Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos face off in orbit next summer
NASA plans a double docking test in orbit next summer.
The short version
- Four astronauts will test lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin.
- The Artemis IV moon landing remains scheduled for 2028.
- This new space race races against China.
NASA is moving fast on its plans to build a moon base and return astronauts to the lunar surface in as little as two years. Jared Isaacman, the head of NASA, said on Friday that the space agency is still on track to launch Artemis III next summer on a docking exercise with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which builds rockets and spacecraft, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which builds rockets and spacecraft.
The two-week mission featuring four astronauts will be confined to orbit around Earth, with no moon trip this time. The all-important Artemis IV, which will be NASA’s first moon landing by astronauts since Apollo, remains scheduled for 2028, according to Fortune. NASA will keep its options open as long as possible before choosing between SpaceX and Blue Origin for the Artemis IV lunar lander.
Isaacman said the new space race to land astronauts on the moon, racing against China now versus the Soviet Union during the Apollo era, will be much closer than it ever needed to be because of slow going in past years. Both landers will be launched next summer for docking practice by three NASA astronauts and one Italian who will blast into orbit aboard NASA’s Orion capsule.
The mission will require three launches in quick succession from Cape Canaveral. Orion will dock first with Blue Origin’s lander about 270 miles above Earth, then with SpaceX’s Starship in a slightly lower orbit. Setting up a long-term presence is what makes this so much more challenging than the Apollo-style commuter flights. One thing is certain when rocket scientists start racing again: keep looking up.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, AI-edited
