Elon Musk Reacts To Wernher Von Braun’s Strange Mars ‘Prediction,’ Joking ‘As Foretold In The Prophecy’ About a Leader Called ‘Elon’

Elon Musk leaned into one of space history’s strangest coincidences, joking "As foretold in the prophecy" after a passage from rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun’s late-1940s Mars fiction resurfaced online describing the elected leader of a future Martian government as "Elon." Von Braun’s Fiction Featured Leader Called ‘Elon’ The viral post said von Braun had weirdly "predicted" Musk nearly 80 years ago.

The actual passage is less supernatural but still striking, stating, "The Martian government was directed by ten men, the leader of whom was elected by universal suffrage for five years and entitled ‘Elon.’" As foretold in the prophecy — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2026 In von Braun’s story, "Elon" was a political title, not a person’s name.

Two houses of parliament made laws, while the Elon and his cabinet administered them.

The Council of Elders, its upper chamber, had 60 lifetime members.

The timeline also needs a caveat.

Social-media posts commonly date the manuscript to 1948, but the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum says von Braun completed the German novel in mid-1949.

Publishers rejected it, and the full work appeared only in 2006 as ‘ Project Mars: A Technical Tale ‘.

Its technical appendix was separately published in English in 1953 as ‘ The Mars Project ‘.

Read Also: Elon Musk Weighs In As Atreides CIO Gavin Baker Warns of 'Compute Inequality,' Sees His Firm's AI Spending Double Monthly Von Braun later became central to the U.S. space program after helping develop Nazi Germany’s V-2 ballistic missile.

At NASA, he led work on the Saturn V rocket used for the Apollo moon landings.

Musk’s Mars Ambitions Make Coincidence Resonate The coincidence resonates because Musk has spent years building Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: SPCX ) around making humanity multiplanetary.

He recently declared, "I will not forget about Mars," and has said people could reach Mars in roughly five to seven years.

SpaceX says Starship is designed to carry crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Its published Mars plan envisions a self-sufficient city requiring more than one million people and millions of tonnes of cargo.

SpaceX Shifts Near-Term Focus Toward Moon Musk has also argued that full rocket reusability is essential to becoming multiplanetary.

However, SpaceX shifted its nearer-term priority toward a "self-growing city" on the Moon.

The company now lists cargo flights to Mars no earlier than 2028.

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