RED PLANET - EAD ?

Launch: Musk says SpaceX trips to Mars may be coming by early 2019

The fact that ElonMusk wants to go toMars is no secret. After all, he has said he thinks itwill be possible to establish colonies of settlers on the Red Planet in the future.

However, in order to reach that celestial goal, Musk also knows that a lot of things have to break in the right direction. The first of those is an actual rocket capable of launching humans on the approximately 35-million-mile voyage from Earth to Mars. And Musk says we may not have to wait too much longer for the first of those rockets to get into action.

During a surprise appearance at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, Musk said his SpaceX company could launch its first rockets toMars as soon as early 2019. And, as befitting Musk’s assertions that the rockets need to be reusable, he also said the spaceships would not only go to Mars, but make a return trip back to Earth.

“I think we’ll be able to do short flights, sort of up-and-down flights, probably some time in the first half of next year,” Musk said during his appearance.

The SpaceX rocket, which is going by the codename “BFR,” will be so big that it will have double the liftoff thrust of NASA’s famous Saturn V rocket, which sent astronauts to themoon during the Apollo program. The last manned mission to the moon was Apollo 17, in 1972.

Musk has saidhe believes SpaceX rockets will be able to start taking people to Mars by 2024.

JOE SCARNICI – GETTY IMAGES FOR SOUND Elon Musk, left, with Marc Benioff, Spike Lee, Guy Oseary and Ashton Kutcher at the SXSWFestival in Austin, Texas, says that not onlywill his rocket go to Mars, itwill also return to Earth for reuse.

SPACEX VIA GETTY IMAGES A Tesla roadster launched from the Falcon Heavy rocket with a dummy driver named “Starman” heads towards Mars.