Starship is powered by three reusable methalox staged-combustion Raptor engines, which began flight testing on the prototype rocket in July 2019. The fully reusable Starship spacecraft and its Super Heavy rocket launch system is predicted to be the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of lifting cargo exceeding 100 metric tonnes into orbit around Earth. Not only will Starship ferry crew to the moon, but Musk's SpaceX says it will also transport large amounts of cargo that will form the building blocks of future space exploration research and human spaceflight development. NASA has selected Starship for an additional mission to the Moon with astronauts as part of the Artemis program! - SpaceX March 23, 2022 NASA has also allotted a further mission to SpaceX's Starship spacecraft along with those already planned. The company's lunar lander is known as Starship, and it is expected to travel to the lunar surface no sooner than 2025.Īs part of the Artemis mission, will see the first person of color and the first woman step foot on the surface of the moon. SpaceX was selected by NASA as a crewed lunar-landing partner in April 2021. NASA said the effort is meant to maximize NASA's support for competition and provides redundancy in services to help ensure NASA's ability to transport astronauts to the lunar surface.

The second commercial contract, known as the Sustaining Lunar Development contract, represents a second pathway for lunar lander development alongside the ongoing work with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The proposals will form part of the Artemis missions after Artemis III, currently set to land its first astronauts on the moon in 50 years. The space agency announced on Wednesday it is asking other American companies to propose lunar lander concepts capable of taking astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface. NASA has announced that SpaceX will have competition when it comes to putting a commercially operated crewed spacecraft on the surface of the moon as part of the Artemis mission.

Spacex lunar lander contract