Elon Musk issues bold response to photo taken by Artemis 2 astronauts in deep space
Elon Musk has taken to the internet to share his own thoughts on the future of space exploration following a picture shared by NASA.
The space agency posted the image on X, formerly Twitter, which was taken by the astronauts aboard the Orion capsule.
In the caption published on social media, it said: “Sky full of stars. Following a successful lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts captured this breathtaking photo of our galaxy, the Milky Way, on April 7, 2026.”
This prompted the tech mogul to reply, with Musk writing: “One day, we will be out there, among the stars.”
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The awe-inspiring image was captured by astronauts currently taking part in the Artemis II mission to the Moon.
One day, we will be out there, among the stars https://t.co/idNvgG0y7I
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2026
After completing a successful flyby of the lunar rock earlier this week, the crew are now Earthbound and are expected to splashdown on Friday (April 10).
The trip marks the first human mission to the Moon in over half a century and has even been record breaking.
This was previously set by the Apollo 13 crew who went as far as 248,655 miles away from Earth, but now Artemis II has beaten them after their capsule reached the 252,756-mile mark.
Musk has long voiced his hopes of putting people on Mars one day, previously stating that his firm could achieve ‘self sustaining life’ on the Red Planet in as little as 20 to 30 years.
However, it seems like the billionaire has turned his focus towards lunar colonization in recent months.
On X, he wrote: “For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years.
“The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars.
“It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.”
That being said, Mars doesn't appear to be completely off the table just yet, as the billionaire went on to say: “That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.”