--- title: "Elon Says His New Rocket Is as Important as the Origin of Life Itself" description: "Multibillionaire Elon Musk has never exactly been humble about his corporate empire, but his latest comments are genuinely over the top." date: "2025-12-20" modified: "2025-12-20" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/elon-starship-most-important" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "The Industrialists" --- # Elon Says His New Rocket Is as Important as the Origin of Life Itself ![On a recent podcast appearance, Elon Musk declared that his Starship rocket was on par with the evolution of multicellular life.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Paul Harris / Getty Images* Multibillionaire Elon Musk has never exactly been humble about his corporate empire, but his latest comments are genuinely over the top. Speaking to influencer Katie Miller — wife of Donald Trump's [controversial deputy chief of staff]() — on a painfully awkward [podcast appearance](), Musk waxed poetic about SpaceX's latest rocket developments. "There's a lot coming down the pipe," he declares at one point. "Like what?" Miller asks. "Starship," Musk replies. "The, the degree to which Starshipis a revolutionary technology is not well understood in the world." "It's the first time that there's been any rocket design, where full rapid reusability is possible — well, full reusability at all is possible, or full reusability at all is possible," Musk's word salad continued. "This is the first design where a reusable rocket is one of the possible — with success — is one of the possible outcomes." "If there are historians in the future, they'll look back at Starship and say it's one of the most profound things that's ever happened," he boasted. "You can think of historic events as, where would they fit in the evolutionary hall of fame? You got things like single cell life, multi-cellular life, capturing a mitochondria and then also on that scale, probably in the the top ten, is life becoming multi-planetary." Keep in mind, this is all about the SpaceX Starship, which has [struggled immensely]() to launch and subsequently land without exploding — failures so profound that [NASA is now shopping around]() for an alternate vendor for its Moon landing, which had been planning on relying on Musk's mammoth craft. Musk wasn't letting any of that messy reality drag down his epic braggadocio, though. "There just aren't very many things that are in the top ten of the evolution of life, where you can basically say — where you can evaluate any given civilization or any given life form as, y'know, on that, that scale," Musk continued. "So life becoming multi-planetary, it's in the top ten." While going "multi-planetary" will surely be a major step for humankind, Musk's victory speech is way premature. For over a decade, the multibillionaire has [promised flights to Mars]() that never seem to arrive — an eternal can that's always kicked down the road. **More on Starship:** *[Elon Now Facing the Possibility That SpaceX Will Never Get Starship Working]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()