Although the United States announced a successful moon landing 50 years ago, in the 21st century moon landing, the U.S. aerospace system is facing pressure from competition with China and is becoming more and more anxious. The original plan gradually fell through, and NASA has begun to prepare Plan B. According to US media reports, SpaceX and Blue Origin have submitted Plan B to NASA, and the agency will hire internal experts to evaluate the new plan.
The specific contents of the plan are not yet known.But the plan submitted by SpaceX may include a simplified version of the mission framework aimed at returning to the moon faster and ensuring the safety of astronauts.
The company's Starship rocket for moon landings has been tested 11 times, and only two were considered completely successful. More importantly, the starship's in-orbit refueling for the Artemis 3 manned moon landing mission has not yet been actually tested.
SpaceX stated that 90% of the funds for the project were invested by itself. NASA's HLS lunar landing system only paid US$28.9 for the contract. It has invested US$30 billion in the project.
Blue Origin, founded by Amazon founder Bezos, has also submitted a similar plan to accelerate the production of its own version of the HLS system. It may launch a small Blue Moon Mark 1 lander at the end of this year. They may become a backup tire for SpaceX's moon landing project, achieving double insurance.
The scheduled time for the U.S. moon landing plan is to launch Artemis 3 in 2028 to return to the moon. The Artemis 1 plan has been tested in the past two years.The Artemis 2 project is scheduled to be carried out in April 2026. Astronauts will orbit the moon but will not land on the moon.The plan may also be brought forward to February.
Not long ago, U.S. Transportation Secretary and NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said that we will witness a space race between American companies to see who can take us back to the moon first.
The NASA administrator particularly emphasized the urgency of time, because the US president hopes to complete the plan to return to the moon by 2029, the end of his term.
