Starship already has its first client to go to Mars: the government of Italy

The CEO of Spacex, Elon Musk, and the president of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, They became such good friends Last year that Musk had to Go out to deny That he had a romance with her. Then it was she who got into trouble with the rest of Europe for Consider Starlink as an option for Italian army communications. Finally, Italy will collaborate with Spacex differently.

The first Starship ticket to Mars. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) has signed an unprecedented agreement with Spacex to transport scientific experiments developed by Italy in the first missions of the Gigantic Starship ship To Mars.

The agreement, revealed by the President of the LI, Teodoro Valentewithout intervention by the European Space Agency, ensures a seat for Italy in the new space race towards Mars, this time with a strong commercial partner. Spacex president, Gwynne Shotwellhe described collaboration as a “unique agreement in its gender”, and promised that there would be others to come.

The experiments. He ESPO He mentions, without going into details, three “Made in Italy” charges that will fly with Starship to Mars. The first is an experiment on the growth of plants that will investigate how to design future greenhouses and life support systems.

The second and third are a weather station and a radiation sensor to thoroughly document the space climate during the interplanetary flight of six months to the red planet. Your goal is Improve the safety of future astronauts Let Mars fly.

Six months of interplanetary trip. Starship is the highest and most powerful launch system in the world. Still in the development phase In Spacex facilities southeast Texasit consists of a propeller of more than 70 meters and a ship of more than 50 designed to fly to Mars and land on its surface after reposting in orbit.

Elon Musk hopes to send The first five starship to Mars in 2026. Any delay would force flights to the next launch window, scheduled for 2028. All initial flights would be without crew until the system is already tested. With this agreement, Italy would have a preferential place in the first private rocket that aspires to reach Mars.

Image | Spacex

In Xataka | Elon Musk has revealed what Starship V3 will do: to “take all creatures” to Mars as an ark of Noah