SpaceX to Tell NASA the Moon Will Have to Wait

SpaceX has fallen behind in developing a crewed lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis 3 mission, prompting the agency to reopen the contract to other providers. The added pressure has pushed SpaceX to revise its strategy, but the new approach still appears insufficient to meet NASA’s target date, leaked proprietary information suggests.

An internal SpaceX document obtained by Politico lays out a new timeline for the Starship Human Landing System (HLS)—one that would put the Artemis 3 astronauts on the Moon by September 2028 at the earliest. That’s more than a year past NASA’s mid-2027 target.

Even hitting this revised target will be a tall order given Starship’s enormous size, complex design, and the major milestones it has yet to achieve. An anonymous congressional aide told Politico that SpaceX’s 2028 objectives are still “very aggressive†given the current state of the rocket’s development.

As SpaceX’s rivals step forward with their own proposals for the Artemis 3 HLS contract, the company’s revised timeline does not bode well for its bid. Gizmodo reached out to SpaceX and NASA but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The new HLS timeline

NASA tapped SpaceX to provide the first crewed lander for the Artemis program in 2021. To fill that need, the company designed Starship HLS—a modified version of Starship’s upper stage designed to deliver astronauts to and from the lunar surface. Its development is intrinsically linked to that of the core Starship system, which hit several snags this year.

The delays elicited concern from industry experts, Congress, and NASA about SpaceX’s ability to land astronauts on the Moon by mid-2027. In October, Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy reopened the Artemis 3 contract to other spaceflight companies in an effort to light a fire under SpaceX and investigate alternative options.

So, SpaceX went back to the drawing board. This leaked document offers a first look at the new HLS development schedule. According to Politico, SpaceX plans to incorporate the new dates into an “integrated master schedule†it will give to NASA in December. The company will then work with NASA to update its existing contract and finalize the new schedule.

The document reportedly shows that SpaceX aims to conduct an in-orbit propellant transfer in June 2026. This is an essential milestone for Artemis 3, since Starship will need to refuel in space to reach the Moon.

The next step will be demonstrating an uncrewed lunar landing with the HLS, which SpaceX plans to do in June 2027. That’s right around the time NASA had hoped to launch the Artemis 3 mission. If all this goes well, SpaceX could land the Artemis astronauts on the Moon by September 2028, but it’s entirely possible that it won’t.

Starship has yet to complete a fully successful orbital flight—a prerequisite for orbital propellant transfer. On top of that, SpaceX will face a learning curve with Starship Version 2, the newest and largest iteration of the rocket. SpaceX plans to debut V2—which will serve as the basis of the HLS—in early 2026. Much like the first half of V1’s 2025 launch schedule, V2’s could get off to an explosive start.

The competition is heating up

How NASA will receive SpaceX’s updated timeline remains to be seen, but this isn’t the only contingency it’s evaluating. Agency Press Secretary Bethany Stevens previously told Gizmodo that NASA has received plans from both SpaceX and Blue Origin to accelerate HLS production.

Stevens added that once the government reopened, NASA would issue a Request for Information (RFI) to the broader aerospace industry for their proposals. The agency would then assemble a committee of subject matter experts to evaluate each one and select the best path forward.

It’s possible that Blue Origin could snag the Artemis 3 contract from SpaceX. The company is developing its own crewed lunar lander, Blue Moon Mark 2 (MK2). NASA has already contracted MK2 for Artemis 5, and although that mission won’t launch for another several years, Blue Origin aims to demonstrate an uncrewed version of the lander in January 2026.

New Glenn—the megarocket Blue Origin would use to launch its Moon landers—had a stunning second test flight last week, paving the way for a potential uncrewed lunar landing within the next several months. With the development of Starship HLS delayed even further, Blue is a growing threat to its Artemis 3 contract.