Will Elon Musk land on the moon with SpaceX before 2024?

One day, we’ll be able to take road trips through the stars. Our descendants will see civilizations farther away from here than any of us could imagine. We’re optimistic about the future and the future is coming! We’ve always been curious about what’s out there and we’re eager to get there. The ambitions of some of the most powerful people in the world, for better or worse, seems to be to leave Earth. 

Between talks of the space hotel and SpaceX, it seems we may be leaving Earth sooner than we think. Some of us today remember the moon landing. Today, we have SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk who says the company could launch their Starship to the moon sooner than we thought! Just what is going on here?

SpaceX

In case you need a brush-up on SpaceX, they design, craft and launch intricate rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 seemingly with the purpose of revolutionizing space technology. SpaceX has gathered worldwide recognition for their series of historic milestones.  In 2012, their Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to drop off cargo to and from the International Space Station. 

In the words of Elon Musk, “You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great 一 and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”

One day, no one will have to be dead to live in the heavens!

Starship

Clearly, Elon Musk has great plans for his private spaceflight company. But the most crucial projects at this point are probably the Starship and Super Heavy. When Musk founded the company, he stressed that its chief goal was to help humanity colonize Mars. 

He believes being a multi-planet species is vital to us, believing it’ll reduce our likelihood of extinction and give us the thrill that space exploration will give to billions of people around the world. 

The SpaceX Starship system is composed of a family of spacecraft, a superheavy booster, and a ground support infrastructure. It’s all being developed by SpaceX. Once the booster and suitable spacecraft are put together, it’ll become a fully reusable, two-stage-to-orbit super heavy-lift launch vehicle. 

Starship to the moon

Elon Musk says SpaceX may be able to launch their massive new Starship to the moon for NASA “probably sooner’ than their 2024 goal, even in the boundaries of their contract and other delays. Starship was chosen as NASA’s lander of choice for the Artemis human landing system (HLS). But the company ran into two delays. 

There were protests by competitors Blue Origin and Dynetics. They were disturbed by NASA’s decision to choose one provider instead of two. The Government Accountability  Office confirmed NASA’s SpaceX choice. Blue Origin filed a lawsuit, pausing the SpaceX project. NASA told SpaceX that they’re expecting a further delay to the company’s plans for Artemis, who set their goals to a 2024 landing. 

Staying positive, Musk made a comment on Twitter in response to a question about whether the company will make the deadline. Musk answered, “probably sooner”. 

There are a few other obstacles the company is facing including Congressional funding for HLS, the orbital mission for the Starship prototype, the launch of the untested Space Launch System moon rocket that could be late this year, and of course the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant. But nevertheless, Musk is staying optimistic on the early moon launch, and so are we!

一

Do you think Elon Musk will land on the moon with SpaceX before 2024? Tell us what you think!