If you’ve been paying attention, there has been news circulating about man’s return to the lunar surface. Although this news has been exciting from the jump, plenty of rumors have continued to speculate on the failure of this SpaceX mission. Recently, the public has obtained an internal document. Could the bold promises of our return to the moon now become futile?

How NASA’s collaboration with SpaceX began

In the last decades, we have watched the inevitable rise of Elon Musk in the field of technology. Most notable is his contribution to the space industry through his company, SpaceX. The company grew from a small team of engineers to an organization pursuing an ambitious spatial mission.

SpaceX is one of the leading space agencies in the 21st century. In half a decade, they have successfully redefined space missions in terms of rocket economics and advanced cargo vehicles. As if the timing could not have been better, NASA had just recently been garnering momentum for an ambitious return to the Moon. This was called the Artemis program.

An Artemis program was going on to be a three-part mission to establish the first human civilization on Mars. But ground has to be set, and consequently, the moon was our first stop. In the wake of this program, SpaceX, via CEO Elon Musk, made an irrefutable proposal to NASA; they would develop the Starship Human Landing System (HLS) needed for the mission.

Leaked SpaceX document reveals the challenges facing NASA’s Artemis mission

We started as a billion-dollar deal, has soon came crashing down. This follows reports from a now-leaked internal document from the SpaceX company. Although NASA’s collaboration with Elon Musk has suffered inherent challenges that are rather technical, no one expected a decline this steep.

Originally, NASA had planned the Artemis program to round up its final missions by mid-2027. According to the document, both the deadline and timeline are seemingly impossible; NASA risks losing the new-space race mission to China and Russia. This stems from the inability of SpaceX to develop a landing system for the mission. The system would carry astronauts through the lunar orbit and perform a safe landing operation.

Only after Elon Musk develops and confirms the successful operation of this Starship can NASA carry on with its mission. As it is from the leaked memo, SpaceX is far from its goal and could eventually delay the events of Artemis II and III. Elon Musk’s Starship has achieved quite the feat in the past years; however, many have become clueless at the recent delay.

When Artemis II and III are likely to launch

Following the memo, the public is already aware of NASA’s failure to meet set deadlines. Currently, technical recalibration is still ongoing to secure the durability and safety of the Starship HLS. Per the leaked memo, NASA is speculated to close the Artemis program in 2028, if not later.

The implications of this delay for NASA and SpaceX

This delay of the Artemis mission goes beyond just the schedule of the launch system. The Artemis mission is a space race like the Apollo 11 mission. However, unlike Apollo, NASA isn’t in a race with the Soviet Union. Instead, it is in a race with other foreign and commercial space agencies.

Most notably, China and Russia’s International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). This is a joint space mission intended to build a base on the Moon for exploration of valuable resources. This mission has been set for 2030 and has successfully met all trial procedures.

Now, although Elon Musk has come out to defend his company following criticism, NASA has exciting news. The National Space Agency is willing to collaborate with other space agencies that can contribute to the development of the working HLS; NASA is recruiting enthusiasts who want to visit the Moon.