to Mars?

The question can't be answered with a single day because Mars isn't always available. Earth and Mars align in a way that allows for the most energy-efficient trip roughly once every 26 months, and the interplanetary cruise phase lasts about 200 days. That rhythm is, in practice, the clock governing all Mars exploration, robotic or crewed: any plan is measured in windows, not weeks, and if the vehicle isn't ready for the one that opens, the schedule jumps to the next. To date, no Starship has departed for Mars.

In February 2026, Elon Musk publicly reordered priorities: he said SpaceX had already shifted its focus to building a "self-sustaining city" on the Moon, something he considers achievable in under 10 years, versus the more than 20 he says Mars would require. The company isn't giving up on the planet — he said it would start building there in roughly 5 to 7 years — but the argument he gave is operational: you can launch to the Moon every 10 days, and that cadence allows fixing mistakes much faster than one opportunity every 26 months.

The main obstacle isn't the rocket but propellant logistics: to send a Starship with payload to Mars, it has to be refueled in Earth orbit, a cryogenic transfer that hasn't yet been demonstrated in flight. On top of that there's Martian atmospheric entry, the controlled landing of a vehicle that size, and mass production of ships that travel without a guaranteed return. That's why the dates the company announces are best read as engineering targets rather than tickets with an assigned seat: every time a window has approached without the vehicle ready, the target has moved to the next one.