SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday said that its Starship rocket’s first flight to Mars will be equipped with Tesla-made Optimus humanoid robots.

What Happened: “If all goes well, SpaceX will send Starship rockets to Mars with Optimus robots and Grok,” Musk said in a live stream during the unveiling of Grok 3.

The Starship vehicle is part of big dreams. While NASA is looking forward to landing humans back on the surface of the Moon after a gap of over 50 years with the help of a custom version of Starship, Musk is dreaming of taking humans to the planet Mars aboard Starship. However, the vehicle is currently in the testing and development phase.

"…I would not be surprised if we fly 400 Starship launches in the next four years,” SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said at the Baron Investment Conference in New York in November.

Why It Matters: Musk last year said that the first Starships will head to Mars in two years once the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens.

The first launches to Mars in 2026, Musk then said, will not have a crew onboard and will be aimed at testing the flight's ability to land intact on Mars.

"If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years," Musk wrote, pegging the first crewed Starship flights to the neighboring planet for 2028. A self-sustaining city, he then said, should be ready in about 20 years.

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