If successful, it will become the first American spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in more than 50 years. It was SpaceX's second flight in less than eight hours, following the launch of six U.S. Space Force missile detection and tracking satellites Wednesday evening.In 2021, NASA signed a nearly $3 billion contract with his SpaceX to use its new Starship mega-rocket as the lunar lander for the first Artemis astronauts. SpaceX is preparing for its third Starship launch atop its enormous super-heavy booster. The first two launches both ended in roughly the same way.A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit carrying NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, for a science expedition aboard the orbital laboratory.

What will SpaceX do for Artemis : As part of NASA's Artemis campaign to return humans to the Moon for the benefit of all, the agency is working with SpaceX to develop the company's Starship human landing system (HLS), which will land astronauts near the Moon's South Pole during the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions.

Can Starship go to the moon

The Artemis plan

Artemis II will take a crew of four astronauts on a similar orbital mission. SpaceX's Starship could be used as soon as Artemis III to transport humans to the lunar surface. But first, it must prove it can reach orbit and withstand the heat of atmospheric reentry.

Can Falcon 9 go to the moon : KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — An Intuitive Machines spacecraft is on its way to the moon Feb. 15 in the company's quest to be the first commercial entity to successfully land on the lunar surface.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program is working with American aerospace companies Boeing and SpaceX as they develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crews to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station.

SpaceX's Starship rocket will be on Mars by the end of the decade and a future version will travel between the stars, billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday, days after the company celebrated major progress after the rocket's third test flight as it works with NASA to return astronauts to the moon.

Why does NASA use SpaceX

NASA's Commercial Crew Program is working with American aerospace companies Boeing and SpaceX as they develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of carrying crews to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station.SpaceX's Crew-7 capsule returns 4 astronauts to Earth with predawn splashdown (video) The quartet splashed down around 5:50 a.m. EDT on Tuesday (March 12). The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-7 mission returned to Earth early Tuesday morning (March 12), with their homecoming broadcast live.NASA is worried that SpaceX's giant new Starship vehicle won't be ready to carry astronauts to the surface of the moon in late 2025, as currently planned.

Starship is a reusable rocket larger and far more powerful than NASA's Artemis Special Launch System and one that could take humans to the moon and Mars. The launch, with no one aboard, was the second attempt to fly the combined Starship spacecraft and its 33-engine Super Heavy booster.

Will Starship ever exist : As of 2024, Starship is in development with an iterative and incremental approach, involving test flights of prototype vehicles, which often end in the destruction of the test vehicle. As a successor to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, Starship will perform a wide range of space missions.

How long will it take a Starship to reach the Moon : It takes about 3 days for a spacecraft to reach the Moon. During that time a spacecraft travels at least 240,000 miles (386,400 kilometers) which is the distance between Earth and the Moon.

Can Starship go to the Moon

Starship is the landing system that will bring astronauts to the lunar surface with the Artemis 3 mission, no earlier than 2026.

Intuitive Machines' IM-1 mission will send the Nova-C lander Odysseus to the moon on a 16-day mission that, if successful, will mark the first-ever private landing on the moon and the first U.S. landing on the lunar surface since NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972.SpaceX, however, exceeds NASA in all three dimensions: scope, cost efficiency, and speed. It's easy to become enamored of legendary projects like the Apollo missions, which did after all achieve a quantum leap in both technology and how humanity understood the universe. That's part of the reason they are so attractive.

Why does NASA need Elon Musk : NASA chose to spend its money building a moon rocket, and let Musk co-invest his own money to come up with a satellite launch vehicle; now it saves money on space probes and does more science at the International Space Station.