Elon Musk has vowed to get “anyone who wants to be a space traveller” to Mars – but not if Kamala Harris becomes US president.
On Sunday night, Musk told his X followers that in just two years, he will send five spaceships to Mars.
“Eventually,” he added, “there will be thousands of Starships going to Mars and it will [be] a glorious sight to see!”
However, the vocal Donald Trump supporter said another Democratic presidency “would destroy the Mars programme and doom humanity” by drowning it in red tape.
Musk also said earlier in the month: “We will never reach Mars if Kamala wins.”
It’s a claim repeated by Republican candidate Mr Trump.
On Saturday, he vowed to reach Mars during his presidency if his supporters get him to the White House.
“I’ll talk to Elon,” he said at a rally. “Elon, get those rocket ships going.”
Read more: Trump vows to reach Mars if elected
SpaceX is known for its high-risk high-reward attitude to space exploration, and is now NASA’s main mode of transport for getting astronauts to the International Space Station.
The company has consistently innovated in space; just two weeks ago, it helped an American billionaire become the first person to take part in a risky private spacewalk.
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How private spacewalk made history
But despite the leaps made by SpaceX in the two last decades, Musk says he is frustrated by how “stifling” bureaucracy and restrictions are in the US.
“One of my biggest concerns right now is that the Starship programme is being smothered by a mountain of government bureaucracy that grows every year.”
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If Musk’s unmanned Starships can arrive safely on Mars in two years, he says he will send crewed missions by 2028.
He has previously said he would like to see a self-sustaining colony on Mars in just 20 years.
So would Donald Trump make that a reality?
While he was in office, Mr Trump had an outsized impact on US space activity, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His government created the space security team Space Force and pushed NASA to reach the moon again by 2024 – although that has since been delayed to 2025.
However, vice president Harris is a space advocate herself, having been chair of the National Space Council since 2021.
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In her time, she has been praised for pushing 37 countries to sign up to the Artemis Accords, a peace agreement that says outer space “shall be the province of all mankind”.
“I believe that she’s a space aficionado,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at an event on space policy held by Politico in Washington.