Elon Musk said SpaceX is prioritizing plans to establish a self-sustaining city on the Moon over its long-standing ambition to send humans to Mars, marking a potential shift in the company’s space exploration strategy.
In a post on the social media platform X, Musk said a lunar city could be built within the next decade. “The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars,” he wrote.
SpaceX has long focused on developing its next-generation Starship rocket to enable human settlement on Mars. Musk previously suggested timelines for a Mars landing as early as 2018, later revising expectations to the early 2020s and again to the mid-2020s. In 2025, he indicated plans to launch uncrewed Starships carrying robots developed by Tesla during a favorable Earth-Mars orbital alignment.
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
Development challenges with Starship have slowed those ambitions. The rocket has suffered multiple high-profile test failures, and its progress is critical to NASA’s Artemis Program, under which Starship is expected to serve as the crewed lunar lander for the Artemis III mission. NASA recently pushed that mission’s launch date to no earlier than 2028.
Additional factors may also be influencing the shift. Musk has linked SpaceX’s future plans to projects involving his artificial intelligence venture xAI and proposals to deploy large numbers of orbital data centers. He has suggested that Starship could eventually support manufacturing and satellite launches from the lunar surface.
Despite the emphasis on the Moon, Musk said SpaceX has not abandoned Mars entirely and expects to resume progress toward a Mars mission within five to seven years. He argued that establishing a base on the Moon would be a faster way to secure humanity’s long-term future.
“The overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” Musk wrote.
