Unable to Reach Mars, Musk Does the Most Musk Thing Possible

Elon Musk built SpaceX on his dream of colonizing Mars. For decades, he kept the company on a strict path toward achieving that goal, arguing just last year that using the Moon as a stepping stone to the Red Planet would be a “distraction.” Now, he’s singing a very different tune.

In an X post on Sunday, Musk said SpaceX has “shifted focus toward building a self-growing city on the Moon.” Achieving this new goal, he said, will potentially take less than a decade, whereas colonizing Mars would take more than 20 years.

“The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars,” Musk insisted. “That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”

For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years.

The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2026

The billionaire race to the Moon is on

This pivot comes as SpaceX is racing against Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin to deliver a lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis 3 mission, which will be the first to land astronauts on the surface of the Moon in over 50 years. NASA awarded SpaceX the contract in 2021, but that never stopped Musk from criticizing the agency’s Moon-to-Mars trajectory.

NASA originally planned to launch Artemis 3 in 2024 but has since pushed the mission to 2028, partly due to uncertainty over when a crew lander will be ready. SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS) has faced significant developmental delays in recent years, prompting the agency to reopen the contract in October. Now, Musk has apparently gotten on board with the whole Moon-to-Mars thing.

Blue Origin has emerged as the top competitor for the contract and is actively prepping its Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) cargo lander for its first test flight. MK1 will pave the way for the MK2 crew lander, which could win Blue the Artemis 3 contract if it’s ready to fly before the Starship HLS.

The decision to shift SpaceX’s guiding mission toward the Moon may be a response to this mounting pressure—at least in part. Blue has also decided to go all-in on the Moon, announcing in late January that it would pause space tourism flights aboard New Shepard for two years to “accelerate development of the company’s human lunar capabilities.”

Saving face

The value of being the first commercial launch provider to land astronauts on the lunar surface clearly isn’t lost on either SpaceX or Blue Origin. Whichever company loses this race would have to coordinate with the winner over future landing zones and resource usage and could face diminished support from NASA and investors. Both have sent plans to NASA aimed at achieving a crewed lunar landing before 2030, which is China’s target year for its own landing.

At the same time, Musk’s ambitious Mars timelines have caught up to him. In 2020, he said he was “highly confident” that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026. The company was planning to send its first uncrewed mission to Mars this year, but Starship V3—the rocket needed to launch it—hasn’t even made its debut yet.

Redirecting SpaceX toward building a Moon city would be a clever way to cover up the fact that Musk simply is not delivering on his Red Planet promises. Under this guise, a 2026 Mars mission would appear to fall to the bottom of the priority list rather than succumb to the technical shortcomings of the Starship program.

But this pivot is no mere cover-up. There are real reasons for SpaceX to align its strategic vision with NASA’s, especially now that one of its biggest rivals is closer than ever to challenging the company’s lunar ambitions.