SpaceX may be rethinking its moon-landing plans.

The company holds a contract to put NASA astronauts down near the lunar south pole on the Artemis 3 mission, which is expected to launch in 2028, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX will use a modified upper stage of its Starship megarocket — the biggest and most powerful launcher ever built — for this very high-profile job.

Or will it? Last week, NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said the agency will reopen the Artemis 3 landing contract to competition, citing concerns with the pace of Starship's development. The rocket has flown 11 uncrewed test flights to date, the last two of them completely successful, but has yet to reach Earth orbit or demonstrate key moon-critical milestones such as in-space propellant transfer. (Each Starship vehicle will need to be refueled multiple times in Earth orbit before it can reach the moon.)

"I love SpaceX; it's an amazing company. The problem is, they're behind. They've pushed their timelines out, and we're in a race against China," Duffy said on Oct. 20 during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box." (China plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 and has been making steady progress toward this goal.)

This announcement did not sit well with SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. He attacked Duffy via social media repeatedly over the following few days, calling the acting NASA chief "Sean Dummy" and claiming that he "is trying to kill NASA."

Now, more than a week later, SpaceX has formulated a more substantive response. On Thursday (Oct. 30), the company posted an update called "To the Moon and Beyond," which summarizes the progress that SpaceX has made with Starship to date and lays out the vehicle's potential to make NASA's lunar ambitions a reality.

"Starship provides unmatched capability to explore the moon, thanks to its large size and ability to refill propellant in space," the blog post reads. "One single Starship has a pressurized habitable volume of more than 600 cubic meters, which is roughly two-thirds the pressurized volume of the entire International Space Station, and is complete with a cabin that can be scaled for large numbers of explorers and dual airlocks for surface exploration."

SpaceX stressed in the update that it's working in parallel along two Starship paths, developing the "core" megarocket (which will help humanity colonize Mars, among other tasks) as well as the Artemis-specific moon-lander upper stage. SpaceX is self-funding the core path, and its contract for the Artemis lander is of the fixed-price variety, "ensuring that the company is only paid after the successful completion of progress milestones, and American taxpayers are not on the hook for increased SpaceX costs," the company wrote.

According to Thursday's update, SpaceX has already completed 49 such milestones for the Artemis lander, including testing of micrometeoroid and space debris shielding and demonstrations of "lunar environmental control and life support and thermal control" systems. And the company plans to make even more progress soon, sending a Starship upper stage to Earth orbit and completing an in-space fueling test with the vehicle in 2026, if all goes to plan.

SpaceX affirmed in the blog post that it shares NASA's goal to return astronauts to the moon "as expeditiously as possible" and wants to be "a core enabler" of the Artemis program's overriding ambition — to establish a permanent and sustained human presence on the moon, rather than mount a flags-and-footprints retread of Apollo. And the company said it's willing to be flexible to help make all of this happen.

"Since the contract was awarded, we have been consistently responsive to NASA as requirements for Artemis 3 have changed and have shared ideas on how to simplify the mission to align with national priorities," reads the update, which also features a new render of the interior of a crewed Starship moon lander. "In response to the latest calls, we’ve shared and are formally assessing a simplified mission architecture and concept of operations that we believe will result in a faster return to the moon while simultaneously improving crew safety."

The current Artemis 3 plan calls for its four astronauts to lift off atop a NASA Space Launch System rocket, then ride an Orion capsule to lunar orbit, where they'll meet up with the Starship upper stage. The astronauts will move into Starship, which will take them to and from the lunar surface.

SpaceX's new blog post doesn't provide any details about the possible "simplified" Artemis 3 architecture. But Musk may have given us a clue on Oct. 20, in one of his many Duffy reaction posts. "SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry," the billionaire wrote. "Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole moon mission. Mark my words."

Elon Musk is not a fan of NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy.

The SpaceX founder and CEO has hammered Duffy repeatedly on social media over the past few days, calling him "Sean Dummy" (which he later amended to "Sean 'Dangerously Stupid' Dummy") and claiming that Duffy "is trying to kill NASA."

Musk also posted the following poll question on X: "Should someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America's space program?" That's a nod to Duffy's lumberjack past; he was active in timber sports in his youth and held two world speed-climbing titles by the age of 30.

This barrage didn't come out of left field. It followed on the heels of Duffy's announcement that NASA will reopen competition for the Artemis 3 moon-landing contract, which SpaceX won in April 2021. The company plans to use a modified upper stage of its Starship megarocket for that mission, which will put astronauts down on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. The current plan calls for Artemis 3 astronauts to launch atop a NASA Space Launch System rocket, then ride an Orion capsule to lunar orbit, where they'll meet up with Starship for the trip down.

