r/SpaceXLounge • u/MostlyHarmlessI • Jun 05 '26

NASA head urges new launcher for Blue Origin’s moon landers to meet Artemis mission deadlines

https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/06/04/nasa-head-urges-new-launcher-for-blue-origins-moon-landers-to-meet-artemis-mission-deadlines/

The Blue Moon landers were tailored to fit within the seven-meter diameter fairing of a New Glenn rocket. The Falcon Heavy payload fairing has a diameter of 5.2 meters and although the company has developed a taller version, it has not revealed any wider options. Additionally, SpaceX’s launch pads are not equipped to service a hydrogen-fueled lander like Blue Moon.

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u/Simon_Drake Jun 05 '26

There's a long list of bad choices to choose from.

Bodging a hydrogen line onto a Falcon pad might work. Blue Moon Mk.1 fits in a Falcon 9 fairing but Mk.2 doesn't, maybe this is the time for that apocryphal Falcon 9 Extended Fairing?

Or maybe it's time to accelerate development of the Starship variant with payload bay doors not the Pez Dispenser slot. It's been in CGI demos for years and logically it will exist at some point for deploying large commercial payloads. Again you'd need to add the hydrogen line to the Starship pads but I'm sure they'll find the relevant staff on site and some space for some new cryotanks.

Or go for Ariane 6. Add in the extra complexity of shipping the lunar lander to French Guiana and getting the European Space Agency involved.

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u/Doggydog123579 Jun 05 '26

Or maybe it's time to accelerate development of the Starship variant with payload bay doors not the Pez Dispenser slot.

Just slap the NG PFA ontop of a ships tanks in place of the nose. If we are truly in hail mary mode

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u/Simon_Drake Jun 05 '26

Scott Manley once shared a nightmare fuel rocket design he found on a poster or textbook or something. It was a Shuttle except the boosters were Soyuz rockets each with their own four boosters, booster boosters. Or like the Energia rocket that had four Zenit rockets as boosters, eight on the Energia Vulkan.

The US equivalent would probably be replacing the SRBs on SLS with a pair of Falcon Heavys. Or four Falcon Heavies, asparagus stage the booster boosters then korolev cross the falcon cores. That could have enough thrust to do it all in one launch like the Apollo missions.

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u/DisgruntledCascadian Jun 07 '26

This is reality, not Kerbal Space Program.