Skepticism at NASA about satellite landing due to Space X delays in building the new rocket
SpaceX's Starship rocket has accumulated delays of at least two years in its development stage since NASA chose this rocket in 2021 to carry a lunar module with astronauts, informs Reuters, taken by Agerpres. US experts expect the spacecraft to need even more time to overcome remaining technical hurdles before landing on the moon, NASA's inspector general said Tuesday.
NASA has partnered with a number of companies, but most notably Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, under its multibillion-dollar Artemis program to launch routine astronaut missions to the moon, under pressure to do so before China sends its own crews to the moon's surface around 2030.
Refueling in space, a risky procedure
But mounting delays by SpaceX in the development of the Starship rocket, chosen as the first landing module in the Artemis program to carry NASA astronauts to the lunar crust, gradually pushed back the original 2024 goal of placing a crew on the moon – although US officials at the time viewed the 2024 deadline with skepticism.
Among the most difficult steps in the Starship rocket's path to becoming an astronaut-certified lunar module, according to the report released Tuesday by NASA's inspector general, is the requirement that the rocket refuel in space before making the rest of the journey to the moon, a risky and delicate process that has never been attempted on such a scale.
In order for a Starship to land with a crew of astronauts on the Moon, SpaceX will first have to launch at least 11 other Starship rockets into Earth orbit, which will act as refueling tanks. One of those Starships will be a fuel depot, which will require more than 10 Starship rockets to be filled with enough fuel to be transferred to the Starship module that will land on the Moon.
Taller than a 15-story building, the Starship rocket is powered by about 1,200 metric tons of liquid methane and liquid oxygen, two highly explosive fuels that must be kept at cryogenic temperatures, meaning below the -238°F (-150°C) threshold.
Docking the Starships together and carefully transferring the supercooled propellants at least 10 times into low Earth orbit, a politically and commercially vital region of space with high levels of satellite traffic, would be among the riskiest challenges for a company that has routinely made orbital rocket landings and astronaut launches to the International Space Station (ISS).
“NASA Monitors Major Risk”
NASA officials overseeing the development of the Starship rocket “consider demonstrating the ability to transfer cryogenic fuel to be one of the most important technical challenges facing SpaceX,” Tuesday's report said.
“NASA is monitoring a major risk that some of the cryogenic technologies and capabilities developed by SpaceX are not sufficiently mature” ahead of the planned 2028 lunar landing, according to the report.
SpaceX has launched the Starship system 11 times since 2023, in a series of test flights closely watched by NASA officials.
Last month, NASA added an additional Artemis test mission and acknowledged technical challenges facing its contractors under the Artemis lunar program, under which SpaceX will send humans to the moon on two missions starting in 2028, followed by similar manned landings by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' company.
The US space agency has maintained 2028 as the target year for placing the Starship spacecraft on the moon.
