![]() “We got a ton of data out of that mission, and those guys are looking forward to the next ship and booster in terms of getting them together and incorporating design changes.”īooster 9 and a yet-to-be-confirmed ship are set to fly that next mission, with the former already known to sport a large number of improvements compared to the previous booster.ī6 following its likely FTS-related test. They got up to about 39 kilometers in terms of apogee before the end of the mission,” noted Kshatriya. Of course, you all know they had a flight test. “ a lot of hardware moving through the Starbase. However, the exact number of launches needed for refueling remains unclear.Īhead of the HLS missions, Starship has an ambitious test series in work, now finally underway thanks to the launch of Booster 7 and Ship 24.Īmit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars program in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, updated the NASA Advisory Council Human Exploration and Operations this week. The individual missions will require both the lunar Starship and multiple Starship tanker launches to allow for the former to be refilled on orbit ahead of its trip to the Moon. The current NASA schedule calls for the uncrewed lunar demo mission to be launched in 2024, ahead of 2025’s Artemis III mission. NASA is set to announce a second HLS lander option “to develop a sustainable human landing system for the Artemis V Moon mission,” on Friday. This contract was followed by SpaceX winning HLS Option B in late 2022, which covers the Artemis IV mission to the Moon. Option A included both uncrewed and crewed demonstration missions. This includes docking the lander to the Orion spacecraft, transferring the crew from Orion to the lander in lunar orbit, conducting an extravehicular activity after landing on the lunar surface, and returning the crew and other materials from the surface. SpaceX was awarded the HLS Option A contract in 2021, which calls for a demonstration of the various elements of the system. While launch site repairs continue at Starbase ahead of the continuation of the test campaign that is targeting an orbital success this year, SpaceX is expected to launch a large number of Starships before entering the human landing system (HLS) contract, involving numerous tanker vehicles and a crewed lander. ![]() NASA managers tasked with humanity’s next journey into deep space spoke positively about Starship’s recent test flight, the data gathered, and the resulting design changes that will be incorporated into the next test launch. ![]()
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