SpaceX's Starship Docking Issue with NASA's Lunar Orbital Station

TapTechNews August 1st news, according to the latest report of the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), SpaceX's Starship spacecraft may be too large to dock smoothly with NASA's planned Lunar Orbital Station. The GAO studied the mass limit of the space station and found that the total mass of its two main components - the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) and the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) exceeded the target. In addition, the report also pointed out that when a large vehicle such as SpaceX's Starship docks, the PPE may not be able to correctly control the entire vehicle. Although the PPE meets the performance requirements set by NASA, these requirements do not take into account the impact of large vehicles.

According to TapTechNews, NASA must complete the launch of the Lunar Orbital Station Gateway by 2027, before the launch of the Artemis IV mission. The Artemis IV is scheduled to be executed in September 2028 and is the second manned lunar landing mission of the Artemis program. The Gateway must enter the lunar orbit one year before the Artemis IV launch so that NASA can assess the space station and ensure that all systems are operating properly before the crew can board the space station.

GAO pointed out that NASA currently plans to launch Gateway in December 2027, three months later than the original plan. In September this year, NASA will update the cost and confidence assessment of Gateway to decide whether the Artemis IV can be launched in September 2028 and achieve all mission goals.

GAO pointed out that mass is another key limiting factor of the Gateway plan, including the mass of the space station itself and the mass of some docked vehicles. The report shows that the total mass of the space station's logistics and propulsion components exceeds the mass requirements set by NASA. In addition, the mass of some vehicles may cause the propulsion component to be unable to control the space station according to the mission plan, thus affecting its mission.

Higher mass means that NASA must launch some Gateway components separately to ensure that the space station can be placed in the correct orbit. Another option is to reduce the weight by removing components. Both methods have their pros and cons, launching components separately is more costly, while reducing components will affect the performance of the space station.

At present, GAO said that NASA plans to let visiting vehicles share part of the work of the PPE to control the docking of the Starship with the space station. The agency is also considering upgrading the software to effectively manage the thrusters of the space station. If both of these plans are not successful, NASA may need to change the design of the PPE, which will bring additional cost and schedule pressure to the Gateway plan.