Is SpaceX About To Annouce A Mars Mission?

A vague tweet has hinted that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a huge announcement to make, leading to speculation that a Mars mission could soon be unveiled.

The hint was dropped on Twitter by Chris Bergin (@NASASpaceflight), the managing editor and founder of NasaSpaceflight.com, a popular space news site which is not affiliated with the American space agency.

His tweet read: “Tease: it may takes weeks, or even months, to be announced, but what I’ve been shown is THE most exciting thing EVER. #SpaceX”.

The reason that this is so intriguing is that Musk has previously stated that the company would be revealing a new spacecraft destined to travel to Mars and that it would be unveiled before the end of the year.

As ScienceAlert.com points out, earlier in the year Musk said on an AMA on Reddit:

“The Mars transport system will be a completely new architecture. Am hoping to present that towards the end of this year. Good thing we didn’t do it sooner, as we have learned a huge amount from Falcon and Dragon.”

The tech entrepreneur also stated that the company would be unveiling a new spacesuit design before the end of the year

SpaceX is a privately-funded aerospace firm run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and already completed several successful launches - plus a few casualty-free disasters - with its Falcon launch vehicle and unmanned Dragon spacecraft.

The company has flown six resupply missions to the International Space Station and has also been awarded the contract to build a manned spacecraft for NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme.

Bergin confirmed to curious followers on Twitter than the news isn’t related to Elon Musk’s Hyperloop transportation system, and definitely refers to space travel of some kind.

Surprised by the widespread reaction to his initial tease, Bergin later tweeted an image of Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard looking slightly perplexed alongside the words: “That feeling when one of your vaguest tweets is the one that goes semi-viral”.

Image credit: Sky News & AFP