Elon Musk’s SpaceX has proposed a streamlined plan to NASA for achieving a Human Moon Landing using its Starship rocket, as the agency pushes its contractors to move faster in the new race to the Moon — this time against China.
SpaceX Revises Strategy for Human Moon Landing
According to SpaceX’s official blog post released Thursday, the company has submitted a “simplified mission architecture” for NASA’s Artemis III mission, aimed at landing astronauts on the lunar surface later this decade. The proposal comes amid mounting concerns within NASA that SpaceX’s development pace may not align with its ambitious goals.
“In response to the latest calls, we’ve shared and are formally assessing a simplified mission architecture and concept of operations that we believe will result in a faster return to the Moon while simultaneously improving crew safety,” SpaceX said in the post.
NASA’s Leadership Shake-Up and Growing Tensions
The space agency’s new acting administrator, Sean Duffy, who also serves as head of the Department of Transportation, recently remarked that SpaceX was “lagging behind” in Starship development. Speaking on national television, Duffy warned that NASA may consider opening SpaceX’s Artemis contract to other bidders capable of landing humans on the Moon more quickly.
