SpaceX Plans Private Mars Flyby

SpaceX announced plans for one of the most ambitious private space missions to date: a crewed flyby of Mars aboard Starship, led by crypto investor and entrepreneur Chun Wang.

If carried out, the mission would mark the first time a private crew travels that far from Earth. The flight would not land on Mars, but would instead loop around the planet in a journey expected to last about two years.

The announcement was made during a livestream of a Starship launch attempt from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas. Wang was introduced as commander of the future mission and confirmed that it would be a Mars flyby.

“Before talking about building cities on Mars, we need to start with something,” Wang said. “A flyby of the planet will ignite the imagination and create momentum.”

Wang, a Malta citizen born in China and a co-founder of the crypto mining pool F2Pool, has already flown to space. In 2025, he commanded the Fram2 mission, a private Dragon flight that took a crew into polar orbit around Earth for about three and a half days.

Before the Mars mission, Wang is expected to take part in another private Starship flight around the moon with Dennis Tito and Tito’s wife, Akiko. That mission is planned to last about a week and pass within roughly 200 kilometers of the lunar surface.

The Mars plan remains highly ambitious. Starship is still in advanced testing and has not yet completed a full Earth orbit. Previous private SpaceX missions have also faced delays, including Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa’s planned lunar mission, which was canceled in 2024 amid schedule uncertainty.

Wang has expressed confidence about the long journey, saying he could spend the entire flight staring at the mission map and would still enjoy it.

The mission now depends on whether Starship can move from test flights to reliable deep-space operations, a jump that remains one of SpaceX’s biggest challenges.