NASA Panel Puts 22 Starship Flights on the Path to the Moon
A NASA safety advisor now pegs the number of SpaceX Starship launches needed for a lunar landing at 22, a figure that has been kept under wraps for years.
By Luana Sato ·
Charlie Precourt, a former astronaut who now serves on NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, said on Thursday that the agency's current plan requires 22 Starship launches to support a human lunar landing. The comment came during the panel's quarterly meeting, where Precourt discussed the risks tied to the Artemis Program. He did not say where the specific figure came from.
The number of Starship flights needed for a Moon mission has been a closely guarded secret at NASA for years. Officials have generally declined to share it. In 2023, Lisa Watson-Morgan, who was then the director of NASA's Human Landing System program, said, "We have a general idea, but I'm reluctant to say exactly what that is." She later added that the count was in the "high single digits to the low double digits," which would point to a figure around a dozen.
Other officials have offered estimates in the high teens. The plan has always been for a Starship to act as a fuel depot in low-Earth orbit. A series of tanker flights would then fill that depot. The depot would then supply the lander with the fuel it needs for the trip to the Moon and back.
The goal has been to reduce that launch count over time. Improvements to Starship's payload capacity would mean fewer tanker flights are needed to fill the depot. However, some NASA officials have raised concerns that these upgrades are not coming soon enough.
If the 22-launch figure holds, it would be a major lift for SpaceX. The company has not flown Starship at a pace that could support such a sequence. This raises questions about the schedule for a crewed lunar landing this decade.
NASA has not officially confirmed the 22-launch number. The space agency has not commented on the statement from its safety panel. The agency continues to plan for a return to the Moon under the Artemis Program.
SpaceX is the contractor for the Human Landing System. The company is developing a version of Starship for NASA to use as the lander. The current plan calls for a crewed mission to the Moon using this vehicle.
The conversation around the launch count is part of a larger debate about the Artemis timeline. The program aims to land astronauts on the Moon. The first crewed landing was scheduled for a future date, but that timeline has faced delays.
For now, the number of Starship launches needed for a lunar landing remains a point of discussion. The 22-launch estimate is the most specific figure to come from a NASA source in some time. It points to the scale of the task ahead for SpaceX and its Starship rocket.
The aerospace community will be watching to see if NASA or SpaceX responds to the comment. The safety panel's role is to assess risks. The high number of launches would be a significant operational hurdle to clear before a crewed mission to the Moon can happen.
