Elon Musk touts Mars exploration plan: 'it's the biggest space race in history!'

During last Saturday’s Donald Trump rally in Butler, PA, Elon Musk told a group of admirers backstage that the United States and the world is entering a new stage of the space race as humanity prepares to land on Mars.

"Mars will make science fiction real. It doesn't have to be fiction forever. It's the biggest space race in history. Awesome! The Star Fleet academy should be real!"

In a September post on his X platform, Musk provided a view of his plans for space travel to Mars as he discussed sending unmanned spacecraft to the Red Planet over the next two years before sending a manned flight in four years.

He said money for the project will come from his Starlink satellite internet company while he said his motivation for going to Mars is based on "the fundamental existential question" of whether or not "humanity becomes sustainably multiplanetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that."

His SpaceX company is responsible for rescuing the American astronauts who have been stranded at the International Space Station and can’t rely on NASA craft to bring them home.

Musk said nothing of the space race or SpaceX during his brief speech to Trump supporters – though Trump did credit Musk for being the real reason that the US still has a presence in space.

Musk focused on voting and free speech in his remarks as he told the audience, “The true test of someone's character is how they behave under fire, and we had one president who couldn't climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist pumping after getting shot.”

The billionaire entrepreneur, who owns Space X and electric car company Tesla, became a hero to free speech advocates the world over when he acquired Twitter, before changing its name to X and significantly democratizing the platform that had become known for canceling people with non-mainstream views.

“America is about freedom and opportunity. You have to have freedom to speak your mind. What is the First Amendment? Why does it exist? Because in the countries people came from you’d get arrested or killed for speaking your mind. Why is the Second Amendment there? Because you weren’t allowed to own firearms in other countries so they could oppress you. The thing protecting the First Amendment is the Second Amendment."

On Sunday, the Federal Communications Commission granted Musk’s Starlink “special temporary emergency authority” to provide cellular service to the region devastated by Hurricane Helene. He had been offering to help out in the wake of the storm with regular posts on X about the need to do more for survivors.