By Steve Gorman, Akash Sriram and Joey Roulette
LOS ANGELES, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The Starship engine failure that nearly foiled the orbital debut of SpaceX's next-generation spacecraft on its 14th uncrewed test flight may complicate NASA's ability to meet its time frame for astronaut missions to the moon.
Starship, designed in part to carry large payloads to space, is one of two vehicles vying to become the first craft that NASA will use as early as 2028 to land humans on the moon and bring them safely
home, a feat last achieved in 1972 at the end of the Apollo era.
While Starship accomplished a number of key objectives in its latest test launch from Texas on Monday, the mission was cut short by several hours after a malfunction of its propulsion system.
Despite the unexpected shutdown of one of its three main Raptor engines following Starship separation from its lower-stage booster rocket, flight controllers proceeded with sending the spacecraft to orbit for its first-ever commercial satellite deployment.
Determining what caused the engine glitch remains critical to SpaceX's bottom line. But the stakes are potentially higher for NASA, as a Starship moon-landing vehicle would rely on the same engine system for transporting astronauts through space to and from the lunar surface.
How big a blow to Starship's development progress the engine snafu becomes depends on whether it turns out to be "a one-off failure of a single part" or points to a larger design problem that requires upgrades "across the fleet," said Dean Sladen, an aerospace engineer for Accu Components.
"Any engine fix that holds up the next flights, including the planned attempt to catch the ship with the launch tower's arms (after re-entry), eats into that schedule," he said.
NASA and SpaceX did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
'THE REAL PRESSURE IS THE MOON'
A longer delay would pose not only a greater setback to SpaceX's commercial ambitions to rapidly expand its Starlink broadband satellite network, but its pivotal role in NASA's Artemis moon program.
"The real pressure is the moon. NASA needs Starship for Artemis III," an Earth-orbit test mission targeted as soon as next summer as a rehearsal flight for the program's actual first crewed lunar landing, Sladen said.
Raptor engine and propulsion-system issues have contributed to several previous Starship setbacks, including an engine that failed to ignite as planned during Starship's 12th flight in May. The methane-fueled engines are among the most complex and expensive components on the rocket.
During some previous flights, SpaceX scrubbed plans to test-ignite the Raptor engine in space. But all of the engines successfully fired during ascent on Starship's 13th flight in July.
SpaceX, the newly public venture founded by Elon Musk near Los Angeles in 2002, is competing with Blue Origin, the rival rocket company from fellow entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, to usher in an era of lunar exploration under NASA's Artemis program.
While SpaceX was originally contracted to provide the first crewed lunar lander for Artemis, the head of the US space agency, Jared Isaacman, said in April that NASA would go with whichever lander was ready to fly first. NASA saw the added competition as healthy for progress in light of mounting delays in Starship's test flight program.
NASA officially aims to return astronauts to the moon's surface by 2028 - a target widely seen as overly ambitious - to get there ahead of China, which plans a crewed lunar landing by 2030.
A functioning lunar landing craft also will be needed for the precursor Artemis III mission, as early as summer 2027, to test rendezvous and docking maneuvers in low Earth orbit.
SpaceX is developing a Human Landing System based on its Starship vessel, a towering stainless-steel vehicle far larger than any moon lander built before. Blue Origin is building its own Blue Moon lander, relying on a more traditional design philosophy.
If ready, both landers are likely to participate in the Artemis III mission, demonstrating orbital maneuvers using their in-space engines.
Isaacman went public with the competing lander strategy days after completion of NASA's Artemis II mission sending astronauts around the moon and back in what was the first crewed launch of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, built by Boeing and Northrop Grumman, and the Orion capsule, made by Lockheed Martin.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington; Editing by Joe Brock and Christopher Cushing)
