To get SpaceX\u2019s mammoth Starship all the way to the Moon and back with astronauts on board will require an enormous amount of fuel.<\/p>\n
Over a period of eight days, Elon Musk\u2019s space company will need to launch at least 15 of them to fully load a fuel depot<\/a> in low-Earth orbit. That fuel will then have to be transferred into a separately-launched Human Landing System variant of the spacecraft that astronauts will board before descending to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n Needless to say, SpaceX certainly has its work cut out to have its Starship ready<\/a> for NASA\u2019s Artemis 4 mission in 2028, the first crewed attempt to land on the Moon since 1972 \u2014 let alone dramatically increasing its launch cadence, as it has yet to launch and safely land the rocket.<\/p>\n It gets worse. Now, the space agency\u2019s watchdog says there\u2019s an even bigger problem that could threaten NASA\u2019s ambitious plans. According to a new report<\/a> by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), \u201cNASA\u2019s launch infrastructure is dated and lacks the capacity to meet the growing demands of the Agency and government and commercial partners.\u201d<\/p>\n A major surge in commercial launches has put the launch pads at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia under major strain. And simply building more pads is far easier said than done. Growing \u201cdemand for super heavy-lift launch vehicles\u201d is \u201cdriving the need for additional launch pads that can accommodate these vehicles, but locations for new launch pads are limited and will require extensive time and resources to develop,\u201d the OIG frets.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, electrical power distribution is \u201cbeing used beyond its design life and needs to be upgraded,\u201d while the infrastructure for fuel components, like nitrogen and helium, could also \u201clead to delays.\u201d Even the roadways around Kennedy were \u201cnot designed to accommodate the volume, frequency, and weight of modern heavy transport operations.\u201d And declining budgets for maintenance and construction have resulted in lagging infrastructure that exacerbate it all.<\/p>\n The news comes after the Federal Aviation Administration approved<\/a> SpaceX to launch its Starship from launch complex 39A, from which many Apollo and Space Shuttle program missions launched starting in the 1960s. Musk\u2019s company is hoping to greatly expand the complex for its enormous spacecraft<\/a>, including the addition of the many necessary structures on top of the launch pad, like towers and fuel tanks.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin, which NASA has also selected to develop a competing Human Landing Systems spacecraft for the Moon landing, will also need plenty of space and capacity for launching its powerful New Glenn rocket, further complicating matters.<\/p>\n In short, as the OIG notes in its report, NASA and its commercial partners need to make some major changes to ensure that the Artemis Moon program remains on track.<\/p>\n And that certainly doesn\u2019t bode well, considering the development of both New Glenn and Starship are already running into numerous delays<\/a> and failed test launches<\/a>.<\/p>\n