SpaceX Scrubs 2026 Starship Mars Mission
Because even by Musk's own numbers, they can't get there.
If you haven’t realised that Musk doesn’t understand a thing and is a grifting moron, who has only made it so far because he is constantly saved by a vast army of overworked, underpaid engineers, and a fanatical cult of brainwashed investors, then you might need to get your eyes checked out. He is constantly making wild, totally unfounded, inflammatory claims, which he has to walk back when they inevitably never materialise. And would you guess it, Musk has done this yet again! Despite claiming for years that this was the year SpaceX would finally launch its uncrewed Starship mission to Mars, Musk has quietly axed the mission. The reason why is nothing short of utterly damning.
We Are Going To Mars! Eventually…
Now, to be clear, Starship is already FAR behind schedule. Musk first claimed Starship would land on Mars by 2022. When Starship hadn’t even launched, let alone reached Mars by 2022, Musk clarified that Starship would now launch for Mars in the next planetary alignment window (when Earth and Mars are close enough for a spacecraft to transfer from one to the other) in 2024. When 2024 rolled around, and Starship couldn’t even launch without exploding into bits, he pushed this down the road yet again to the next alignment window in late 2026. So, it is already more than 4 years late!
But, in August 2025, Musk claimed they were going to get five “Mars-ready” Gen 3 Starships built and sent to the red planet by the end of 2026. The Italian Space Agency even contracted SpaceX to take their experiments to the Martian surface on this mission. Musk did clarify that there was only a “slight chance” that this mission would happen in late 2026. But it seemed, at the very least, that SpaceX was trying to make this happen!
However, then, the inevitable walk back happened. In a tech bro podcast recently published, but recorded in late December, Musk said that the 2026 Mars mission was “a distraction,” and that SpaceX will not pursue it. With how SpaceX operates, this is functionally confirmation that the 2026 mission has been scrapped.
Yet another flagship promise from Musk down the toilet.
But why? Why can’t Starship get to Mars?
Well, it is actually physically impossible for Starship to get to Mars, even if Starship somehow reaches Musk’s preposterous claims, all because of the moronic operational design of Starship. Let me explain.
