Next year, NASA anticipates that SpaceX will be ready to connect two Starships in orbit for a refueling demonstration, a technical achievement that will bring the Moon closer within reach.
SpaceX is contracted by NASA to provide two human-rated Starships for the first two astronaut landings on the Moon as part of the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. The first of these landings on NASA’s Artemis III mission is currently set for 2026, although this timeline is considered ambitious.
Last year, NASA awarded a contract to Blue Origin to develop its own human-rated Blue Moon lunar lander, providing Artemis managers with two options for future missions.
The designers of both landers were forward-thinking, designing Starship and Blue Moon for in-space refueling. This capability allows for potential reuse for multiple missions and the utilization of propellants produced from resources on the Moon or Mars.
Amit Kshatriya, leading NASA’s “Moon to Mars” program, outlined SpaceX’s plans for this during a meeting with a NASA Advisory Council committee. He mentioned that SpaceX’s Starship test program is making progress, with the next test flight from the Starbase launch site in South Texas expected by the end of May.
“Production is not the issue,” Kshatriya stated. “They’re rolling cores out. The engines are flowing into the factory. That is not the issue. The issue is it is a significant development challenge to do what they’re trying to do … We have to get on top of this propellant transfer problem. It is the right problem to try and solve. We’re trying to build a blueprint for deep space exploration.”
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Road map to refueling
Before reaching the Moon, SpaceX and Blue Origin need to master the technologies and techniques required for in-space refueling. SpaceX is currently scheduled to attempt the first demonstration of large-scale propellant transfer between two Starships in orbit next year.
There will be several more Starship test flights before this demonstration. During the most recent Starship test flight in March, SpaceX conducted a cryogenic propellant transfer test between two tanks inside the vehicle. This test was part of a demonstration supported with NASA funding to understand how the fluid behaves in a low-gravity environment.
Kshatriya noted that while engineers are still analyzing the results of the cryogenic transfer demonstration, the test on the March Starship flight was successful. Now, SpaceX will proceed with more Starship test flights to achieve additional capabilities not demonstrated in the March flight.
These upcoming flights will include a precise landing of Starship’s Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico, crucial before attempting to land the booster back at the launch pad in Texas. Another objective will likely be the restart of a single Raptor engine on Starship in flight, which was not achieved in the March flight. In-orbit engine restart is necessary for controlled reentry and future launches into higher orbits for satellite deployment and refueling attempts.
In the long term, SpaceX aims to increase the Starship launch cadence to multiple daily flights from various launch sites. To achieve this, SpaceX plans to recover and reuse Starships and Super Heavy boosters quickly, leveraging expertise from the reusable Falcon 9 rocket. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, is enthusiastic about reusing ships and boosters as soon as possible, expressing optimism about recovering a Super Heavy booster in Texas later this year and landing a Starship back in Texas next year.