Forget Mars: Elon Musk's SpaceX Shifts Priority to Building a Moon Base

Elon Musk announced Sunday that SpaceX has redirected its immediate focus toward establishing a self-sustaining city on the Moon, marking a significant departure from the company’s long-standing Mars-first strategy.

Reuters reports that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed on Sunday that the aerospace company has made a strategic pivot, now prioritizing the development of a “self-growing” city on the Moon over its previously primary objective of Mars colonization. According to Musk, this lunar city could become reality in less than ten years.

While SpaceX still maintains its intention to pursue Musk’s long-held vision of establishing a city on Mars, the timeline has been pushed back by five to seven years. Musk explained the rationale behind this strategic shift, stating that “the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”

This announcement aligns with a Wall Street Journal report published Friday, which indicated that SpaceX has informed investors of its decision to prioritize lunar missions over Mars expeditions. The company is targeting March 2027 for an uncrewed lunar landing, representing a concrete near-term goal for the revised space exploration strategy.

The change in direction represents a notable reversal from Musk’s previously stated positions. As recently as last year, the SpaceX founder had declared plans to launch an uncrewed Mars mission by the end of 2026. In January of the previous year, Musk was even more emphatic about his Mars-first approach, responding to a post on X by saying, “No, we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

Musk has developed a reputation for setting ambitious timelines across his various ventures, self-driving technology, that have frequently failed to materialize according to the originally announced schedules. This history adds an element of uncertainty to the proposed ten-year timeline for the lunar city project.

The announcement comes during a period of major corporate activity for SpaceX. Less than a week prior to revealing the lunar priority shift, Musk announced that SpaceX had acquired xAI, his artificial intelligence company. As Breitbart News previously reported:

The merger represents the largest consolidation within Musk’s extensive portfolio of companies and unites two businesses that have experienced substantial growth in private market valuations. SpaceX conducted a secondary share sale last year at an $800 billion valuation, while xAI was valued at approximately $230 billion following a $20 billion funding round that concluded earlier this year.

SpaceX is reportedly planning a public offering later this year with the potential to raise as much as $50 billion, which could establish it as the largest IPO in history.

Regarding SpaceX’s business relationships, Musk stated on Monday in response to an X user that NASA will constitute less than five percent of SpaceX’s revenue this year. This is noteworthy given that SpaceX serves as a core contractor in NASA’s Artemis moon program, holding a four billion dollar contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface using the Starship spacecraft. Musk clarified that the “vast majority of SpaceX revenue is the commercial Starlink system,” referring to the company’s satellite internet service, which was promoted in SpaceX’s first Super Bowl advertisement shared on Sunday.