SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in an X post that the company is shifting its focus from Mars to creating a “self-growing city” on the moon, in a marked shift in priority.
“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),” Musk wrote. “This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.”
This comes as a major departure from Musk’s previous comments. Musk had previously said he planned on reaching Mars this year.
READ: Elon Musk explores company merger as SpaceX IPO nears (
In 2020, the SpaceX CEO said he was confident that the company would land humans on Mars by 2026. “If we get lucky, maybe four years,” Musk said at an awards show in 2020. “We want to send an uncrewed vehicle there in two years.” Previously, the company had delayed ambitious projects because of their complexity and regulatory challenges.
However, Mars still seems to be part of the plan for Musk. He said in his post that SpaceX would continue building a Mars city, starting in five to seven years. “But the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” he wrote.
Last week, Musk announced that SpaceX would acquire xAI, his AI company.. XAI purchased the social media platform X in March 2025. He wrote that the deal would create “the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform.”
Musk also shared plans in the memo, to have “self-growing bases” and factories on the moon. He also mentioned having “an entire civilization on Mars.”
READ: Is Elon Musk trying to influence SpaceX’s valuation ahead of IPO (
This comes ahead of SpaceX’s planned astronaut launch for NASA, officially scheduled for Feb. 11. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorized SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to return to flight on Friday, bringing an end to the grounding purred by an issue with the vehicle’s upper stage.
So, SpaceX and NASA are preparing for the launch of the Crew-12 astronaut mission, which is targeted for 6:01 a.m. EST on Wednesday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Crew-12 mission will send four astronauts — NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency — to the International Space Station for a stay of around nine months.