STARBASE, Texas — During a presentation, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk shared how he plans to use Starship to reach the planet Mars, and how in a few short years, there is a chance humans could step foot on the red planet.

The company's future goal is to build two Gigabay manufacturing facilities — one in Starbase Texas and the other at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center — where engineers could potentially build 1,000 Starships at each site, Musk said during an X presentation last

“(Starbase) is named that because it is where we're going to develop the technology necessary to take humanity and civilization and and life as we know it to another planet for the first time in the 4-and-a-half billion year history of Earth,” Musk said.

There have been nine tests of Starship — the upper stage is called Starship and the lower stage is known the Super Heavy booster, and combined they are called Starship — with a variety of degrees of success and failures.

Most recently, a test launch on May 27 resulted in the loss of both the booster and Starship spacecraft.

Starship is expected to be used for the Artemis III crewed moon mission, and the eventually trek to Mars.

Once fully operational, the plan is for the Super Heavy boosters to be launched and caught back at the Orbital Launch Integration Tower, where they will be repositioned and re-flown within an hour, Musk said.

Musk explained that the current goal is for Starship to be caught in two to three months by the tower, also known as "Chopsticks" or "Mechazilla".

A Starship-to-Starship in-orbit propellant transfer test is expected to take place some time in 2026.

Version 3 of Starship and Super Heavy Booster is expected to take flight later this year.

The next version of Starship will increase the number of engines to 42 from 33, with Musk joking that the meaning to life is 42, as told in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

The first uncrewed Starship launch to Mars is expected to happen in 2026 and the first humans should land on Mars by 2028, says SpaceX founder Elon Musk. (SpaceX)

The Mars transfer window takes place every 26 months, so the next opportunity to head to Mars is November through December 2026. There is a 50/50 chance on hitting this target because SpaceX still needs to figure out orbital refilling, Musk said.

He said the Mars landing zone that is being considered is in the Arcadia region.

“So, we're looking at different locations. The lead candidate right now is the Arcadia region," Musk said, while sharing that one of his daughters is named Arcadia. "So, now Mars has a lot of real estate, but when you combine all of the factors and say, ‘OK, we need — we can't be too close to the poles. We need to be near ice ... to get water and (it) can't be too mountainous for the rockets.’ Then you — it narrows down to a smaller region, so Arcadia … is one of the the options."

The first uncrewed launch to Mars is expected to happen in 2026, and Musk said a Tesla Optimus robot is expected to arrive in 2027.

Musk said the first humans should land on Mars by 2028.

“Just to be safe, and we might just do two landing episodes with the Optimus and do the third one with humans," he said. "We'll see."

The mission will also carry its own orbital communications equipment, he added.

“Then for communications on Mars, we'll be using a version of Starlink to provide internet on Mars,” Musk said.

SpaceX could potentially have 1,000 to 2,000 Starships traveling between Earth and Mars during the transfer windows, due to 26 months between opportunities, but Musk said the details of how that would work, including landing pads, are still being worked on.

Musk said he expects to eventually establish a city on Mars.

“This is this is like an incredible thing to have like this amazing city on Mars," he said. "The first city on another planet and a new world. And it's also an opportunity to, I think, for the Martians to to rethink how they want civilization to be.

"So, you can maybe rethink like what kind of form of government do you want, what new rules do you want to have. There's a lot of freedom and opportunity in Mars to do a recompile on civilization."