NASA Plans Nearly 20 Launches for Starship Lunar Lander Missions

NASA officials have stated that SpaceX's Starship will require "in the high teens" of launches for Artemis lunar landings, contradicting previous claims by SpaceX's leadership. The concept of operations for the Starship lunar lander involves launching a propellant depot into orbit, followed by multiple tanker launches to fill the depot before the lander version of Starship is launched. The number of launches has been a point of debate, with critics pointing to it as a weakness in the architecture. However, NASA argues that the lander is just one of many factors for the Artemis 3 mission, which includes new spacesuits and a docking port on Orion.