Although SpaceX is still planning a city on Mars within five to seven years, Musk stressed on his social media platform X that “the most important priority is securing the future of civilization, and the moon is the faster way.”
This follows a report by the Wall Street Journal that SpaceX has told investors it will prioritize the moon, aiming for an unmanned mission in March 2027. Musk previously planned to send an unmanned mission to Mars by the end of 2026.
The US is facing intense competition from China in the race to return humans to the moon, which it has not been to since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Meanwhile, Musk announced that SpaceX has acquired artificial intelligence company xAI, in a deal that values SpaceX at $1 trillion and the AI company at $250 billion. Proponents of the move claim it will help develop space-based data centers, which Musk sees as more energy efficient than Earth-based ones.
SpaceX hopes an initial public offering later this year could raise up to $50 billion, making it the largest in history.
Musk also stated that NASA will account for less than five percent of SpaceX’s revenue this year. The company is the prime contractor for NASA’s Artemis program on the moon, with a $4 billion contract to land astronauts using Starships. Most of the revenue comes from the commercial Starlink system, Musk added.
In addition to SpaceX, Musk is also pushing Tesla in a new direction. The company plans to spend $20 billion this year developing autonomous driving and Optimus humanoid robots, and last month announced the shutdown of two car models in California to make room for robots.
(Vijesti.ba)
