SpaceX is conducting a critical test flight of its Starship spacecraft, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, which NASA hopes will take astronauts to the lunar surface during the Artemis program as early as 2028.
It will be the 12th test mission of Starship. The flight from SpaceX's launch facility in Texas as early as Thursday will test an updated version of Starship and its Super Heavy booster, which includes upgraded engines, new fins to help steer the rocket during re-entry, and a new propulsion system.
"This is sort of a major upgrade," said Don Platt, the director of the Spaceport Education Center at Florida Tech. "SpaceX hopes to then have this be the sort of the orbital system that will then feed directly into the lunar lander program for Artemis."
NASA selected two landers from commercial companies that will take humans to the lunar surface – SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon.
Following the successful Artemis II mission that took a crew of four and the Orion spacecraft on a trip around the moon and back, NASA is looking to test one or both of the lunar landers closer to home. Artemis III will test the rendezvous and docking abilities of Orion.
But to do that, those landers need to get to orbit.
"It is absolutely critical," said Platt. "There's no reason to have an Artemis III if there's not at least a Starship or Blue Origin lunar lander that is capable enough, at least, to be in Earth orbit and allow an Orion vehicle to dock with it."
Blue Origin is currently testing its lander here on Earth. In an effort to speed up development of that program, the company suspended its suborbital space tourism division to focus more time and effort to build the landing system.
SpaceX's latest Starship testflight follows two successful missions last year. Before that, the company had a string of mishaps during multiple flights.
As teams at SpaceX's Texas facility continue to develop and test its vehicle, engineers and technicians in Florida are building an additional launch facility for Starship at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
"It shows up at night, all lit up, and there's cranes everywhere," said Platt. "It's really giving us a glimpse of the near-term future once they do some successful launches."
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman wants the Artemis III mission to launch by the end of 2027, and the Artemis IV mission to land on the moon in 2028.
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