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The Starship Human Landing System program includes the development and operational use of several Starship spacecraft variants by SpaceX, including the Starship HLS ship—optimized to operate on and in the vicinity of the Moon—as well as a Starship depot that will store propellant in Earth orbit, and the Starship tanker designed to fly multiple trips to orbit from Earth's surface to ...
The Starship HLS is a modified configuration of SpaceX's Starship spacecraft, optimized to operate on and around the Moon. As a result, the heat shield and flight control surfaces — parts of the main Starship design needed for atmospheric re-entry — are not included in Starship HLS. The entire spacecraft will land on the Moon and will then ...
A similar test occurred during Starship's third test flight, though the transfer during that test was between two tanks on the same vehicle. [2] The ability to refuel a Starship in low orbit is critical for the Artemis program, [3] as Starship HLS requires approximately ten tanker launches to reach the lunar surface. [1]
The Block 2 version of Starship is 52.1 m (171 ft) tall, 9 m (30 ft) wide, [1] and is composed of four general sections: the engine bay, the oxygen tank, the fuel tank, and the payload bay. [2] The retired Block 1 was constructed in a similar manner, though it was only 50.3 m (165 ft) tall.
Starship vehicles have been launched 7 times, resulting in 4 successes (57.14%), and 3 failures. Starship Block 1 was launched six times between April 2023 and November 2024, with the ship retired ahead of the seventh flight. [10] Block 1 boosters are expected to fly further into the future. [11]
The human lander, referred to as MK2, [2] was chosen by NASA as the winner of the Sustaining Lunar Development Human Landing System contract in May 2023. It is the second human lunar lander under contract by NASA for the Artemis HLS program, alongside Starship HLS. [11]
The vehicle Starship composes when combined with the Super Heavy booster, also named Starship, [1] has been developed with the intention of lowering launch costs using economies of scale. [2] SpaceX aims to achieve this by reusing both rocket stages , increasing payload mass to orbit, increasing launch frequency, creating a mass-manufacturing ...
Use of NASA logos, insignia and emblems is restricted per U.S. law 14 CFR 1221.; The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies.