He described this date as:“Unrealistic time frame”.

Zheleznyakov’s comment came in response to the proposal of Jared Isaacman, candidate for the presidency of NASA, who indicated the possibility of carrying out the mission as early as 2026, considering that SpaceX is one of the companies capable of achieving this.

The academic said: “I think this date is unrealistic, because Isaacman, like Elon Musk, is focused on operating the Starship spacecraft and the possibility of using it to launch a mission to Mars. But given the postponement of the tests and the lack of clarity about their progress next year, the year 2026 seems absolutely not possible.”

Zheleznyakov explained that chronology is a key factor in this issue, noting that the framework specified in Project “Athena” – the document prepared by Isaacman earlier this year – reflects excessive optimism about the timeline, which led to setting 2026 as a possible date for the mission.

Ivan Moiseyev, scientific director of the Moscow Space Club, agreed with him, who described these expectations as completely impossible, explaining: “If we are talking about SpaceX, we certainly mean the Starship vehicle, and it is not ready for such a mission yet. It has not yet completed a full orbit around the Earth, while landing on Mars requires many years of development and testing. Until this moment, everything that has been accomplished in this field is still theoretical.”

Moiseyev added that the scientific community no longer pays much attention to some statements in the space sector, saying: “Many space projects today are built on the principle of announcing first without later verification. These statements are often far from the actual reality of technical developments.”

Source: Novosti