Elon Musk explains how you actually get from Earth to Mars. 🧠

That animation is Elon Musk explaining why you can't just point a spaceship at Mars and go. Even at Mars's closest, the distance you actually travel along the arc is about a thousand times farther than the Moon. So the ship flies an ellipse instead, with Earth at one end and Mars at the other, and you time where you sit in that loop to meet Mars where it's going to be rather than where it is. The trip takes six to nine months. Then he points out the diagram is printed on your Starlink router, and thanks everyone who bought one for funding the trip. That part isn't a joke. SpaceX's IPO filing shows its connectivity business, which is mostly Starlink, brought in $11.4 billion in 2025. That's 60% of all company revenue, up 50% in a year. Subscribers went from 2.3 million at the end of 2023 to 10.3 million by March, across 164 countries. The company still lost $2.6 billion on operations last year, so those monthly subscriptions are what keeps the Mars program funded. And the loop closed in late September. Starship reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink satellites, its first flight that earned anything. The rocket built to reach Mars is now launching the thing that pays for Mars. Starship was built for that window. Starlink is what pays to meet it. Follow @hyperbolic.ai for more content on AI and technology. Media: SpaceX #spacex #elonmusk #mars #starlink #spacex