Next year, NASA hopes to launch Artemis-3 alongside two commercial contractors Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, and SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk. However, neither company is anywhere near ready, and after last night’s explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, both rockets to launch the landers next year are currently grounded by the FAA.
The impact of last night’s explosion, combined with other Starship setbacks, could be significant for NASA’s Artemis short-term plans to land back on the moon before China.
Now there is more pressure on SpaceX Starship to be operational for Artemis-3
Starship recently conducted its twelfth test, with a new improved version of the previous design. The massive booster is supposed to return to Earth in a controlled descent, but on Flight 12 the engines failed, letting the booster crash into the ocean instead of making a controlled soft landing on the waves. Therefore, he is currently punished until they find the cause and solution.
The Starship itself fared well and made its own soft landing before exploding as expected.
With the loss of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, there is now even more pressure on SpaceX to get Starship operational. NASA also awarded Blue Origin a contract to develop a lunar lander for the Artemis missions. It’s called Blue Moon and it’s launching in New Glenn.
Given that last night’s explosion destroyed half of the launch complex, it is safe to assume that repair work on LC-36 will take between 6 and 12 months before the platform is operational again.
On top of that, New Glenn has only flown 3 times, and the third launch actually failed to deliver the payload to the proper orbit. So even once the platform is repaired, they still don’t have a safe and consistent enough flight speed for NASA to realistically rely on it yet. So is Artemis-3 still realistic for 2027?
A cargo version of the Blue Moon is currently being tested in Houston, but it now has no rocket to launch to the moon. It was supposed to launch this year, in an uncrewed moon landing to show NASA it works and deliver the first payloads for future crews.
However, Blue’s lander can fit on NASA’s Artemis SLS rocket, used to launch the crew to Orion.
Blue Origin was going to start launching Artemis infrastructure and payloads to the moon this year, but now that won’t happen
NASA also awarded Blue Origin a contract to deliver lunar payloads and ground vehicles to the Moon for the Artemis program using New Glenn starting later this year. With last night’s explosion, those plans no longer exist.
NASA has shown that its SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis work twice. Now it’s up to Blue Origin and SpaceX to deliver on their promises.
Artemis-3 is scheduled to launch next year, as a test in Earth orbit with NASA’s crew on the Orion spacecraft conducting docking and rendezvous tests with the landers. But if the landers and their rockets are not ready, there is no mission. Which would not mean any moon landing in 2028 either. Everything will continue to take longer.
For now, both Blue Origin and SpaceX have shifted their priorities more toward developing the landers, to stay within the expectations of NASA President and Administrator Jared Isaacman. No doubt both companies will work things out. But will they do it before China?
