{"id":89814,"date":"2025-09-14T18:24:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T18:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2"},"modified":"2025-09-14T18:34:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T18:34:40","slug":"musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2","title":{"rendered":"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expects first unmanned flight of the Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, followed by a manned mission another two years later.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years,&#8221; Musk said on X.<\/p>\n<p>The entrepreneur added that the frequency of flights will then begin to grow exponentially, with a goal to create a self-sustaining city on Mars in about 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The current cost of delivering a payload to Mars is estimated at about $1 billion per ton, Musk noted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That needs to be improved to $100k\/ton to build a self-sustaining city there, so the technology needs to be 10,000 times better. Extremely difficult, but not impossible,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Musk-led SpaceX is building a powerful Starship spacecraft for future long-distance space flights. So far, four test flights have been carried out, only the last of them, carried out in early June, was completed successfully.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expects first unmanned flight of the Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, followed by a manned mission another two years later. &#8220;The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":89813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-89814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expects first unmanned flight of the Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, fol ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expects first unmanned flight of the Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, fol ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-14T18:24:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-14T18:34:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-14T18:24:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-14T18:34:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2\"},\"wordCount\":232,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2\",\"name\":\"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-14T18:24:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-14T18:34:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expects first unmanned flight of the Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, fol ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years - South Africa","description":"US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expects first unmanned flight of the Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, fol ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years","og_description":"US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expects first unmanned flight of the Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, fol ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-09-14T18:24:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-14T18:34:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years","datePublished":"2025-09-14T18:24:04+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-14T18:34:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2"},"wordCount":232,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg","keywords":["South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","miscellaneous"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2","name":"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg","datePublished":"2025-09-14T18:24:04+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-14T18:34:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk expects first unmanned flight of the Starship spacecraft to Mars in two years, fol ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757862190.285284.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/musk-plans-unmanned-mars-flights-in-two-years-2#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Musk Plans Unmanned Mars Flights in Two Years"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}