NASA worried about SpaceX's lander delays, Artemis 3 in jeopardy?
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Potential delays on SpaceX delivering on its $2.89 billion contract have cast doubts on NASA’s Artemis 3 mission, scheduled to take humans back to the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, according to reports in SpaceNews.
Jim Free, the NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, conveyed his concern while speaking at a joint meeting of the National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Space Studies Board on June 7.
The space agency had selected SpaceX to develop a human lander version of its Starship rocket that would carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface.
However, the rocket is supposed to carry out an uncrewed mission to the moon’s surface before attempting the crewed mission. A “tanker” vehicle to fuel before its expedition to the moon is also to be launched into the Earth’s orbit, along with demonstrations of cryogenic fluid transfer.
“That’s a lot of launches to get those missions done,” SpaceNews quoted Free saying. “They have a significant number of launches to go, and that, of course, gives me concern about the December of 2025 date” for Artemis 3.
“With the difficulties that SpaceX has had, I think that’s really concerning. You can think about that slipping probably into ‘26,” he added.
SpaceX’s Starship is currently confined to the ground after its integrated launch last month ended four minutes after liftoff, with the flight termination system stepping in on encountering several engine failures in flight.
Free spoke about meeting with an official from the Federal Aviation Administration involved in the investigation. “They’re doing everything they can, but they look at the launch license for the next mission,” he said of the FAA. “What I tried to convey to him is our big picture of everything that’s going to take to get to that human lander.”
Although SpaceX has not provided public updates on the investigation or a date for the next launch attempt, Chief Executive Elon Musk said that the company could be ready in a couple of months in an online discussion, an unlikely estimate considering a lack of visible progress at the Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas.
Free remained confident in SpaceX’s ability to deliver the lander and noted that NASA was shielded from any additional cost due to the fixed-price structure of the Human Landing System contract awarded.
“I get a lot of questions, ‘Will you make the date?’ Well, they need to get flying before we can get any kind of assessment. If they’re not flying on the time they’ve said, it does us no good to have a firm fixed price contract other than we’re not paying more,” he concluded.
SpaceX and NASA have postponed a critical design review of the lander until the former demonstrates cryogenic refueling in the Earth’s orbit.
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