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NASA Chooses SpaceX Starship for a Lunar Lander

It was a surprising decision by NASA to go with a single option for a lunar landing vehicle and that option was SpaceX and their Starship.  Blue Origin and its partners on the Human Landing System National Team seemed to have an edge by using a more traditional "LEM" type configuration, but the opportunity to take more payload in single trips to the surface and that Starship could take astronauts to Mars was too enticing. Still, all eggs are in one basket, Starship.  Elon Musk still thinks 2024 can be achieved. To meet that, Starship must make a successful unmanned landing and takeoff from the lunar surface.  So far, Starship has not achieved that on its Earthbound tests, and still needs to test and fly the Super Heavy booster. It all sounds ambitious to meet a 2024 target (which is no longer a hard deadline), but it will be exciting to see them aggressively pursue that goal. 

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/23/elon-musk-nasa-goal-of-2024-moon-landing-is-actually-doable-.html