Elon Musk's SpaceX Eyes $100 Million-Per-Ton Mars Cargo Missions By 2030 As 11th Starship Launch Approaches
Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to launch cargo missions to the Moon by 2028 and Mars by 2030, with a payload cost of $100 million per metric ton. The announcement coincides with the upcoming 11th test launch of the Starship rocket. Musk indicated that the new V3 and V4 Starship versions will have larger sizes and higher payload capacities. He emphasized that once Starship is operational, SpaceX could dominate the commercial space sector, delivering over 95% of Earth's payload to orbit.
Elon Musk's commercial space flight company SpaceX says it will target cargo missions to the Moon and Mars by 2028 and 2030, respectively, on the back of the Starship rocket, which is gearing up for its 11th test launch on Monday.
$100 Million Per Metric Ton Of Payload
In a quiet update to its website on Saturday, the company said that it will target missions to the lunar surface by 2028. "Starship cargo flights to the lunar surface for research, development, and exploratory missions start in 2028," SpaceX said in a new update to the Moon page on its website.
In a similar update to the Mars page. "Starship cargo flights to the Martian surface for research, development, and exploratory missions start in 2030," the company said. Both missions would carry a payload price of "$100 million per metric ton," SpaceX says. The price translates to roughly $45k per pound.
Starship's 11th Test Launch, V3 And V4
The news comes as SpaceX will conduct the 11th test launch of the Starship rocket after recently conducting the 10th launch test successfully despite repeated setbacks and failures ranging from unfavorable weather conditions to propellant leaks.
Meanwhile, Musk had earlier shared that Starship's V3 and V4 rockets would be bigger in size as compared to the previous Starship versions and would boast a higher payload capacity. Musk also said that SpaceX could target an end-of-the-year launch for the V3 rocket.
Starship's Dominance
Musk also touted Starship as SpaceX's key to further dominate the commercial space sector. "Once Starship is flying frequently with real payloads next year, then SpaceX will probably deliver >95% of total Earth payload to orbit," the billionaire had said earlier.
SpaceX's satellite-based internet service Starlink also recently acquired EchoStar Corp's (NASDAQ:SATS) AWS-4 and H-Block Spectrum licenses for $17 billion, taking the company closer to making Starlink-enabled smartphones a reality.
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