![An artist's drawing of two spacecraft docked side by side in orbit.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/starships-docked-1-800x478.jpg)
SpaceX
NASA believes that at some point next year, SpaceX will be ready to connect two spacecraft in orbit for an ambitious refueling demonstration. This is a technological feat that could get you to the moon.
SpaceX has signed a contract with NASA to supply two human-class spacecraft for the first two astronauts to land on the Moon through the agency's Artemis program, which aims to return people to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. there is. The first of these landings, NASA's Artemis III mission, is currently targeted for 2026, although this is widely seen as an ambitious schedule.
Last year, NASA signed a contract with Blue Origin to develop a human-evaluable Blue Moon lunar lander, giving Artemis managers two options for follow-up missions.
The designers of both landers were forward-thinking. They designed Starship and Blue Moon for refueling in space. This means it can be reused for multiple missions and ultimately utilize propellants produced from resources on the Moon or Mars.
Amit Kshatriya, who leads the “Moon to Mars” program within NASA's Exploration Division, outlined SpaceX's plans to do just that during a meeting with a NASA Advisory Board committee Friday. He said the Starship test program is gaining momentum, with the next test flight expected from SpaceX's Starbase launch pad in south Texas by the end of May.
“Production is not the problem,” said the Kshatriya. “They're rolling out the core. The engines are coming into the factory. That's not the problem. The problem is that doing what they're trying to do is a major development challenge… We have to be at our best. This propellant delivery problem is “It's the right problem to try and solve. We're trying to build a blueprint for deep space exploration.”
gas roadmap
Before reaching the moon, SpaceX and Blue Origin will need to master the skills and technologies needed for in-space refueling. SpaceX now plans to attempt the first demonstration of large-scale propellant transfer between two spacecraft in orbit next year.
There will be at least a few more Starship test flights before then. During the most recent Starship test flight last March, SpaceX conducted a cryogenic propellant transfer test between two tanks inside the vehicle. Tank-to-tank transfer of liquid oxygen was part of a NASA-funded demonstration. Agency officials said the demonstration will help engineers learn more about how fluids behave in a low-gravity environment.
Kshatriya said the March Starship flight test was “a success in every way,” while engineers continue to analyze the results of the cryogenic transport demonstration.
“That milestone is behind them,” he said Friday. Now SpaceX is set to debut more Starship test flights. The next launch will attempt to check out some additional features that SpaceX didn't demonstrate on its March test flight.
This includes a precise landing of Starship's Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico, needed before SpaceX lands the booster back on its launch pad in Texas. Another goal will be to restart Starship's single Raptor engine in flight. SpaceX failed to achieve that on its March flight due to the vehicle's unexpected roll speed as it passed through space. Achieving the in-orbit engine restarts necessary to guide Starship toward a controlled re-entry will enable future launches into stable high-orbits where the spacecraft can loiter for hours, days, or even weeks to deploy satellites and attempt to refuel. This is a prerequisite for this.
In the long term, SpaceX wants to increase the Starship launch cycle to many daily flights from multiple launch sites. To achieve that goal, SpaceX plans to recover and rapidly reuse the spacecraft and its Super Heavy boosters, drawing on expertise from its partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is keen to reuse ships and boosters as quickly as possible. Earlier this month, Musk said he was optimistic SpaceX could retrieve the Super Heavy booster from Texas later this year and land the spacecraft there again sometime next year.