Elon Musk in 2014: We’re Building a Fully Reusable Transportation System to Mars

Elon Musk a decade ago: We want to build a fully reusable Mars transportation system.

“The next-generation vehicles after the Falcon architecture will be designed for full reusability.

I don't expect the Falcon line to have a reusable upper stage, just because with a kerosene-based system, the specific impulse isn't really high enough to do that.

A lot of the missions we do for commercial satellite deployment are just geostationary missions. So, we're really going very far out. These are high-delta-velocity missions. So, to try to get something back from that is really difficult.

But with the next generation of vehicles, which is a subcooled methane-oxygen system where the propellants are cooled to close to their freezing temperature to increase the density, we can definitely do full reusability.

That system is intended to be a fully reusable Mars transportation system. Not merely to Low Earth Orbit, but all the way to Mars and back.”

MIT AeroAstro, October 24, 2014