Please Elon, sit on the top.
The Starship concept of operations requires 11 launches for each mission to the moon - one for the vehicle, another 10 to refuel it once it get into earth orbit. Each of these missions have to autonomously dock and perform a cryogenic fuel transfer.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, has shown an operationally-viable in-space cryo transfer. Even doing it on Earth is a fussy thing - cryo transfer was behind two of the Artemis I scrubs, and NASA’s been doing it since Apollo.
Getting one Starship into orbit is an interesting milestone but it’s a long way from what they promised the world they could do… and the clock is ticking.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
SpaceX’s massive, reusable Starship rocket made two test flights in 2023, the first in April and a second in November, and company representatives now say the third such mission could come as soon as February 2024.
During a media teleconference on Tuesday (Jan. 9) that was held to discuss updates to NASA’s Artemis moon program, SpaceX Vice President of Customer Operations and Integration Jessica Jensen said the company is already seeking approval for Starship’s third flight.
Another topic that was discussed in detail during Tuesday’s teleconference was the off-Earth propellant transfer that SpaceX and NASA are planning as part of the Artemis 3 mission a few years from now.
In 2021, NASA selected Starship as its crewed lander for Artemis 3 — the vehicle that will carry two astronauts to the surface of the moon and then back up to lunar orbit once their stay is complete.
But because rockets and spacecraft burn through most of their fuel while escaping Earth’s deep gravity well, a massive vehicle like Starship would need to be re-fueled in orbit before continuing on to the moon.
Jensen replied that it will require “roughly 10ish” flights to fuel up the Artemis 3 Starship in space, although that number could change based on how tests of the propellant transfer capability pan out.
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SpaceX is truly one of the most impressive companies of our time.
Completely revolutionised the space industry and I wish them the best. Excited for this and glad that it has increased people’s interest and love of science and engineering.
The starship is glorious. I love the Saturn V and have for years but this thing has a similar though different beauty to it. Really want to see one fly. Seen a falcon 9 and it was honestly magical, even got the jellyfish effect, never experienced anything like it. But a Saturn V/ starship must be next level.
Converting Musk time to actual time, that’s probably February 2025
