The third flight of SpaceX 's giant Starship rocket could be significantly more ambitious and complex than the first two.
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The upcoming mission could include a refueling test, according to a recent presentation by Lakiesha Hawkins , deputy co-director of the steering committee for NASA 's Moon to Mars program .
Hawkins spoke Monday (Dec. 4) about the service’s infrastructure and technology programs to a committee of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. One of her slides mentioned that SpaceX recently flew its second Starship mission and said the company is “moving rapidly” toward a third, “which will include a fuel transfer demonstration.”
During the meeting, Hawkins did not read those words publicly or discuss the planned refueling test, however, and NASA has since retracted that statement: An agency spokesperson told CNBC that “no final decisions have been made regarding the timing of that.”
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Both NASA and SpaceX see off-Earth fuel transport as a key to achieving bold exploration feats, such as establishing outposts on the moon and Mars. Rockets and spacecraft burn most of their fuel just to get out of Earth's gravity, so they'll need to fill up their tanks to travel to other destinations in our solar system.
A resupply test for Starship has been in the works for some time. In October 2020, NASA awarded SpaceX $53 million to conduct such a test in low Earth orbit. Under the contract, SpaceX will transport 11 tons of liquid oxygen in canisters inside a Starship vehicle.
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If all goes according to plan, Starship will land astronauts near the moon's south pole for the first time in 2025 or 2026, during the Artemis 3 mission. However, a lot has to go right for NASA and SpaceX to meet that deadline.
Source: space.com
