It now looks more like late 2027 for Artemis III.
“I have received responses from both SpaceX and Blue Origin to address our needs to test the interoperability of both landers prior to a late 2027 rendezvous, docking and landing attempt in 2028,” Isaacman said Monday.
Both companies have multibillion-dollar contracts to develop and deliver human-rated landers to NASA for use on the Artemis missions. Both vehicles need to be refueled in space to fly to the moon. This additional complexity is not required for an Earth orbit mission.
“Taxpayers are investing heavily in both SpaceX and Blue Origin’s Human Landing System (HLS) capability,” Isaacman said at a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee subcommittee that oversees NASA’s budget. “I also appreciate that both of these companies are investing more than this.”
Starship and Blue Moon are each significantly larger than the Apollo lunar lander, resulting in lunar refueling for multiple trips between the lunar surface and crew and cargo ships in orbit.
“It allows us not only to go back to the moon, but to actually build a lunar core, to put a lot of mass on the surface in a sufficient and cost-effective way, to mention any other application that comes from a rocket that doesn’t need to be launched,” Isaacman said. “So we’re very grateful for that.”
There are serious challenges in preparing the Starship and Blue Moon for a human spaceflight mission. On Apollo 9, the two astronauts took the lunar module for a test run, leaving the command module with the mission’s third crew member for more than six hours before reuniting in low Earth orbit. A similar test on Artemis III would require an advanced, independent life support system on a Starship or Blue Moon, human-rated engines, cockpit and flight controls, and docking mechanism. SpaceX and Blue Origin have released a few details on how these systems are in development and production.
This artist’s rendering shows NASA’s Orion spacecraft docking with SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander near the moon.
Credit: NASA/SpaceX
This artist’s rendering shows NASA’s Orion spacecraft docking with SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander near the moon.
Credit: NASA/SpaceX
It’s possible that NASA could go with rendezvous and docking for the less ambitious Artemis III mission, but with an independent crewed flight of the lunar lander. NASA leaders must decide on those options in the coming months, and their thinking will be informed by how quickly and successfully SpaceX moves forward with flying the next-generation Starship Version 3 rocket and Blue Origin’s planned uncrewed landing on the Moon’s south pole with the Blue Moon cargo lander.
