NASA safety watchdog says it's time to rethink Moon landing

The latest report from NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) raises questions about the mission objectives for Artemis III.

Artemis III aims to land astronauts near the lunar South Pole, relying on SpaceX's Starship-derived Human Landing System (HLS) - a vehicle that has yet to achieve orbit, let alone venture anywhere near the Moon. It's an extraordinarily ambitious undertaking, and one the ASAP report has formally classified as high risk.

The problem is that there are an awful lot of firsts associated with the mission. It'll be the first to depend on SpaceX's HLS, the first to need multiple in-space refuelings (the report estimates 15), the first time a crew will use the HLS, and so on.

ASAP's primary goal is to identify risks and mitigations. It says the solution here is to ease off from doing so much in one mission and consider a ...