22 launches for a Moon landing? Musk disputes NASA safety panel
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel expects around 22 Starship flights to refuel the lunar lander. SpaceX chief Elon Musk says “6 to 8” is realistic.
Archive image · Photo: Jared Krahn / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
How many Starship launches does a Moon landing take? NASA and SpaceX disagree. At the public quarterly meeting of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) on Thursday, panel member and former astronaut Charlie Precourt said the latest estimate was “around 22 flights,” according to Teslarati. He called refuelling the lander a major risk for Artemis IV – the mission meant to put astronauts on the Moon in 2028.
Background: the lunar lander must be refuelled in space, and each propellant delivery requires an additional launch. The key question is how well cryogenic propellant can be transferred between spacecraft, The Register wrote. Elon Musk pushed back on X, saying the number was “way too high” and would actually be “more like 6 to 8.” The refuelling plan depends on the upgraded Starship V3, according to Teslarati – technology whose flight testing SpaceX has not yet completed.
At the same time, the panel praised Artemis II and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, according to The Register, but voiced concern about future U.S. access to low Earth orbit if SpaceX phases out Falcon and Dragon. Boeing’s Starliner can fly uncrewed no earlier than mid-January 2027, it said. A written report is to follow early next year.