NASA's Inspector General stated on Tuesday that development of SpaceX's Starship rocket, selected by the agency in 2021 as the astronaut lunar lander, has accumulated delays of at least two years. It is expected that more time will be needed to clear the remaining obstacles before a Moon landing, and the agency is studying plans to accelerate the program.
NASA has been collaborating with a range of companies, most notably Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, to launch regular astronaut Moon missions under its multi-billion dollar Artemis program. The effort aims to accomplish this task before China sends its own astronauts to the lunar surface around 2030.
However, SpaceX has encountered increasing delays in developing Starship, the program's first lander designed to transport NASA astronauts to the Moon's surface. These delays have caused the initial target date for a lunar landing, originally set for 2024, to be progressively postponed—although officials were skeptical of that 2024 target even at the time.
According to the Inspector General's report released on Tuesday, one of the most challenging steps on the path to making Starship an astronaut-rated lunar lander is the requirement for the rocket to be refueled in space before proceeding to the Moon. This is a risky and complex process that has never been attempted on such a large scale before.
To enable one Starship to carry astronauts to the Moon, SpaceX must first launch an additional 11 Starships into Earth orbit to serve as tankers. One Starship will act as a propellant storage depot, while more than ten others will be needed to carry sufficient fuel, which will then be transferred to the lunar landing Starship.
Starship, taller than a 15-story building, uses approximately 1,200 metric tons of liquid methane and liquid oxygen as fuel. These highly explosive propellants must be kept at cryogenic temperatures, below -238°F (-150°C).
Low Earth Orbit is a politically and commercially critical region of space experiencing a surge in satellite traffic. For a company that has already routinized orbital rocket landings and astronaut launches to the International Space Station, docking Starships together and carefully transferring super-cooled propellant at least 10 times in low Earth orbit represents one of the highest-risk challenges.
The report noted that NASA officials overseeing SpaceX's Starship development "consider demonstrating cryogenic propellant transfer to be one of the most significant technical challenges facing SpaceX."
The report also stated, "NASA is tracking a major risk that some of the cryogenic technologies and capabilities SpaceX is developing will not be mature enough by the planned 2028 lunar landing."
Since 2023, SpaceX has launched its Starship system 11 times across a series of test flights closely monitored by NASA officials.
Last month, NASA added an additional Artemis test mission and acknowledged the technical challenges faced by its contractors in the Artemis lunar program. Under the current plan, SpaceX will land humans on the Moon via two missions starting in 2028, followed by a similar crewed landing mission by Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin.
The agency has set 2028 as the target date for a Starship Moon landing.
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