Inside NASA’s scramble to find a backup moon plan — and the wild ideas companies are pitching
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/01/science/nasa-moon-lunar-lander-options?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
Inside NASA’s scramble to find a backup moon plan — and the wild ideas companies are pitching
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/01/science/nasa-moon-lunar-lander-options?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
19 Comments
A suggestion made last week by acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy that SpaceX could be booted from the agency’s upcoming moon-landing plans has rocked the space industry.
Now, behind the scenes, pitches for alternate paths to the lunar surface are quietly starting to take shape.
SpaceX currently has a $2.9 billion contract to prepare its gargantuan Starship rocket system to ferry astronauts to the moon’s surface as part of NASA’s Artemis III mission. However, citing delays in Starship’s development and competitive pressure from China, NASA asked SpaceX and Blue Origin — which holds a separate lunar lander contract with the space agency — to submit plans to expedite development of their respective spacecraft by October 29. Both companies have responded.
But the space agency is also asking the broader commercial space industry to detail how they might get the job done more quickly, hinting that NASA leadership is prepared to sideline its current partners.
CNN spoke with half a dozen companies about how they plan to respond to NASA’s call to action, which the agency will formally issue once the government shutdown ends, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Sure hope they’ve got the same urgency for the space suits we still don’t have.
This is going to end in no workable plan at all
[deleted]
Just build a bunch of rockets only designed to go one way. Launch them all to the moon loaded with everything needed to support life while someone can build a rocket to get back. I’m not sure how many people would have the intestinal fortitude for such an endeavor.
One small step of man, a giant leap down to your nearest Carl’s JR!
We are never going back to the moon…
You’re telling me fancy renderings that ignore all learned design and economics decisions from the last 60 years regarding going to other planets and moons didn’t actually translate into real viable engineering? Shocked. I’m shocked.
I doubt any other idea is as wild as the current insane nonsense.
We don’t need a lander. Just put the astronauts in space suits and iron man them down. We can figure out how to get them home later.
We all know that Elon is just going to end up sending a flight to the Moon on his own, contract or no.
The Superheavy lifter has already laid down a good track record. Starship testing has been primarily around the return and reusability of the heat tiles. You can pretty much mount whatever you want on top of the superheavy booster. A non-reusable lunar lander spaceship that docks back at the ISS for a transfer to a return capsule home might do the trick. Once in orbit refueling is solved, such a lander does not have to be throwaway, it could be reused for going back and forth from Earth orbit to Moon landings. The hard part is getting out of Earth’s atmosphere and into orbit and Elon already has that ability.
So… if I may translate into plain English: there are 2 companies with contracts to build landers to go land on the moon. But they won’t be ready before the end of the current administration.
So the orange baby has thrown his toys out of the pram.
Does that sound about right?
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[DoD](/r/Space/comments/1oluope/stub/nmlgbr7 “Last usage”)|US Department of Defense|
|[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1oluope/stub/nmkwc0v “Last usage”)|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
|[Isp](/r/Space/comments/1oluope/stub/nmkwpn5 “Last usage”)|Specific impulse (as explained by [Scott Manley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnisTeYLLgs) on YouTube)|
| |Internet Service Provider|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1oluope/stub/nmkwc0v “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[NA](/r/Space/comments/1oluope/stub/nml0gxy “Last usage”)|New Armstrong, super-heavy lifter proposed by Blue Origin|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1oluope/stub/nmlj04j “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1oluope/stub/nmlgbr7 “Last usage”)|SpaceX’s world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
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NASA please make us another one of those submarines that billionaires go in.
I have a wild idea. Do what they did the first time. Same budget, adjusted for inflation, so $250 billion-ish, but the only computer programming they can use is in Minecraft. They can call on any modders or red stone engineers willing to volunteer or even pay them. The winning team gets to rename the moon and all future whaling rights.
The USA can team up with china in a beautiful act of international cooperation?
No, those mammals are gonna ruin everything
Hold a raffle for a seat on the flight and they’d probably get all the money they need.
Moonbase Fred, anyone? Or am I dating myself? Do folks still remember?
I am thinking that We will be seeing a string of astronaut deaths in the near future, as the priority shifts from safety of people to simple performance at any cost.
move the earth closer to the moon, then can build a smaller rocket. Easy.
NASA, all the amazing things they have done, all the inspiring missions. Im in the UK, As a kid the space shuttle was this amazing thing, its very sad to see how NASA is struggling today. This is the future of all of us, I hope for the exciting days to return