Duffy, however, voiced concerns that Starship may not be ready on NASA's desired Artemis 3 timeline, which now features a 2028 launch target.

"I love SpaceX; it's an amazing company. The problem is, they're behind. They've pushed their timelines out, and we're in a race against China," Duffy said on Monday (Oct. 20) during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"The president and I want to get to the moon in this president's term, so I'm gonna open up the contract," he added. "I'm gonna let other space companies compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin."

Musk did not seem happy about that. He responded by noting that Blue Origin has never delivered a "useful payload" to Earth orbit — something SpaceX has done hundreds of times — and then made a prediction: "SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry. Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole moon mission. Mark my words."

Musk also responded in another, less substantive way, posting a meme on X asking Duffy why he is "gae."

Musk's beef with Duffy appears to extend beyond the Artemis 3 contract issue, however. The SpaceX chief has long backed fellow billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator — a post Isaacman was poised to secure until President Trump abruptly withdrew his nomination on May 31.

Trump himself nominated Isaacman but had a change of heart very late in the game, citing the tech entrepreneur's past donations to Democratic politicians and alleged close relationship with Musk. That decision resulted in Duffy taking the agency over in an acting capacity.

In a twist, Isaacman now appears to be back in the mix as a candidate for the top NASA job. But Duffy is keen to hold onto the position, according to both The Wall Street Journal and Ars Technica.

Both outlets also reported that Duffy may seek to fold NASA into the Department of Transportation, an agency also led by the former lumberjack and reality TV star. (Duffy was on the sixth season of MTV's "The Real World," which aired in 1997.)

Musk thinks this is a bad idea: He replied with the "100" emoji to a post by AstroForge CEO and founder Matt Gialich that reads, "No one wants this to happen. This would mark the beginning of the end for our nation's dominance in space."

And, in a post this morning (Oct. 22), Musk took the fight directly to Duffy yet again: "Having a NASA Administrator who knows literally ZERO about rockets & spacecraft undermines the American space program and endangers our astronauts."

The obvious but unsaid point of comparison is Isaacman, who funded, organized and commanded two private missions to Earth orbit, using SpaceX rockets and capsules. (Musk did distance himself from this comparison in another X post today, however, saying, "At this point, I am not advocating any particular candidate for NASA Administrator. I am just desperate for someone with a 3 digit IQ.")

Will Trump re-up Isaacman's nomination? Will Duffy get to take the "acting" modifier off his NASA job title? And how will Musk respond to any of these eventualities? Stay tuned; there could be much more drama ahead.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 3:28 p.m. ET on Oct. 22 to include a new X post from Musk, which reads, in part, "I am just desperate for someone with a 3 digit IQ."

NASA's acting administrator is pushing back against recent claims that the agency is losing ground to China in the race back to the moon.

Sean Duffy addressed employees in an internal NASA town hall last week, just one day after Senate testimony suggested that China may land astronauts at the lunar south pole before the U.S. does so. "I'll be damned if that is the story that we write," Duffy said. "We are going to beat the Chinese to the moon. We are going to do it safely. We're going to do it fast. We're going to do it right."

Duffy's remarks were a direct response to testimony delivered at a Sept. 3 Senate Commerce Committee hearing titled "There's a Bad Moon on the Rise." During the hearing, several witnesses, including former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Mike Gold, the former acting associate administrator for NASA's Office of International and Interagency Relations, warned that China's lunar exploits could soon surpass America's.

NASA's Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the moon as a proving ground for future missions to Mars. Artemis 2 is the program's first crewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, and will carry the first humans to visit the moon since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

Artemis relies on the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Artemis 2's SLS will soon complete its assembly inside the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building, and is scheduled to launch no earlier than February 2026. The mission is designed as a lunar flyby, ferrying NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a free-return trajectory around the moon and back to Earth.

If NASA sticks to its current schedule, Artemis 3 will be the first mission of the program to land astronauts on the lunar surface — specifically, near the moon's south pole. NASA has slated Artemis 3 to launch sometime in 2027, but it's unclear if the agency will meet that target.

China is working on a similar timeline and is making real progress, a point that several witnesses made during the Sept. 3 Senate hearing.

"It is highly unlikely that we will land on the moon before China," Bridenstine told lawmakers. Both he and Gold expressed concern that delays in Artemis and budget uncertainty could allow China to reach the moon first and define international norms there.

"If they get there first, we will see a global realignment that will impact our economy, our tax base, our ability to innovate, and our national security in terms of diplomacy and geopolitics that will affect security and many other aspects of our daily lives," Gold said.

But Duffy struck a more confident and optimistic tone.

