SpaceX provided a conceptual image of the Starship Human Landing System (HLS) aimed at enabling astronauts to land back on the surface of the Moon for the first time since 1971.
What Happened: The HLS version of the Starship will not have a heat shield and flaps aimed at protecting the vehicle against the heat of Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, it will have landing legs aimed at enabling it to land on the Moon, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday.
“This could (of course) only be used between trans-lunar orbit and lunar surface, given no heat shield or flaps,” he said in a post on X.
The Starship HLS, which is about 50 meters tall, will carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface and back for NASA’s Artemis 3 and 4 missions, according to NASA.
Why It Matters: During the Artemis 3 mission, slated for no earlier than September 2026, the Starship HLS will be launched first and it will wait for NASA’s Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit after filling its tanks in space. Once the Orion spacecraft arrives, the HLS will dock with it. Two of the four crew members on the mission will transfer from Orion to Starship and descend to the surface of the moon.
On the completion of their mission objections on the surface of the moon in about a week, they will return in the Starship to the Orion spacecraft waiting in lunar orbit and subsequently return to Earth.
However, before attempting the crewed mission, SpaceX will also perform an uncrewed landing demonstration on the Moon.
The last time humans set foot on the Moon was in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.
Starship is currently in the development and testing phase. The company has completed 6 flight tests of the launch vehicle so far but it has yet to carry any payload to space.
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Photo courtesy: SpaceX
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