Musk shifting focus to Moon city, Mars plans delayed

Investing.com -- SpaceX is changing its space exploration priorities, with CEO Elon Musk announcing the company will focus on building a "self-growing city" on the moon before pursuing Mars colonization.

Musk stated on Sunday via his X social media platform that this lunar city could be established in less than 10 years. While SpaceX still plans to begin work on a Mars city within five to seven years, Musk explained that "the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster."

This represents a significant shift from Musk's previous stance. In January 2025, he had dismissed lunar missions, stating: "No, we're going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction."

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that SpaceX has informed investors about prioritizing moon missions, with an uncrewed lunar landing targeted for March 2027. Mars missions would follow at a later date.

SpaceX serves as a key contractor in NASA's Artemis moon program with a $4 billion contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface using its Starship vehicle. Despite this partnership, Musk revealed on Monday that NASA will constitute less than 5% of SpaceX's revenue this year, noting that the "vast majority of SpaceX revenue is the commercial Starlink system."

The announcement comes shortly after Musk revealed that SpaceX acquired xAI, his artificial intelligence company. The deal values SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion.

SpaceX is reportedly planning a public offering later this year that could raise up to $50 billion, potentially making it the largest public offering in history.

On Sunday, the company also aired its first Super Bowl advertisement, promoting its Starlink satellite internet service.

You May Also Be Interested In

• ServiceNow (NOW) call put ratio 3.8 calls to 1 put with a focus on 1200 contracts of July 116 calls
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) call put ratio 1.6 calls to 1 put into quarter results
• Encision Inc. Announces Start of Stock Trading