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Elon Musk’s SpaceX has decided to shelve its planned 2026 Mars mission. The company is now choosing to concentrate resources on developing a lunar lander for NASA. It had earlier aimed to launch multiple uncrewed Starship missions to Mars during the next Earth-Mars transfer window.
That narrow launch opportunity, which occurs roughly every 26 months, will now pass without a SpaceX attempt. The company is instead targeting an uncrewed moon landing in March 2027. This pushes SpaceX’s long-term Mars ambitions further into the future.
Musk had hinted at this reprioritisation late last year, describing a 2026 Mars attempt as a distraction given SpaceX’s current technical hurdles. One of the biggest unresolved challenges is orbital refuelling. It is an important capability for both lunar and Mars missions, which SpaceX has yet to successfully show.
Starship, the company’s fully reusable heavy-lift rocket, has also faced multiple setbacks over the past year. Many test flights ended in failures, scattering debris over the Caribbean. The US Federal Aviation Administration also investigated these failures. These issues have slowed progress and raised concerns about readiness for deep-space missions.
The decision comes amid increasing pressure from NASA, which relies on SpaceX’s Starship as the Human Landing System for its Artemis program. NASA has awarded SpaceX contracts worth around $4 billion for lunar lander development.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy has publicly stated that SpaceX is behind schedule. He confirmed plans to open lunar landing contracts to additional competitors, including Blue Origin. The Artemis II mission, which will send astronauts around the moon, has been delayed to no earlier than March 2026.
According to internal planning documents reported late last year, SpaceX now aims to show orbital propellant transfer by mid-2026. The company plans to conduct an uncrewed lunar landing in 2027 and support a crewed Artemis III landing in 2028.
The next Mars launch window does not open until late 2028 or early 2029. So, SpaceX’s journey to the red planet is now delayed by at least two to three years. For now, proving Starship’s reliability and meeting NASA’s lunar goals have become the company’s top priorities.
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