Boeing CEO Says Boeing Will Beat Elon Musk to Mars

In an interview with “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer recently, Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s CEO, has said that his company will beat Elon Musk’s SpaceX to Mars.

Musk was quick to reply to Muilenburg’s declaration and Tweeted to the CEO and said, “Do it.” Is Musk calling Boeing’s bluff? Or does he want Boeing to actually do it?

According to Muilenburg, the company is in the final assembly stages of developing a rocket that is called the Space Launch System and is being assisted by NASA. Muilenburg thinks the rocket will be ready for a test flight by the year 2019 and will be bringing humans to Mars for the first time.

He told Cramer, “We’re going to take a first test flight in 2019 and we’re going to do a slingshot mission around the Moon. Eventually we are going to go to Mars, and I firmly believe that the first person that sets foot on Mars will get there in a Boeing rocket.”

Elon Musk and SpaceX have a similar goal. SpaceX released its plans back in September about its new “BFR” rocket lineup
and that Musk forecast humans going to Mars in five years.

Musk said at the International Astronautical Congress in Australia, “I feel fairly confident we can build the ship and be ready for the launch in five years. Five years seems like a long time for me.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and have not been compensated for this article.