Elon Musk claims Starship can reach Mars in six months — Here's how

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of rocket company SpaceX, has claimed that his Starships can travel to Mars within six months, instead of the projected 10 years.

How? By travelling when the planets align, “every 26 months” (or 2.2 years), which would shorten the physical distance between the Earth and Mars, and theoritically means that we could reach the red planet faster.

Notably, SpaceX is gearing up for its next space mission later today, and Elon Musk's ambitious Mars projects has got a boost, with date set for 2026.

Bridging the distance to Mars: How?

“Starship can reach Mars in 6 months every 26 months when the planets align (sic),” he wrote. The world's richest man made the comment while engaging with a post on X about how long it would take for commercial airplanes to reach each planetary body in our solar system, based on current speeds and their distance from Earth.

What Elon Musk is referring to is what scientists term as “opposition”. This is when during their revolutions around the Sun, Earth and Mars catch up, and our home planet is positioned in between the central star and the red planet.

According to NASA, such oppositions only happen every 26 months or so, with Mars getting closest to Earth at intervals of 15-17 years.

At present, the distance between Earth and Mars is 249.03 million km. During opposition this can lower to as much as 70.3 million km (seen at the 2005 opposition event), according to NASA.

SpaceX Mars Mission Update

Notably, on May 15, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX's Starship rocket will depart for Mars by 2026-end with Tesla's humanoid robot “Optimus” on board. This will be a test before SpaceX move on to “human landings” by 2029-2031, he added.

“Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus. If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely,” said billionaire CEO Elon Musk.

A test for this rocket, is set for later today, when a launch window opens at 6:30 pm (2330 GMT) from the company's Starbase facility near a southern Texas village that recently voted to become a city, also called Starbase, according to an AFP report.

Notably, the last two tests ended with the upper stages erupting into flames that rained debris over Caribbean islands and disrupted flights. According to the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX is shifting personnel and resources to the Starship program in a push to have the vehicle ready for a Mars mission as soon as next year.