“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.“
https://gizmodo.com/spacex-to-tell-nasa-the-moon-will-have-to-wait-2000686982
32 Comments
Maybe they could retrofit a Cybertruck to land on the moon. Too many other projects for Musk to concentrate on.
But SpaceX was supposed to already be putting men on Mars by now…
/s
Pretty sure no one at NASA really expected to make the 2027 target for years now. Orion and SLS are years behind schedule themselves as well now, but granted are looking finally ready to go while the lander is not. Although using a new system like Starship introduced more chances for delays it’s massive size will enable far more human sustained human presence on the moon instead of just redoing Apollo again.
It’s not like NASA wasn’t aware of the risks when it selected SpaceX, I’m sure that they felt the long term advantages outweighed the risks of delay.
makes you wonder if NASA will turn to one of the competition to take a stab at it since SpaceX is behind the ball.
I wonder how many of SpaceX’s best engineers and builders all left the company after Elon went down the far right rabbit hole.
Whatever, SpaceX should just eject themselves into deep space.
A million people on Mars and point to point human transport on Earth….
Disappointed, but not surprised.
Besides, aren’t the new spacesuits also behind schedule?
Maybe the US will start to make manned space exploration a priority again if China beats us back to the moon.
I am always squeasy seeing a huge rocket land like that in a wild environment without landing pad. It is just weird why they do not propose a landing segment which is only the very top part. Sure, multistage and you need to dock in orbit but one drags a big thing along that has rather little utility on the Moon itself where you do not have a big Search and Rescue team waiting for you if you need to bail. I wonder if that really will be SpaxeX final proposal or is just a year old stand in for a conceptual lander.
Still, would be nice to see progress on Artemis. Before any pipe dreams about Mars anyway.
I hope this news is not real, because the US and the liberal bloc simply cannot afford losing the space race to China. The moon in the space age will be as important as Hawaii to the US on earth. Letting China claim the key locations first will make future settlement in space a lot more costly. Imagine having to get water, minerals and Helium 3 from earth or elsewhere because China denies access on the moon. We just had rare earth restrictions on earth from China literally these few months.
It will slowly tip the balance to China and future generations will blame us for losing the solar system to authoritarian countries.
I love how this is all going off of the assumption that nasa thinks it can hit a mid 2027 target on their end to begin with.
ugh every space timeline always gets pushed back. like why even announce dates anymore if we know they’re never gonna hit them.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you ! Well not that shocked. In fact, plainly obvious for anyone willing to see past the spaceX veil of deceit.
It won’t be after China goes to the Moon that will put the US into overdrive.
Is America even going to the moon this decade? They’ve been trying for a while now and it always gets delayed.
The earth needs help. Stop the space missions. For at least 5 years. Just stop.
NASA created SpaceX for taxpayers money. Guys who designed Falcon 9 were NASA engineers. And now they’re talking back to NASA?
It’s amazing to think in three years the US will be landing on the Moon in a vehicle the size of Starship, incredible
A Musk company making promises it can’t keep? I’m shocked.
The trash in orbit might block that by 2028. Countries are already having to communicate to have sats avoid each other.
The biggest surprise is that they’re actually saying it. But it’s not like 2028 is happening either.
Over promise, under deliver(at least on timeline) is par for the course
I would hypothesise that blue origin will say the opposite…. Tells NASA we won’t have to wait…. We can do it! .. and we will! … they very much intend to land their mark one lander early next year… that is because blue origin have been focused on going to the moon from the very beginning, in order to use the lunar resources to build out the necessary infrastructure for people to live and work in Space around the Earth and the moon….
It is not a loss to NASA, but to SpaceX. NASA now has practical and realistic options with blue origin. I can only say this it is sad how SpaceX wasted the opportunity and it’s undertakings it made out in its contract. If it had stuck to its commitments and undertakings it had made in his contract with NASA, and delivered on time from the very beginning it would not be in this situation. You can bet that blue origin will do everything to make sure it will deliver. To use an analogy, it looks like that slow moving tortoise, really will be out at utterly thrash the fox….SpaceX certainly have done impressive things with falcon nine, but it should not be giving its future to what will be its most formidable competitor… this is a very bad strategic move…. and now with it’s very successful launch of New Glenn…. you can bet that blue origin and really is going to take a blow torch to the business of SpaceX…. The logistics of going to the moon and back is going to be a very big business….
What? -the same company that told us mars by 2018….
Might as well chisel that into stone.
…and then toss it into a deep, deep ocean.
I guess NASA shouldn’t pay out on that contract.
Late 2028 will be busy, it’s also the announced time for first Mars landing attempt. That’s a lot of launches and refill
Oh wow, who would have fucking thought, surely this was not possible to predict when they were first picked -.-
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[BEO](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npio7o1 “Last usage”)|Beyond Earth Orbit|
|[BO](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npip3f1 “Last usage”)|Blue Origin (*Bezos Rocketry*)|
|CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules|
| |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)|
|[E2E](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npig769 “Last usage”)|Earth-to-Earth (suborbital flight)|
|[EVA](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npirxre “Last usage”)|Extra-Vehicular Activity|
|[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npitlay “Last usage”)|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
|L2|[Lagrange Point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point) 2 ([Sixty Symbols](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxpVbU5FH0s) video explanation)|
| |Paywalled section of the NasaSpaceFlight forum|
|[L3](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npik6xq “Last usage”)|[Lagrange Point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point) 3 of a two-body system, opposite L2|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npip3f1 “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[NG](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npik2uz “Last usage”)|New Glenn, two/three-stage orbital vehicle by Blue Origin|
| |Natural Gas (as opposed to pure methane)|
| |Northrop Grumman, aerospace manufacturer|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npio1oz “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[ULA](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npik2uz “Last usage”)|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Raptor](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npiimn8 “Last usage”)|[Methane-fueled rocket engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_(rocket_engine_family)) under development by SpaceX|
|[Starliner](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npin36v “Last usage”)|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)|
|[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1p0ffwt/stub/npitlay “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.
—————-
^([Thread #11878 for this sub, first seen 18th Nov 2025, 16:53])
^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)
I’ve been saying they’ll be lucky to fly Artemis III before 2030 for a few years now, SpaceX is not the only company having issues.
I’m torn on the messaging behind the “new moon race” from the US side.
We beat the Chinese to the moon 56 years ago. The framework of the Artemis mission is far more complex than the “flag and footsteps” mission from the Chinese. We’re establishing a permanent moon base by landing a 15-story building; the Chinese are flying an Apollo lander.
Of course, urgency is important for space travel, because otherwise we’d never get there. But, if we land a year after they do, it will be an entirely different accomplishment than repeating Apollo.
The US will be on the moon to stay and have the logistics and capacity to do so. The Chinese won’t.
Elon figured out you can just lie about everything earn giant contracts
Great example of how to not to make a headline if you’re trying to be a good faith journalist