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The company SpaceX is preparing to land NASA astronauts on the moon, and for this it is necessary to check the technology of refueling the spacecraft Starship.
In 2025, the two largest spacecraft in the world called Starship, created by Elon Musk's company SpaceX, are to exchange fuel in orbit. This will make it possible to show that this spacecraft is ready for the planned landing of a man on the moon in 2026 as part of NASA's Artemis-3 mission, writes Futurism.
For the first time since 1972, NASA astronauts should land on the surface of the moon at the end of 2026. NASA has signed a contract with SpaceX, according to which one version of the Starship spacecraft, called the Human Landing System, will be used as a landing module for astronauts. This module will deliver them to the surface of the Moon from orbit around the Earth's satellite, where the astronauts will arrive on the Orion spacecraft, and then return after the mission is over.
Before that, the lunar version of the Starship must make an unmanned flight and landing on the moon, and then return back. But the Starship will not have enough fuel to make such a trip to Earth's moon, so it needs refueling in orbit.
To that end, SpaceX is going to demonstrate next year how this refueling can be done. In particular, it is assumed that two Starships will be launched into orbit, one of which will transfer fuel to the other.
While neither SpaceX nor NASA have announced an official timeline for the test, NASA's Human Landing System Deputy Program Manager Kent Hojnacki has revealed some details. According to him, the test should start in March next year and last until the summer. According to the plan, two Starship spacecraft will be sent into low Earth orbit three to four weeks apart. The first ship will be in orbit waiting for the other, and when they meet, docking and fuel transfer should take place. After that, both ships must return to Earth. According to Hojnacki, the transfer of fuel from one spacecraft to another on such a scale will take place for the first time.
SpaceX has already conducted five test flights of the Starship rocket system, which consists of a lower stage, the Super Heavy launch vehicle, and an upper stage, the Starship spacecraft. The height of the megarocket in this form leaves 122 meters.
Tests have shown that the lower stage can successfully return to Earth after launch, and now in the next test, SpaceX wants to show that the spacecraft can do the same. The sixth test is scheduled for November 18. In this way, SpaceX will demonstrate that its most powerful rocket system in the world is fully reusable.