"NASA won't beat China to the moon," he said during the Sept. 4 town hall, quoting the previous day's testimony. "That was shade thrown on all of NASA."

Duffy told employees that the Trump administration is fully behind Artemis, despite NASA's broader budget challenges. "If I bring up NASA … the President's eyes light up," Duffy said.

Trump's fiscal year 2026 (FY 26) budget request cut NASA's budget by a historic 24%, with 47% of funding to agency science programs eliminated. Congress restored those cuts to match NASA's FY 25 allocations, but those revisions have not been finalized, and it's not clear if they will be.

One program that is expected to receive full funding, however, is Artemis.

Duffy tied the Artemis program to broader national ambitions, echoing previous statements from President Trump, who said the U.S. is committed to pursuing "a manifest destiny to the stars." The phrase "manifest destiny," historically linked to 19th-century U.S. expansionism and White colonialism, has drawn criticism in the past for evoking themes of conquest rather than peaceful exploration.

Duffy was joined on the town hall by recently appointed NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, who used the event to lay out a sharp sense of urgency and direction.

Kshatriya said NASA must stay focused on public service, which is central to the agency and all of its activities. "We don't work for profit. We work for the people," he said. "The people have given us their treasure, and we need to make sure that we understand that obligation and what that actually means."

He said that agency leaders, himself included, are accountable for protecting the agency's missions and must be prepared to step aside if they can't deliver.

"You give me an obligation to protect the country and protect our missions and protect our assets… and we're not able to do it, then my job is to humbly say, 'I'm sorry, sir,' and give you a plan to bring somebody else," he said to Duffy.

Kshatriya told employees that NASA needs to shift its internal culture from analysis to action. "We want you to have the black pen, not the red pen," he said. "That's what this agency does. We build things. We make things."

Duffy echoed the need for speed and decisiveness, emphasizing that risk must be managed, not feared. "Sometimes we can let safety be the enemy of making progress," he said. "We have to be able to take some leaps."

Amid concerns from NASA's workforce over project cuts and layoffs already underway — NASA is losing nearly 4,000 employees to Trump's "deferred resignation program" — Duffy said that, while the agency's overall budget has decreased, the president has increased funding specifically for space exploration. "I think we have enough money to accomplish our mission," he said, referring to Artemis. "If we don't, I'll ask for more."

He also stressed that costs must come down. "At $4 billion a launch, it becomes very challenging to have a moon program," Duffy said, citing the current price per SLS mission.

Kshatriya said that everything NASA does must directly support Artemis, Mars, or science that enables human exploration. "If what you're doing doesn't help us get to the moon or beyond," he said, "stop doing it."

He expanded on that a bit, saying that other projects contribute to NASA as a whole, and therefore still serve to lift up Artemis. "Even though you might not be directly connected to the mission because of the work you enable, you help the agency be more efficient. You help the agency be more successful. You are connected to the mission as well," Kshatriya said.

Duffy said that NASA needs everyone still on board to bring their full effort. "We need all of you. We need this team, this intelligence, this drive," and he acknowledged that the agency has fallen behind in some respects. "We have burned time, and that means now we are under pressure," he said.

"We are not going to let this storied history of NASA be written that we lost the second space race," Duffy told employees.

President Trump signed a new executive order Wednesday (Aug. 13) aimed at accelerating U.S. commercial space activity by slashing what are described as regulatory delays and expanding the nation's launch infrastructure.

The order, "Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry," directs multiple federal agencies to streamline launch licensing, fast-track spaceport construction and better support emerging in-space industries.

Transportation Secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy joined Trump during the signing, calling it a pivotal move to "unleash the next wave of innovation" and secure long-term American leadership in orbit, but the order also hands more authority to politically appointed roles outside the space agency's jurisdiction.

The directive calls on the Department of Transportation to simplify how launch and reentry approvals are handled, with a focus on shortening environmental reviews that have bottlenecked rocket development schedules in the past. It also pushes agencies to clear what is described as redundant permitting steps to more quickly greenlight new spaceport construction — especially in cases where multiple federal offices are involved.

Under the order, a streamlined approval system will be created for emerging space technologies like orbital refueling and manufacturing in microgravity, encouraging rapid growth for "novel space activities" in untapped sectors.

To back the push, the White House is reshaping or adding leadership roles across multiple agencies, though none are inside NASA. They include a senior advisor on commercial space to the Department of Transportation, upgrading the FAA's commercial space chief to a politically appointed senior position, and elevating the Office of Space Commerce to sit directly within the Office of the Commerce Secretary, strengthening the department's voice in shaping national space policy.

Under the new framework, NASA, DOT, the Office of Space Commerce and the Department of Defense are expected to streamline their combined review processes, and ensure they aren't stepping on each other's toes when it comes to launch and infrastructure oversight.

