SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday that his company’s spaceship would be ready to land humans on the moon before 2024.
He said that in response to a tweet asking whether the Lunar Starship would be ready to carry astronauts to the Moon by 2024 despite several delays to the mission, Musk answered that it could happen “probably sooner.”
But the question here is that is he right or just trying to bluff his way out. Well, I guess he is right, especially if you consider the fact that SpaceX has hardly gone over any of their deadlines for the launches.
Another fact to be taken into consideration is that Artemis would be one heck of a mission. It might involve eight to 16 launches to fuel up for a single tour to the Moon. Above everything, NASA’s inspector general recently published a report saying that a lunar landing in 2024 is “not feasible” due to delays in spacesuit development.
However, so far, Elon’s plan is on point. For instance, SpaceX recently attached Starship upon the Super Heavy booster creating the largest rocket ever. Currently, they are expecting an environmental review from the FAA before their first orbital test launch, implying that Starship might soar in the fall.
In addition, the company has received close to $440m from the US space agency, about 14.5 percent of its potential award amount of about $3 billion. Therefore, everyone’s positive that Musk might get the job done before time.
Nonetheless, it is better to take launch dates of such massive projects like Artemis with a grain of salt. We all know that it will eventually get done, so there’s no need to rush over its timing.