In December 2021, Elon Musk predicted that humans will be on Mars within a decade. Now, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC's Shepard Smith on Saturday that humanity will touch the ground on the Red Planet before the end of the 2020s.

"I think it will be in this decade, yes. People on the moon, sooner," Shotwell said.

"I think we need to get a large delivery to the surface of Mars, and then people will start thinking harder about it," she added. "And then, I think within five or six years, people will see that that will be a real place to go."

How do the ambitious executives plan to make it to Mars? Aboard their new ship: Starship.

Starship is designed to be the first reusable spacecraft that will be able to take crew and cargo to the Moon and Mars before returning to Earth and it is so advanced that it supposedly has got the competition worried.

 

Where is Starship at in its development?

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