Elon Musk Says Starship Could Take Humans To The Moon In 2024

NASA and SpaceX came to an agreement that will see the SpaceX Starship rocket take humans back to the moon in 2024. NASA is currently operating the Artemis program with the goal of sending humans back to the moon and establishing a long-term and sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently said that he believes SpaceX will be ready to put astronauts on the moon in 2024.

However, Musk did at least acknowledge that he's often optimistic on his timelines. The 2024 timeline was first confirmed under President Trump in 2019. However, when Trump failed to get re-elected, there was some concern that under the Biden administration, that timeline might not be possible. Musk believes that SpaceX can meet the original timeline under the Biden administration.

Musk talked about the timeline via Twitter, where he stated that he thought 2024 seems likely. He also noted that SpaceX is going to aim to be ready sooner than that. Currently, Musk believes that the Starship could be flying people regularly by 2023. Musk and SpaceX have a long way to go, with the CEO admitting, with a laugh, that the company needs to "not be making craters." That statement refers to the explosion of a Starship rocket during testing recently.

Musk says that he and his team need to accelerate the rate of innovation, and starship could be ready in a couple of years. So far, the four Starship test launches that have occurred performed as expected while in the air. However, none of them have been able to land successfully. The one that did land successfully exploded a few minutes later.