SpaceX CEO and Lead Designer Elon Musk said his company can advance its timetable to land humans on Mars to 2024 from the original 2028. Should SpaceX attain this aim, this will mean SpaceX astronauts will walk the Martian surface a full 10 years before NASA astronauts land on the Red Planet.

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"If things go according to plan, (SpaceX) should be able to launch people by 2024 with arrival in 2025," said Musk.

It will take anywhere from five to six months to travel to Mars depending on the alignment of both planets when SpaceX launches its Falcon Heavy rocket. Musk describes Falcon Heavy as "the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two" and he's not kidding.

Part of the plan Musk mentioned is the launch of Falcon Heavy according to its new schedule.

Falcon Heavy, which can lift over 54 metric tons into orbit, is scheduled to finally see its first flight this September, said Musk. It was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the capability of manned missions to the Moon or Mars.

Falcon Heavy was first scheduled to fly in 2013 but a number of technical delays postponed the first flight to this summer. Its first stage consists of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores or boosters whose 27 Merlin engines together generate 22,819 kilonewtons of thrust at liftoff. Only the Saturn V that powered the Apollo moon missions in the 1960s and 1970s delivers more power than Falcon Heavy.

Musk, however, said the plan to send the company's uncrewed Red Dragon spacecraft to land on Mars will proceed as planned in 2018.

Musk's grand plan is to establish human colonies on Mars. To achieve this, however, SpaceX will have to develop the capability to transport larger numbers of people and millions of pounds of hardware across the 225 million kilometers of dangerous space separating the Earth and Mars.

Musk, who will turn 45 on June 28, admitted he wants to travel to Mars "at some point," but did reveal he hopes to finally get to space in four or five years. That doesn't mean a Mars journey but probably a ride on his company's Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.

TagsSpaceX, Elon Musk, Mars, Falcon Heavy, 2024