Elon Musk revealed that his rocket-launch firm SpaceX is now focused on building a “self-growing city” of humans on the moon – backing away from his plans to launch a civilization on Mars.
The world’s richest man said the shift comes down to timing, claiming that human society could be established within just a decade on the moon, but it would take twice as long to pull off the same fabulous feat on the red planet.
“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon,” Musk said in a Sunday post on X, which he owns.
“It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.”
Musk said the Mars mission will begin in five or six years and will be undertaken alongside the moon project, but the moon will take precedence, since the “overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”
It’s a noteworthy pivot for Musk, who has appeared eager to bring human life to Mars and even mocked other space firms for focusing on the moon at all.
He’s also notorious for making bold predictions that don’t quite pan out, repeatedly promising to put a person on Mars within the short term, only to keep pushing back the date.
Last year, Musk said SpaceX was planning to land its first uncrewed Starship – the largest-ever space vehicle – on Mars as soon as late 2026.
He’s repeated grandiose-sounding goals for Tesla’s humanoid robots and fully autonomous vehicles, too.
Musk’s announcement comes a week after SpaceX agreed to acquire his artificial intelligence firm xAI – merging two of his companies into the most valuable private firm in the world with a combined valuation of $1.25 trillion, according to Bloomberg.
SpaceX boasts massive rocket-launch contracts with the government and offers the Starlink satellite internet service, while xAI owns social media platform X and the Grok chatbot.
For more than a decade, Musk has lauded SpaceX’s mission to colonize Mars – calling it a necessary effort to ensure human survival in the event of an apocalypse.
He has criticized NASA for its plans to return to the moon.
The US government agency is currently aiming to complete a moon landing by 2028. It would be the first time humans have set foot on the moon since the Apollo program folded in 1972.
“No, we’re going straight to Mars,” Musk wrote of SpaceX in a post on X last year. “The Moon is a distraction.”
Musk’s space firm rose to dominance during a notable transformation in the space industry, as more government contracts are handed to private firms.
In its mission to bring humans back to the moon, called Artemis III, NASA has built the rocket and spacecraft that will launch astronauts from Earth into space.
But SpaceX has a nearly $3 billion government contract to construct the mission’s lunar lander, a spacecraft that will bring the crew from the rocket down to the moon’s surface.
It is planning to use its massive Starship vehicle, though the staggering rocket has exploded several times during testing and has never successfully traveled to orbit. It’s the same rocket that SpaceX plans to use on its ambitious Mars flights.
Meanwhile, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy – previously NASA’s acting administrator – has threatened to replace SpaceX’s role in the moon mission with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin since Musk’s team does not appear on track to deliver the lunar lander.
Blue Origin, which also holds huge government contracts, has paused its space tourism program – which famously brought Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez and Gayle King to space – to focus on lunar landing vehicles.
Meanwhile, Musk has grown more outspoken on politics and become entangled in the Trump administration.
He donated hundreds of millions of dollars to President Trump’s re-election efforts in 2024 and then took on a White House role leading the Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting committee that slashed foreign aid and laid off tens of thousands of federal workers.
Relations between Musk and Trump soured last summer in an epic fallout that saw Musk accuse Trump of withholding government documents related to disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to protect himself. The pair seemingly patched up their bromance later that year.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is eyeing an IPO, according to the Financial Times, though it’s unclear how its merger with xAI could impact those plans.
The company is considering going public in mid-June to coincide with a rare planetary alignment – and Musk’s 55th birthday, according to the report.
Musk has also said he wants to launch costly AI data centers into space. That project would likely require huge investments into SpaceX and xAI.
The Post has sought comment from SpaceX.
