WASHINGTON — SpaceX says it is developing a “simplified” lunar landing mission architecture while defending the progress it has made on its Starship lander for Artemis.
In an Oct. 30 statement, the company said it has devised a new approach to get astronauts to the lunar surface faster than the current plan for Artemis 3, but did not disclose details.
“In response to the latest calls, we’ve shared and are formally assessing a simplified mission architecture and concept of operations that we believe will result in a faster return to the moon while simultaneously improving crew safety,” the company said.
SpaceX has come under criticism from current and former NASA officials, including the agency’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, for falling behind in developing a version of Starship for NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program.
Duffy said Oct. 20 that he planned to “open up” the contract SpaceX won in 2021 for the Artemis 3 lander. NASA later said it had asked SpaceX and Blue Origin, which has a separate HLS award for Artemis 5, to provide “acceleration approaches” for their lunar landers by Oct. 29.
At an Oct. 29 conference, former NASA administrators Charlie Bolden and Jim Bridenstine expressed skepticism that the current Starship-based architecture could enable NASA to land astronauts on the moon before China’s first crewed lunar mission, projected for 2030. Bridenstine, currently a lobbyist for several space companies, suggested the government consider a crash program to build a new lander, using authorities such as the Defense Production Act.
SpaceX did not reveal details about the alternative architecture, including whether it involves changes to Starship itself or other Artemis elements such as Orion or the Space Launch System rocket.
The company defended its current approach as the best way to return Americans to the lunar surface. “Starship continues to simultaneously be the fastest path to returning humans to the surface of the moon and a core enabler of the Artemis program’s goal to establish a permanent, sustainable presence on the lunar surface,” SpaceX said.
The company noted that it has completed 49 milestones under its HLS contract, covering work on lander subsystems such as landing legs, docking adapters and Raptor engine tests. SpaceX said the “vast majority” of those milestones were completed on or ahead of schedule.
However, work on the overall lander is behind earlier public schedules. NASA officials said earlier this year they had expected SpaceX to demonstrate this year transfer of liquid oxygen and methane propellants from one Starship to another in low Earth orbit. That is a critical capability since Starship HLS missions will require multiple launches of “tanker” Starships to fill a depot Starship in orbit, which will then fuel the lander version of Starship.
“We were anticipating that would be completed by this year. Clearly, that is slipping,” Lori Glaze, NASA’s acting associate administrator for exploration systems development, said at a National Academies’ Space Studies Board meeting in July.
“The next major flight milestones tied specifically to HLS will be a long-duration flight test and the in-space propellant transfer flight test,” SpaceX said. Those tests will involve placing a Starship in orbit for an “extended time” to validate systems, followed by a second Starship docking with it to transfer propellant.
“The exact timing will be driven by how upcoming flight tests debuting the new Starship V3 architecture progress, but both of these tests are targeted to take place in 2026,” the company said.
