Billionaire Elon Musk said SpaceX is temporarily postponing its Mars mission, prioritizing a landing mission and the construction of a self-sustaining city on the Moon.

Pilots stand next to the American flag during the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 – Photo: NASA

According to Reuters, billionaire Elon Musk said on February 8 that SpaceX has shifted its focus to building a “self-sustaining city” on the Moon, which could be completed in less than 10 years.

On social media platform X, Musk affirmed that SpaceX still maintains its long-term ambition to build a city on Mars within the next five to seven years.

However, according to him, the path toward the Moon will be faster, in line with the current priority of “ensuring the future of civilization”.

These statements are consistent with information published by the Wall Street Journal on February 6, which reported that SpaceX had informed investors of its priority for lunar exploration missions.

The aerospace corporation’s immediate goal is to make an unmanned landing on the Moon by March 2027.

The plan to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars will be postponed, even though Musk had previously stated that this goal could be achieved by the end of 2026.

This strategic adjustment is taking place as the U.S. faces competitive pressure from China in the race to return humans to the moon within this decade.

Since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, humans have not returned to the surface of Earth’s natural satellite.

Less than a week ago, Musk announced that SpaceX had acquired xAI , the artificial intelligence company he founded. 

The deal valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion.

Supporters argue that this is a step toward plans to build data centers in space, a model that Musk claims is more energy-efficient than ground-based facilities.

SpaceX currently expects its initial public offering (IPO) later this year to raise up to $50 billion, making it the largest IPO in history.

On February 9th, responding on social media platform X, Mr. Musk stated that revenue from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would account for less than 5% of SpaceX’s total revenue this year.

Nevertheless, SpaceX remains a key contractor in NASA’s Artemis program, with a $4 billion contract to use its Starship spacecraft to transport astronauts to the moon.

“The majority of SpaceX’s revenue comes from the commercial Starlink system,” Musk emphasized. The company also just released its first Super Bowl commercial to promote this satellite internet service.

Alongside the reorientation of SpaceX, Musk is also pushing Tesla to shift to a new strategy.

Having laid the foundation for the global electric vehicle market, Tesla plans to spend $20 billion this year focusing on developing autonomous driving and robotics technologies.

To achieve this goal, the company temporarily halted production of two car models at its California plant to make space for assembling the Optimus humanoid robot.