Elon Musk said Sunday that SpaceX is shifting its near-term priorities away from Mars and toward building what it described as a “self-growing city” on the moon, citing faster timelines and strategic urgency.

“For those who don’t know, SpaceX It has already focused on building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve this in less than 10 years, while Mars would take more than 20 years,” Musk wrote in a post on X.

“The SpaceX mission remains the same: extending consciousness and life as we know it to the stars,” he added.

Musk said the moon offers a more practical testing ground because of its proximity to Earth.

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A crane, marked by the SpaceX logo, stands near the Starbase launch site in Cameron County, Texas, on February 6, 2026. (Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Travel to Mars is only possible when the planets align every 26 months (six-month travel time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2-day travel time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a lunar city than a Martian city,” Musk wrote.

He said SpaceX still plans to pursue its long-held goal of settling Mars, but on a longer timeline.

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“That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and will start doing so in about 5-7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster,” Musk wrote.

The comments echo a recent Wall Street Journal report that said SpaceX told investors it would prioritize lunar missions before attempting a Mars landing, targeting March 2027 for an unmanned lunar mission.

SpaceX’s next-generation spacecraft atop its Super Heavy booster launches on its ninth test from the company’s launch pad at Starbase, Texas, on May 27, 2025. (REUTERS/Joe Skipper)

The change marks a marked shift from Musk’s public emphasis on Mars as SpaceX’s primary destination. As recently as last year, Musk said the company aimed to launch an unmanned Mars mission by the end of 2026.

“No, we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction,” Musk wrote in January of last year in response to a post on X.

Musk has a long history of setting ambitious deadlines for major projects, including electric vehicles and self-driving technology, which have often exceeded their original timetables.

The renewed focus on the moon comes as the United States faces increasing competition from China to return humans to the lunar surface this decade. Humans have not visited the Moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Musk has a long history of setting ambitious deadlines for major projects. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

The remarks also come amid major financial and strategic changes at SpaceX. Less than a week ago, Musk announced that SpaceX had acquired the artificial intelligence company xAI, which he also leads, in a deal that valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion.

Supporters of the move say it could bolster SpaceX’s long-term plans for space-based data centers, which Musk has argued could be more energy efficient than facilities on Earth as demand for AI computing power grows.

SpaceX is also preparing for a potential public offering later this year that could raise up to $50 billion, which could make it the largest IPO in history.

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On Monday, Musk said in response to an X user that NASA will account for less than 5 percent of SpaceX’s revenue this year, despite the company’s central role in NASA’s Artemis lunar program, which includes a roughly $4 billion contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface with Starship.

“The vast majority of SpaceX’s revenue is the commercial Starlink system,” Musk wrote.

Reuters contributed to this report.