SpaceX Will Provide A 2nd Crewed Landing Demo On The Moon
Not too long ago NASA picked SpaceX to help return humans to the surface of the Moon on future Artemis missions. Specifically, NASA looked for different human landing systems to get humans from orbit to the Moon’s surface and back. Just recently, however, NASA announced another opportunity for SpaceX’s Lunar Starship Lander.
On November 15th, NASA announced they awarded a contract modification to SpaceX to further develop its Starship human landing system to meet agency requirements for long-term human exploration of the Moon under Artemis. With this addition, SpaceX will provide a second crewed landing demonstration mission in 2027 as part of NASA’s Artemis IV mission.
This is quite a big deal as Starship continues to go through testing leading up to its long awaited first orbital test flight. While there still is a lot of work necessary before SpaceX is ready, the additional funding and support is most definitely helping the process. Here I will go more in-depth into this new contract, what it means for Starship and SpaceX, what to expect, and more.
New Contract
Early last year, NASA announced that it would be awarding $2.9 billion to SpaceX to develop and use a lunar Starship for future missions to the Moon. However, just a few days ago the agency released an new update regarding this rocket and its future applications. On November 15th, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted saying, “@NASA announced that @SpaceX will provide a 2nd crewed landing demo on the Moon as part of the Artemis IV mission. With multiple planned lunar landers—from SpaceX & future partners—NASA will be better positioned to accomplish our bold missions.”
Specifically, NASA has awarded a contract modification to SpaceX to further develop its Starship human landing system to meet agency requirements for long-term human exploration of the Moon under Artemis. With this addition, SpaceX will provide a second crewed landing demonstration mission in 2027 as part of NASA’s Artemis IV mission. Known as Option B, the modification follows an award to SpaceX in July 2021 under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 (NextSTEP-2) Appendix H Option A contract. NASA previously announced plans to pursue this Option B with SpaceX. The contract modification has a value of about $1.15 billion. “Continuing our collaborative efforts with SpaceX through Option B furthers our resilient plans for regular crewed transportation to the lunar surface and establishing a long-term human presence under Artemis,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, manager for the Human Landing System program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “This critical work will help us focus on the development of sustainable, service-based lunar landers anchored to NASA’s requirements for regularly recurring missions to the lunar surface.”
The aim of this new work under Option B is to develop and demonstrate a Starship lunar lander that meets NASA’s sustaining requirements for missions beyond Artemis III, including docking with Gateway, accommodating four crew members, and delivering more mass to the surface. NASA initially selected SpaceX to develop a human landing system variant of Starship to land the next American astronauts on the Moon under Artemis III, which will mark humanity’s first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years. As part of that contract, SpaceX will also conduct an uncrewed demonstration mission to the Moon prior to Artemis III.
As of right now, the agency is pursuing two parallel paths for human lunar landers developed according to NASA’s sustained requirements to increase the competitive pool of capable industry providers – the existing contract with SpaceX and another solicitation released earlier this year. The other solicitation, NextSTEP-2 Appendix P, is open to all other U.S. companies to develop additional human landing system capabilities and includes uncrewed and crewed demonstration missions from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon. Astronaut Moon landers are a vital part of NASA’s deep space exploration plans, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, ground systems, spacesuits and rovers, and Gateway.
Under Artemis, NASA will send a suite of new lunar science instruments and technology demonstrations to study the Moon, land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, establish a long term lunar presence, and more. The agency will leverage its Artemis experiences and technologies to prepare for the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars. “Returning astronauts to the Moon to learn, live, and work is a bold endeavor. With multiple planned landers, from SpaceX and future partners, NASA will be better positioned to accomplish the missions of tomorrow: conducting more science on the surface of the Moon than ever before and preparing for crewed missions to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Lunar Starship
Now that we know more about the new contract and additional mission, we can take a closer look at Starship and how this fits into the future Artemis schedule. Over the past couple of months, we have watched continued testing of various Starship test articles. Just a few days ago we watched Booster 7 perform a 14 engine static fire. While Starship still has quite a bit of work ahead of it, SpaceX is continuing to work on the ambitious project. All of which is leading up to a long awaited first orbital test flight expected to happen not long from now.
In addition, with yesterday’s successful Artemis 1 launch, NASA has made some important progress toward the future of landing humans on the Moon. Assuming the rest of the almost month long mission goes perfectly, the next step will be the first humans launched on top of SLS. From there SpaceX’s lunar Starship will be needed to put humans on the surface.
All of which has to do with an announcement the agency made earlier this year in March. Here they made it clear that they were interested in creating additional opportunities for commercial companies to develop an astronaut Moon lander. Under this new approach, NASA asked American companies to propose lander concepts capable of ferrying astronauts between lunar orbit and the lunar surface for missions beyond Artemis III, which will land the first astronauts on the Moon in more than 50 years. Built and operated according to NASA’s long-term requirements at the Moon, new landers will have the capability to dock to a lunar orbiting space station known as Gateway, increase crew capacity, and transport more science and technology to the surface.
“Under Artemis, NASA will carry out a series of groundbreaking missions on and around the Moon to prepare for the next giant leap for humanity: a crewed mission to Mars,” said Bill Nelson. “Competition is critical to our success on the lunar surface and beyond, ensuring we have the capability to carry out a cadence of missions over the next decade. Thank you to the Biden Administration and Congress for their support of this new astronaut lander opportunity, which will ultimately strengthen and increase flexibility for Artemis.” NASA’s plans call for long-term lunar exploration on the Moon as part of future Artemis missions. The agency is pursuing two parallel paths for continuing lunar lander development and demonstration, one that calls for additional work under an existing contract with SpaceX, and another open to all other U.S. companies to provide a new landing demonstration mission from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon.
At the time we learned that NASA was also asking SpaceX to transform the company’s proposed human landing system into a spacecraft that meets the agency’s requirements for recurring services for a second demonstration mission. Pursuing more development work under the original contract maximizes NASA’s investment and partnership with SpaceX. “This strategy expedites progress toward a long-term, sustaining lander capability as early as the 2026 or 2027 timeframe,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan. “We expect to have two companies safely carry astronauts in their landers to the surface of the Moon under NASA’s guidance before we ask for services, which could result in multiple experienced providers in the market.”
It’s clear that NASA is interested in multiple options with a focus on SpaceX. The agency has made it clear that ideally there is competition in this market to help drive innovation and lower costs for NASA. This change in SpaceX’s contract and new mission opportunity is very important for the company and adds significant funding. As for the future landing location, NASA has its sights set on the lunar South Pole area for the Artemis era of human lunar exploration. Extreme, contrasting conditions make it a challenging location for humans to land, live, and work, but the region’s unique characteristics hold promise for unprecedented deep space scientific discoveries that could help us learn about our place in the universe and venture farther into the solar system.
Conclusion
SpaceX has been working hard on Starship in preparation for the next generation launch vehicle’s first orbital test flight. NASA is confident in the design and just days ago announced a $1.15 billion extension to the contract for an Artemis IV mission. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.