Representatives from NASA recently met with SpaceX leadership for an update on Starship ahead of the Artemis III mission, currently slated for April 2025.
.@NASA and @SpaceX leadership recently met for an update on Starship, the human landing system that will take our @NASAAstronauts to the lunar surface with #Artemis III.
Starship is vital to putting the first woman on the Moon: https://t.co/HuuHvCERj0 pic.twitter.com/T9noIjo8gI
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) June 10, 2022
Last year, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.89 billion USD contract to put astronauts back on the moon. SpaceX’s Starship human landing system (HLS) will facilitate NASA’s return to the moon as part of the government agency’s third mission under the Artemis program.
Artemis I, the first mission in the program, is currently scheduled for August 2022. It will be an uncrewed test flight for NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
The second mission, Artemis II, will be a crewed lunar flyby test aboard the Orion spacecraft. NASA is currently planning on a May 2024 launch for Artemis II.
Artemis III will finally put boots back on the moon aboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft the following year. The mission will last approximately 30 days, and it will put the first woman on the surface of the moon.
Back in March, NASA picked SpaceX for another mission to the moon beyond Artemis III.
SpaceX is still waiting on approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the first orbital test flight of Starship. The government watchdog has repeatedly delayed its environmental review of the proposed launch.
Most recently, the FAA pushed back the Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for SpaceX’s planned Starship launch to June 13.
