Amman – The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, Friday, citing sources, that SpaceX, a company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, informed investors that it will give priority to reaching the moon first and will attempt a trip to Mars later.

The report added that the company will target March 2027 to land on the moon’s surface without sending astronauts on board the vehicle.

This comes after SpaceX agreed to acquire XAI in a record deal that merges the rocket and satellite company with the artificial intelligence company that manufactures the Grok chatbot. The rocket and satellite company is valued at $1 trillion, and the artificial intelligence company is valued at $250 billion.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Musk said last year that he aims to send an unmanned mission to Mars by the end of 2026.

SpaceX is developing the next-generation Starship rocket, a massive stainless steel rocket designed to be fully reusable and serve a range of missions including missions to the Moon and Mars.

The United States faces intense competition this decade from China in its quest to return astronauts to the moon, where no human has reached since the last manned mission within the American Apollo program in 1972.