The order also takes aim at state-level environmental roadblocks, and how the Coastal Zone Management Act may be interfering with commercial spaceport projects, such as SpaceX's Starbase launch site for the company's Starship rocket being developed on the coastal tip of southern Texas. Environmental advocacy groups have raised repeated alarms over the potential harm the SpaceX facility may cause the local ecosystem.

But government officials stress that the directive won't cause any harm. "This order safely removes regulatory barriers so that U.S. companies can dominate commercial space activities," FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement.

Jared Margolis, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, disagrees. "This reckless order puts people and wildlife at risk from private companies launching giant rockets that often explode and wreak devastation on surrounding areas," he said in a statement issued on Aug. 14. "Bending the knee to powerful corporations by allowing federal agencies to ignore bedrock environmental laws is incredibly dangerous and puts all of us in harm's way. This is clearly not in the public interest."

NASA is named throughout the order, but mostly as a coordinating agency rather than a lead. It's tasked with the same directive to streamline reviews and evaluate paths to faster innovation, but isn't granted any new authority.

Duffy said the move will support NASA's work with commercial providers and improve access to launch infrastructure. But in practice, it seems more regulatory weight is being shifted to DOT, Office of Space Commerce and FAA.

The order reflects a growing trend of divestments and sweeping changes in arguably one of the most recognizable government agencies in the world. As space policy and licensing are rerouted to outside departments, NASA is also facing the largest budget cut in its history.

The executive order signals a continued move toward commercially-led space development, with new power centers emerging beyond NASA's control. Supporters see it as a chance to speed up innovation and clear the path for greater momentum in the private sector.

Varda Space Industries, a private in-space manufacturing startup, for example, encountered major delays with the return of its first reentry capsule to U.S. soil last year. The vehicle remained in orbit for months while the company awaited FAA approval — a holdup that underscored how drawn-out licensing timelines can stall even relatively small-scale commercial missions.

However, critics warn moves like this executive order could weaken NASA's authority and shift national priorities toward market-driven objectives over science and exploration. With key decisions now moving to DOT and the Office of Space Commerce, the order raises questions about how space priorities will be set — and who gets the final say when innovation and oversight collide.

The personal spaceflightbusiness — also known as space tourism — will face high hurdles from theinsurance business in its early years, according to several industry experts.

Policy costs will beextremely high until companies fly without incident at least three times. And astring of early failures may well doom startups to business failure, one ofthree insurance experts on a panel about the subject said during a paneldiscussion at the Federal Aviation Administration's annual Commercial SpaceTransportation Conference.

"In the beginningrates are going to be high. They are going to be very high," said RaymondDuffy, senior vice president at Willis Inspace of New York. "Once you showa positive result the rates will come way down." Duffy noted that earlyfailures, whether by one company or by several, could make it almost impossiblefor the new industry to get insurance. He urged the personal spaceflightcompanies to reduce risk as much as possible across the industry.

Ralph Harp of FalconInsurance, Houston, said personal spaceflight companies needed to make surethey present a very detailed "picture of what you are going to do" asthe industry gears up to send its first sets of customers into orbit. Insurerspossess very little data about the extent or nature of the risks the newindustry might face since there have been so few events beyond the spacetourists who have flown to the International Space Station. "The betteryou can explain it, the better you are going to do" when buying insurance,Harp said.

George Whitesides, senioradvisor to Virgin Galactic, told Space News after the panel finished that hiscompany "has had positive discussions with insurers." They have toldVirgin that the business model for the insurance seems sustainable.

Brett Alexander,president of the Personal Spaceflight Federation and a member of the insurancepanel, said a "sustainable rate" for insurance would be built intothe business models of the spaceflight companies.

Duffy added that, while theearly days would be challenging, the insurance industry and the personalspaceflight companies probably would find ways to mitigate risk and manage thecosts. Pam Meredith of the firm of Zuckert Scoutt & Rasenberger of Washington said the new companies must insist on extremely detailed policies since anyexculpatory clauses — those that might provide liability protection — "must be very strictly and carefully written." She said state andfederal legal exemptions, such as those in the federal Commercial Space LaunchAct, would not necessarily protect the companies from liability since theinsurance companies may find "ways of getting out of the laws" byfocusing on where the accident occurred, where the accident was caused, wherethe parties are incorporated or where the contracts were signed. "Sounless you have the protection of laws signed in all 50 states you don't havemuch protection," Meredith said.

Duffy saidit will take the industry 10 to 15 launches before the insurance companies arecomfortable with the level of risk they face. He said government subsidizedrates would help both the insurance companies and the personal spaceflightbusiness.

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