A perfect March Madness bracket could win you a trip to Mars in the years ahead aboard SpaceX’s Starship rocket.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, that’s the same spacecraft that has made headlines this year after its last two launches ended in dramatic explosions. But not to worry: The 400-foot vehicle, the world’s largest rocket, is still in its testing phase with plenty more launches to go before it’s deemed ready for space travel.
SpaceX unveiled its bracket challenge on social media site X with the simple message, ‘perfect destination for a perfect bracket.’
While it’s too late to join now, for those who did enter the contest and somehow pull off something no has ever officially done before – a perfect bracket – they could punch their ticket to space.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has long dreamed of sending his spaceship up to colonize Mars under his oft-stated vision of making ‘life multiplanetary.’ Just last week, Musk reiterated his desire of sending an uncrewed Starship off to the Red Planet by the end of 2026, followed by expeditions with humans in the years after.
Here’s what to know about SpaceX’s bracket challenge, as well as what’s been going on during Starship flight tests.
What to know about SpaceX’s bracket challenge
Basketball fans had until 11 a.m. EDT Thursday to submit their bracket to SpaceX on X for the company’s contest sponsored by Uber Eats, with the first game tipping off at 12:15 p.m.
If someone manages to correctly predict all 63 March Madness games, and if that person isn’t too keen on the idea of trailblazing off to Mars, that person has a few other options from SpaceX:
$250,000;
One year of free residential Starlink satellite service;
The chance to train like a SpaceX astronaut for a day;
Send your personal item of choice to space on a Falcon 9 launch;
VIP viewing of a Starship launch.
If there is no perfect bracket – and according to NCAA.com, there never has been – the person who comes closest will get $100,000.
What is the Starship?
At more than 400 total feet in height, Starship towers over SpaceX’s famous Falcon 9 rocket – one of the world’s most active – which stands at nearly 230 feet.
SpaceX is developing Starship to be a fully reusable transportation system, meaning both the rocket and vehicle will be able to return to the ground for additional missions. In the years ahead, Starship is due to play a pivotal role in deep-space expeditions, as NASA eyes a return to the moon ahead of crewed voyages to Mars.
What happened during the last 2 Starship launches?
Starship’s most recent two demonstrations – the only ones of 2025 – have both been marred by explosions.
In both cases, the upper stage, or the vehicle where astronauts and cargo would ride, came apart in a fiery display mere minutes into its flight. SpaceX, which launches Starship from its Starbase in South Texas, is now working with the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate the second consecutive mishap, which occurred March 6.
The first explosion of the year on Jan. 16 was due to a series of propellant leaks and fires in the aft section of the vehicle that caused “all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences,’ SpaceX concluded. This led to the communication breakdown and the vehicle to trigger its own self destruction.
While the Starship hasn’t exploded in every iteration, the next-generation spacecraft has yet to reach orbit on any of its eight uncrewed flight tests, beginning in 2023.
But in a positive development, the spacecraft’s rocket booster has now managed to navigate back to the launch pad on three separate occasions, including in both tests of 2025. The maneuver, first completed in October, involves SpaceX catching the booster with giant mechanical arms known as chopsticks.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com