Congress has dealt a significant blow to Elon Musk’s ambitious plans to send thousands of people to Mars in the coming decades, disappointing the billionaire entrepreneur’s long-held dreams of establishing a human settlement on the Red Planet.
The development comes as NASA, which had been working with SpaceX to develop a plan for a manned mission to Mars, has announced that it will no longer be pursuing a human settlement on the planet. The decision was made as part of a broader overhaul of the agency’s priorities and budget.
The announcement is a significant setback for Musk, who has long been at the forefront of the effort to send humans to Mars. His company, SpaceX, has been working on a spacecraft designed to take people to the Red Planet in the mid-2020s, and had planned to use a large rocket to launch the spacecraft into orbit.
However, the alliance with NASA has been a key factor in the development of the mission, and the agency’s decision to pull out of the project has left Musk with a significant hole in his plans.
Musk took to social media to express his disappointment with the news, saying that he was “heartbroken” by the decision. “I think that’s a great tragedy,” he wrote. “SpaceX has been working on this project for years, and to have it not happen is just devastating.”
Despite the setback, Musk has vowed to continue working on his plans for a human settlement on Mars. He has promised to “redouble” his efforts to make the project a reality, and has pledged to continue to work with NASA and other partners to make it happen.