More than 55 years after the Apollo landing, NASA is returning astronauts to the moon, but this time it will look completely different. The space agency is working with its commercial partner SpaceX to develop a special version of the Starship rocket capable of delivering astronauts to the lunar surface.
Recently, NASA shared artistic visualizations of the upcoming Artemis 3 mission, which is scheduled to launch in September 2026. The purpose of the mission is to use SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System (HLS) spacecraft to deliver two astronauts from lunar orbit to the lunar surface and back, rendezvous with the Orion spacecraft, which will pick up the Artemis crew and safely land them on the lunar surface.
Before reaching lunar orbit, Starship HLS will have to be refueled. For this purpose, it is planned to use the Starship refueler loaded with fuel, which is awaiting the arrival of its lander. The two spacecraft are to meet in low Earth orbit, docking with each other while the tanker transfers fuel to the Starship HLS so that it can continue its journey to the Moon.
SpaceX recently announced that it may be ready to test this bold maneuver in low Earth orbit early next year, potentially scheduling an in-flight fuel test between two Starships in March 2025.
The fully refueled Starship will travel to lunar orbit, where it will await the arrival of the Orion crew capsule with four astronauts on board. Starship HLS will dock directly with Orion so that two astronauts can transfer to the lunar lander, while the rest of the crew will wait aboard Orion in lunar orbit.
With a crew of two astronauts on board, Starship will descend from low lunar orbit. The spacecraft will perform a breakaway flight using two Raptor engines to descend to the dusty lunar surface.
The two astronauts will descend to the lunar surface on the Starship elevator located at the bottom of the lander. The height of the Starship HLS is approximately equal to the height of a 15-story building and is about 164 feet (50 meters). The elevator will also be used to transport cargo between the lunar surface and the lander as the two astronauts work to collect precious samples.
However, before landing astronauts on the moon, SpaceX will land on the moon without a crew using its Starship. Starship is currently still under development, and the rocket recently completed its sixth test flight, which ended with its booster crashing into the ocean.
NASA is also working with SpaceX to further develop the Starship HLS for the Artemis 4 mission, which is scheduled to launch in September 2028. For its updated version, the Starship should be able to deliver more mass to the lunar surface, as well as dock with NASA’s Gateway lunar space station in lunar orbit.
The illustrations paint a good picture, but only time will tell whether SpaceX and NASA will be able to meet their ambitious schedules. The Starship rocket is getting closer to regular orbital flights, but the human landing system is a whole other ballgame.
