NASA's Moon ship and rocket seem to be working well, so what about the landers?

NASA officials are asking the space community to take a lot on faith as they push toward a 2028 lunar landing, with both SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander still facing significant development hurdles. To accelerate progress, NASA has removed the requirement for lunar landers to dock at the problematic Lunar Gateway station, allowing both companies to propose simpler mission profiles that require less fuel and complexity.

Lori Glaze, who leads NASA's deep space exploration program, acknowledges the timeline challenges but expresses cautious optimism about recent developments. "We have seen real commitment to try and do that from both Blue and from SpaceX," she says, referring to efforts to meet the 2028 deadline.

The revised plans could include SpaceX docking Starship with the Orion capsule in low-Earth orbit rather than the originally planned distant lunar orbit. Meanwhile, Blue Origin appears to be pursuing a design that avoids the complex orbital refueling that SpaceX will need to demonstrate.

Critical milestones loom this year, including SpaceX's in-flight refueling test and Blue Origin's first lunar mission with their Blue Moon lander.