Elon Musk’s SpaceX has proposed a faster way to take astronauts to the moon’s surface, following NASA criticism over delays with the company’s rocket development as the US races China to the lunar surface.
The company’s decision to offer a new plan, buried in a lengthy update posted to its website on Thursday, comes a little over a week after NASA Acting administrator Sean Duffy said he was opening up SpaceX’s lunar contract to rivals.
“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 wrote.
SpaceX did not detail what the new plan entails and did not immediately respond to request for comment or clarification.
SpaceX holds contracts with NASA worth $4 billion to develop the company’s gargantuan Starship rocket into a lander that will be able to transport astronauts to and from the lunar surface for the space agency.
SpaceX is on the hook to ready Starship for NASA’s Artemis III mission, which would mark the first time Americans have landed on the moon in more than half a century.
However, the Starship program has had a rough year of development, suffering two explosions during flight tests and another explosion on a test stand ahead of an engine demonstration.
Additionally, SpaceX still must demonstrate novel technologies — such as in-space refueling — before Starship is ready for lunar travel.
In response to Starship’s development delays, Duffy announced that he planned to open up SpaceX’s contract to competition to see if other companies could propose ways of reaching the moon more quickly, preferably not later than 2028.
He also called on SpaceX and Blue Origin, which holds a separate contract with NASA to develop its own lunar lander, to come up with plans for accelerating their development timelines.
The announcement prompted Musk, the chief executive officer of SpaceX, to publicly criticize Duffy and call for his departure from NASA.
In its update, SpaceX said engineers have begun work on creating a Starship crew cabin that can help with future testing.
Despite coming up with the alternative moon landing plan, SpaceX argued that Starship is still the best option for NASA.
“Starship continues to simultaneously be the fastest path to returning humans to the surface of the Moon and a core enabler of the Artemis program’s goal to establish a permanent, sustainable presence on the lunar surface,” SpaceX wrote.
(Reporting by Loren Grush)
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