Starship May Miss 2027 Aretemis III Deadline by Years, Claim NASA Safety Advisors

Members of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel have said they believe the Human Landing System (HLS) version of Starship, which is supposed to land astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission in 2027, is unlikely to hit its deadline. Indeed, they claim it could be years behind schedule, raising the prospect of the Artemis III mission not happening at all.

Although NASA will use its Space Launch System (SLS) to slingshot astronauts around the Moon in 2026, the plan for several years has been to utilize SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle for the Artemis III Moon landing mission the following year. But despite Starship's latest successful flight, its series of explosive disasters earlier this year did little to raise NASA's confidence in its readiness for a 2027 launch.

After the safety advisory panel met with Starship engineers and company executives at the SpaceX ...