During each Starship test flight, underneath the roar of rocket engines is the anxious drumbeat of an urgent, looming deadline.
NASA hopes to use Starship — or a lunar lander built by SpaceX’s arch rival, Blue Origin — to land its astronauts back on the moon amid a space race with China. Both countries are aiming to build permanent bases on the moon’s south pole.
Right now, NASA is aiming to land its astronauts on the moon — for the first time since the Apollo program ended in 1972 — by 2028. That’s widely expected to be delayed.
But before the agency can carry out that mission, it intends to do a test run in low-Earth orbit.
Called Artemis III, the test flight is slated for 2027. The goal is to launch four US astronauts, riding aboard the NASA-made Orion spacecraft, to orbit, where the vehicle will attempt to dock with both Starship and Blue Moon, the name of Blue Origin’s vehicle.
NASA chief Jared Isaacman has said he’s “confident” both Blue Origin and SpaceX’s vehicles will be ready — but much remains to be seen.
And even if Starship has a pristine showing in that test flight next year, there’s still a long road ahead before the gargantuan rocket system is ready to start forging a lunar future.
For example, Starship must be refueled while it sits in near-Earth orbit before it heads to the moon. That requires transferring super-chilled propellants, which must be kept at temperatures colder than −260°F, between multiple Starship spacecraft in space.
Such a feat has never been attempted in the history of spaceflight.