Despite recent failures, Elon Musk insisted the world's most powerful rocket will soon blast off to the Red Planet. The tech billionaire said human landings could begin before the end of the decade.

Elon Musk says SpaceX will go to Mars at the end of 2026 with Tesla's Optimus, a humanoid robot. If all goes well, humans could be headed to the red planet in 2029, Musk says.

Elon Musk boldly claimed he could land humans on Mars "as soon as 2029." "Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus," the SpaceX CEO wrote in an X post shared on Saturday, referring to the space technology company's launch vehicle and Tesla's robot.

Tense, public squabbles between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and NASA have stirred the space industry, but behind the scenes, space science has continued business as (almost) normal.

SpaceX launched a crewed NASA mission on Friday to return two astronauts from the International Space Station, after technical issues with Boeing’s spacecraft extended their stay for nine months, leading SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump to suggest they were stranded for “political reasons.

A SpaceX crew was launching to space Friday evening after originally planning to launch earlier this week, to rescue two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station. The launch has faced multiple delays due to technical issues and weather conditions.