Science |

SpaceX Starship delays could shift Artemis III away from moon landing, official says

The planned Artemis III mission that’s supposed to return humans to the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years could see a delay, according to the NASA official who oversees the program.

NASA’s Jim Free, the head of the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said Tuesday during a press conference that also included NASA Administrator Bill Nelson that NASA’s primary concerns are whether SpaceX will have its Starship and Super Heavy rocket up and running to meet the current December 2025 target for the Artemis III launch.

NASA has a contract with SpaceX for a version of its Starship to meet up with the Artemis program’s Orion spacecraft while orbiting the moon and bring two of its astronauts down to the lunar surface and back. But before that, SpaceX needs to get Starship into space, demonstrate an in-space, ship-to-ship transfer from what is essentially a fuel depot spacecraft to Starship, and then perform a successful uncrewed landing on the moon with Starship before NASA lets humans on board.

“They need to launch,” Free said. “They need to launch multiple times, not just for us, but for them. And then they need to launch multiple times for us, so we really want to see them find success in their launches, including the next one.”

The mission is a headline-maker in NASA’s Artemis program promising to send the first woman to the lunar surface. NASA’s current schedule has it coming just 13 months after next year’s planned Artemis II flight, which aims to send four astronauts in the Orion capsule around the moon, but not land on it.

Moonbound astronauts check out their ride at Kennedy Space Center

For Artemis III to happen, NASA needs progress from SpaceX. Free said NASA teams recently visited SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas where Elon Musk’s company continues efforts to set up for a second orbital launch attempt of the massive fully stacked Starship rocket.

“We did receive an updated schedule from SpaceX that we’re we’re looking to get some more detail on,” Free said. “I think we will look at that and update around that in the near future after we have some time to digest it.”

SpaceX Starship clobbered Texas launch pad; future Space Coast launches prompt contingency plans

SpaceX’s first attempt back on April 20 saw the rocket manage a liftoff, but do major damage to the launch pad, while also not achieving orbit with teams having to send a self-destruct command to it about four minutes into flight.

Plans are in place, including a massive water deluge system and more rigid launch pad, as well as changes to the rocket that aim to solve the problems seen on the first launch.

“There are really a tremendous number of changes between the last Starship flight and this one, well over 1,000,” Musk said in a June interview. “I think the probability of this next flight working, you know getting to orbit, is much higher than the last one.”

SpaceX last week performed a static fire of the booster that could be used on the next flight, but no launch can occur until the Federal Aviation Administration clears Starship for launch.

“There’s a lot of variables here that are outside our control,” Musk said.

Drone view of Booster 9 static fire test pic.twitter.com/ARv6H6njgu

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 6, 2023

Free said that for now NASA is still holding to December 2025 for SpaceX and the other contractors involved in the Artemis III flight, including Axiom Space for spacesuits, Lockheed Martin for the Orion capsule, Boeing for the Space Launch System core stage and Northrop Grumman for the solid rocket boosters.

That also includes new spacesuits in development from Axiom Space, currently slated to go to design review this October. Delays to those or Starship could mean a shuffle of missions so that Artemis III could end up supporting NASA’s planned lunar space station called Gateway instead of targeting a moon landing.

Gateway’s timeline has been tied to Artemis IV, though. Currently on NASA’s long-term budget to not occur until at least 2028, it’s designed to fly with a bigger version of the Space Launch System rocket with more payload space that has yet to be constructed. 

Free said the visit to Texas, which has been one of many, helped SpaceX and NASA communicate big-picture needs “kind of sharing our philosophy, their philosophy, where they are with the hardware, trying to understand their schedule some more.”

“Our insight that we got from our visit there was tremendous,” he said. “We got to see some of the hardware but most importantly, our teams had the chance to talk and go through the details of that cryogenic propellant transfer mission, the ship-to-ship transfer, which is the next big milestone in our relationship with them.”

The end result could mean delaying Artemis III into 2026, but at this point NASA’s schedule requires understanding more as the mission’s parts come together. Free did not want to declare a new target date.

Nelson conveyed the urgency of returning humans to the moon.

“We’re in a space race with China,” Nelson said. “You see the actions of the Chinese government on Earth that go out and claim some international islands in the South China Sea and then they claim them as theirs and build military runways on them.”

Nelson was referring to China’s stance on the Spratly Islands, while the U.S. has been trying to get more countries to sign onto the Artemis Accords, which calls for “peaceful and cooperative uses of space together internationally.” So far 28 countries have signed them, but not China.

“I don’t want China to get to the [moon’s] south pole first with humans, and then say, ‘This is ours. Stay out,’ like they’ve done with the Spratly Islands,” he said.

At issue are the potential resources at the moon’s south pole, especially ice hidden in craters that never see the sun, that could be a source for both creating rocket fuel and drinking water.

“We want to make sure that that’s available to all, not just the one that’s claiming it,” he said. “We need to protect the interest of the international community.”