NASA Panel Puts Starship Lunar Fueling Figure at 22 Flights
A safety advisory panel has issued a specific figure for the number of Starship launches needed to refuel a lunar lander, a number NASA has long declined to pin down.
By Imani Brooks ·
A NASA safety panel has put a number on a figure the agency has long kept under wraps: 22 Starship launches would be required to fuel a Starship-based lunar lander in low-Earth orbit for a trip to the Moon. The estimate was discussed on Thursday, October 22, during the quarterly meeting of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, where member Charlie Precourt, a former NASA astronaut, addressed risks tied to the Artemis program and its goal of landing humans on the Moon.
NASA has not publicly released such a specific figure before. The agency has repeatedly declined to state how many Starship launches would be needed to fill a lander with the liquid oxygen and methane propellant required for a lunar voyage, and has declined to provide a firm number in the past. In 2023, Lisa Watson-Morgan, then director of NASA's Human Landing System program, said she was "reluctant to say exactly what that is," while offering a rough range of "high single digits to the low double digits." Other officials have offered figures in the high teens.
The process involves launching a depot Starship into low-Earth orbit, then sending tanker Starships to transfer propellant into it before the lander can depart for the Moon. The number of tanker flights needed to fully load a depot has been a moving target for years, as it depends on Starship's lift capacity. SpaceX has been expected to increase that capacity over time, which would reduce the number of flights required.
The 22-launch figure comes amid concerns among some NASA officials that improvements to Starship's capabilities are not arriving quickly enough for the rocket to play a meaningful role in returning humans to the Moon under Artemis this decade. The panel's discussion of Artemis risks and the specific number of launches needed to fuel a lander reflects those concerns.
NASA's Artemis program aims to land astronauts on the Moon, and the agency has previously declined to commit to a specific number of Starship launches for the mission. The panel's estimate marks a shift from that stance. The discussion of risks associated with the program and the number of launches required to fuel a lander points to ongoing scrutiny of the program's flight profile and timeline.
The number of launches required to fuel a lander for a lunar voyage has been a subject of discussion among NASA officials, with figures ranging from the high single digits to the high teens. The panel's estimate of 22 flights provides a specific figure for the number of Starship launches needed to fuel a lander in low-Earth orbit for a lunar voyage. The agency has not provided a specific number in the past, and the panel's discussion reflects concerns about the program's timeline and the number of launches required.
The panel's discussion of risks associated with the Artemis program and the number of Starship launches required to fuel a lander reflects concerns about the program's timeline. The agency has previously declined to state how many launches would be needed to fuel a lander for a lunar voyage, and the panel's estimate of 22 flights provides a specific figure for the number of Starship launches required. The panel's discussion of risks associated with the program and the number of launches required to fuel a lander reflects concerns about the program's timeline.
Source: Ars Technica
