Musk: SpaceX switches attention from Mars to building a city on the Moon

Space company SpaceX has focused on building a "self-developing city" on the Moon instead of Mars. This was reported by the company's founder, American businessman Elon Musk .

"For those of you who don't know, SpaceX has already shifted its focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve this in less than 10 years, while Mars would take over 20 years," he wrote.

Musk emphasized that traveling to Mars is possible only when the planets align every 26 months (travel time is six months), while flights to the Moon can be made every 10 days (travel time is two days).

"This means we can complete a city on the Moon much faster than a city on Mars. That said, SpaceX will also be looking to build a city on Mars and will start that in about five to seven years, but the top priority is securing the future of civilization, and the Moon is a faster route," he added .

• In 2019, Musk already said that it would take up to 20 years to develop infrastructure on Mars. To create a settlement on the planet, he estimates that about 1000 rockets will need to be built and launched Starship.
• In 2020, Musk said he plans to move 1 million people to Mars by 2050. However, experts told Insider at least four problems with this plan.
• As of early February 2026, according to Forbes, Musk became the first person in history to be worth $800 billion . This happened after the merger of two of Musk's companies: SpaceX and xAI, which specializes in artificial intelligence.