Explainer · humans to Mars
No one knows yet: no crewed Mars mission is funded or scheduled. NASA’s goal is to send astronauts “as early as the 2030s”. SpaceX’s Elon Musk said in February 2026 that SpaceX would begin a Mars city in “about 5 to 7 years”. China hasn’t set an official date.
Updated Sources (11)
Solid marks are on a schedule. Dashed and dotted ones are someone’s aim: useful to know, but nobody has committed money and a launch date to them.
Plenty of targets, no schedule. Here is each one in the words of whoever said it, with the date. A target is someone’s aim; a schedule has a date and money behind it.
The US asks for options, not a mission
“explore commercial architectures for sending humans to the surface of Mars and returning them to Earth”
Presidential memorandum NSPM-17, “The National Space Transportation Policy” · The White House
NASA: the 2030s
“send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s”
NASA · Humans to Mars
Musk: a Mars city in 5 to 7 years
“SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster”
Elon Musk on X, as quoted by Fox Business · Musk says SpaceX shifting focus to a self-growing city on the Moon before Mars push
Cargo first, no earlier than 2028
“Starship cargo flights to the Martian surface for research, development, and exploratory missions start no earlier than 2028”
SpaceX · Mars & Beyond
China: crewed launches from 2033
“The timetable for such mission launches will be 2033, 2035, 2037, 2041 and 2043, among others”
Wang Xiaojun, head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, at GLEX 2021, as reported by Global Times · Chinese rocket manufacturer outlines manned Mars mission roadmap, timetable
China: around 2050
“crewed Mars exploration around 2050”
Chinese Academy of Sciences roadmap, as summarized by The Space Review · The real space race: China will send a crew to orbit Mars by 2050
The hardware has to work without a crew first. These are the same six steps our home page tracks. Robots are already there; everything after that is still to come.
SpaceX says its first Starship cargo flights to Mars start no earlier than 2028.[4] No uncrewed Starship has landed on the Moon or Mars yet.
Because it may once have had life. NASA calls Mars “one of the only other places we know where life may have existed in the solar system”, and its horizon goal for human exploration.[1] NASA says what we learn there “will tell us more about our Earth’s past and future”.[1]
Roughly three years. NASA says astronauts bound for Mars would be leaving Earth for that long, because after arriving they have to wait for the next Launch windowA launch window is the stretch of time, about every 26 months, when Earth and Mars line up so a spacecraft can reach Mars using the least fuel.More in the glossary home.[7] Our travel-time page has every real trip to Mars so far: how long does it take to get to Mars?
There’s no date yet. No crewed Mars mission is funded or scheduled. NASA’s stated goal is “as early as the 2030s”.
Not on any schedule yet. NASA’s goal is the 2030s. A US presidential memorandum in August 2026 asked NASA to explore commercial ways to send people to the surface of Mars and bring them back.
Not on any current plan. No crewed mission is scheduled, SpaceX says its first cargo flights to Mars start no earlier than 2028, and NASA’s goal is “as early as the 2030s”.
Uncrewed cargo first, no earlier than 2028, according to SpaceX’s Mars page. In February 2026 Elon Musk said SpaceX would put the Moon first and begin a Mars city in about five to seven years.
China hasn’t announced an official date. In 2021 the head of a Chinese rocket maker presented crewed launches starting in 2033; a 2009 Chinese Academy of Sciences roadmap pointed to around 2050.
No one has been chosen. There is no crewed Mars mission yet, so no crew has been named by any agency or company.
Roughly three years, NASA says, because after arriving they have to wait for Earth and Mars to line up again before they can come home.