Elon Musk‘s SpaceX rocket, Starship, is set to have more upgrades in order to take humans to the Moon. The decision follows a successful test that was conducted recently. SpaceX provided details of its Moon missions under NASA’s Artemis missions.
SpaceX to upgrade rockets for long-duration flights
According to a report by The Telegraph, SpaceX will do additional upgrades on its Starship rocket to support long-duration flights.
On Monday, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its 11th Starship from Texas, which later landed in the Indian Ocean after the successful test. The test saw the Starship rocket loaded with mock Starlink satellites, and SpaceX also checked the heat shield tiles.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy congratulated the team and wrote, “Another major step toward landing Americans on the Moon’s south pole. The progress @SpaceX demonstrated with today’s Starship test is critical for our Artemis missions. While we prepare for Artemis II, every flight strengthens our progress on Artemis III, and beating China back to the Moon!”
In a conference last month, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said that the upgraded Starship will be “the vehicle that could take humans to the Moon and Mars.”
Apollo Program Professor Olivier de Weck also noted, “I think the next step is to actually land the Starship, still not go into orbit and stay over multiple orbits, but actually land and recover the actual Starship. Recovery of the Starship, an upright landing, with retro propulsion on a fixed platform, that’s the next step.” (via ABC News)
On its website, SpaceX provided more details about its Moon mission, which reads, “Starship will land humans on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years under NASA’s Artemis missions at a region near the lunar South Pole to conduct moonwalks.”
Originally reported by Ishita Verma on Mandatory.
