Musk—who has a history of setting unrealized goals for his companies—says he wants to send humans to Mars by 2029, though he says 2031 may be more likely.

SpaceX has blown up another Starship mega rocket on a test flight. Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Saturday its massive Starship rocket would leave for Mars at the end of 2026 with Tesla humanoid robot Optimus onboard, adding that human landings could follow "as soon as 2029.