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"These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing
intact on Mars," Musk said, adding if those landings go well,
his space company will launch its first crewed flights to Mars
in four years.
"Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal
of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years," the
billionaire said.
In April, Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, said the first
uncrewed starship to land on Mars would be within five years,
with the first people landing on Mars within seven years.
In June, a Starship rocket survived a fiery, hypersonic return
from space and achieved a breakthrough landing demonstration in
the Indian Ocean, completing a full test mission around the
globe on the rocket's fourth try.
Musk is counting on Starship to fulfill his goal of producing a
large, multipurpose next-generation spacecraft capable of
sending people and cargo to the moon later this decade, and
ultimately flying to Mars.
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by David
Gregorio)
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